Evaluation of Supercapacitor Control Techniques for 50 MW Benban Solar Park Plant with Grid-Connection During Disturbance

This paper presents an evaluation of control techniques for the performance enhancement of 50 MW Benban Solar Park (BSP) plant with grid-connection using supercapacitor (SC). The proposed technique is a sector of BSP which is located in Upper Egypt in Aswan with a capacity of 50 MW and analyzed during three phase fault and variable irradiation. The effect of SC as a type of energy storage device (ESD) on photovoltaic (PV) system appears during the abnormal conditions. SC is responsible for maintaining constant output active power by charging when there is excess in the output power of PV and discharging when there is a lack in the output power. Power and voltage control strategies of SC are developed for continuously charging and discharging to do its objective. The control systems are also shown, which are used to maintain DC link voltage stable and manage the power transit between the SC and the grid. The control of SC is performed using the voltage control and power control for the purpose of evaluation in terms of DC link voltage, stability, active and reactive power. The 50 MW Beban PV system is validated by simulation results via Matlab/Simulink platform under various operating conditions. The studied model is used to simulate the entire proposed system with SC, as well as its control techniques. A comparative study between the voltage control and power control is investigated. The study focuses on applying these control strategies with SC especially Benban PV system. Results are compared between the behaviors of the analyzed system in cases of without and with power or voltage control techniques of SC. Also, both control strategies for SC are tested on system. The simulation results show that utilizing SC improves system stability significantly. With satisfactory values, numerical results demonstrate the validity of the suggested technique.