Transient performance of a new-type hybrid electric power distributed system with fuel cell and SMES

The fuel cell (FC) system is one of preferable power sources with high energy conversion efficiency, considering the environmental problems associated with energy consumption. However the output of the FC system cannot respond the transient shock of the sudden change of the effective and reactive load demands in the utility system. In order to compensate these shocks, a new-type hybrid electric power distributed source consisting of a FC system coupled with a superconducting magnetic energy storage system (SMES) is proposed in this paper. The SMES system can also contribute to the compensation of effective and reactive power demand fluctuation in the power distributed system. This FC/SMES hybrid system is connected with the existing utility line by a bi-directional power converter, and contributes to the compensation of sudden load change in the local existing power distribution line. The transient performance simulation was carried out using circuit analysis software PSIM in order to examine the effectiveness of the above-mentioned FC/SMES hybrid system for eliminating the influence of transient shock. In addition, it was also confirmed by circuit simulation using PSIM that this hybrid system is effective for reducing transient influence caused by sudden change of effective and reactive load demands.