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2013 1st IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech)

Supercapacitor Energy Storage Systems for Voltage and Power Flow Stabilization
Arne Bostrom*, Annette von Jouanne*, Ted K.A. Brekken*, Alex Yokochi**
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science*
School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering**
Oregon State University
Corvallis, USA

renewable energy into the grid [3]. As shown in Fig. 1, this


in-lab grid includes a 25 kW/2250 kWs SESS (i.e., capable
to supply 25 kW for at least 90 secs), a 25kW/50kWh
Zinc/Bromine flow cell battery, a 120 kVA programmable
source used to emulate variable renewable resources, and a
variety of loads. The in-lab grid is under the control of a
dSPACE rapid-prototyping system, which enables the
straightforward development, test and laboratory
implementation of control algorithms in MATLAB and
Simulink.

Abstract - The variable output of renewables such as


wind and solar causes fluctuations of power flow that
can adversely affect power system operation, especially
at high levels of penetration. The coordination of
multiple energy storage solutions can mitigate
integration challenges by providing a buffer from
variable renewables. This paper presents the integration
of supercapacitor energy storage through a grid-tied
inverter system that can then be used in combination
with other energy storage solutions such as batteries to
enhance the overall grid-tied energy storage solution.
Control
algorithms
are
developed
for
the
supercapacitors to enhance the stability of the power
system. In addition, a key parameter that is analyzed is
the effective supercapacitor energy rating and state of
charge (SOC). This paper includes both simulation and
experimental validation of the rapid bidirectional power
flow of supercapacitor energy storage systems, as well as
the model implementation of these devices through an
in-lab grid to smooth high ramp rate events seen in solar
data.

Important parameters to be considered in the assembly of


a SESS include the maximum and minimum operational
voltage for the inverter, the maximum voltage supported by
the supercapacitor modules, and the overall capacitance of
the system. The in-lab grid SESS was designed and
implemented to be employed in combination with the
existing Zinc/Bromine flow cell battery inverter operating
between 145V and 290V. The supercapacitor system was
rated to support operation at 25kW for at least 90 secs and
employs 48.6V modules (each composed of 18x
3000F/2.7V discrete Electrochemical Double Layer
Capacitors (ELDCs) in series, with a resultant module
capacitance of 166F). For the maximum voltage of 290V,
six modules in series were required (290V/48.6V = 6), and
three parallel strings of six series modules (3P6) was
implemented, resulting in a system with a capacitance rating
of 83F. To enable continued research activities, e.g.,
alternative grid-tied inverter configurations, the system is
built such that it is readily reconfigurable to other
configurations such as 2P9 (two parallel strings of nine
series modules).

I.
INTRODUCTION
With the increasing penetration of variable renewable
energy resources into the grid, such as large wind farms,
their variable power output present significant integration
challenges. It has been proposed by the authors [1] and
others [2] that a solution to address these integration
challenges is through the tandem combination of a
Supercapacitor Energy Storage System (SESS) and a
battery. For utility interface combinations of energy storage
solutions, the inclusion of a SESS enables the buffering of
fast, short term fluctuations in output power to avoid
harmful, frequent short duration reversals of power flow to
the battery system. In order to research and address the
renewables integration issues, an in-lab grid was established
at OSU to experimentally evaluate mitigation strategies
related to the energy storage supported integration of

978-1-4673-4630-6/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

Since a significant dependence of the ELDC capacitance


on operation frequency has been observed by the authors [4]
and others [5], [6], it is critical that the actual performance
of a SESS as a function of energy flow reversal frequency
be characterized.

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2013 1st IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech)

This paper presents research on the SESS performance as


a function of operation frequency, as well as the power flow

stabilization grid integration through an alternative grid-tied


inverter configuration using the constructed in-lab grid.

Fig. 1. Schematic of the in-lab grid for renewables and energy storage system integration research.

Fig. 2. The supercapacitor Energy Storage System integrated into the in-lab grid.

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2013 1st IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech)

II.

derating SOC coefficient for that operational


frequency.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A. Experimental Protocol
An experimental protocol enabling investigation
of the SESSs performance as a function of energy
flow reversal frequency was implemented by cycling
the device between the charge and discharge state at a
constant power of 10kW and varying frequencies and
duty ratios.
To ensure significance of the
experimental results, cycling tests were replicated
five times with the mean and standard deviation of
the experiments extracted.

The SESS capacitance is calculated from the DC


voltage and current by (3)

(4)

where represents the final state of charge after


either charging or discharging, is the initial
state of charge and is the expected final
state of charge, given an ideal capacitance.
E. Modeling of Control Algorithm
1) Definition of Ramp Events
The Bonneville Power Administration has defined
a wind power ramp, or a, Core Ramp as a 20%
change in project power in a 30 minute period or
less. [7]. Since solar power ramps are more
dynamic than those of wind, a definition of a solar
power ramp employed in this work will be a 20%
change in project power in a 3 minute period or less.
Therefore, for a simulated maximum project solar
power output of 100kW (e.g., a commercial scale
rooftop solar installation), any rate of change
greater than 20kW or less than -20kW over a 3
minute window will be characterized as a ramp event.
This definition of a failure event will be used to
quantify and compare two control algorithms. In this
paper, failure events and ramp events will be
synonymous.

(1)

where V is the observed voltage at the SESSs DC


connection. Efficiency is found using (2). This is the
round trip efficiency of the SESS.

(3)

The normalized derating coefficient is defined in


this paper as the ratio between the experimentally
measured change in SOC and the expected change.
Given that the SESS is in a 2P9 combination with an
expected capacitance of 37F, a derating coefficient is
found by (4)

C.  State of Charge and Efficiency


State of charge of the SESS is calculated from
the energy equation of a capacitor. Given a constant
capacitance, and the minimum and maximum voltage
limits, the calculation can be reduced to (1)

where and represent the voltage of the DC bus


at the end and start of the experiment and Idc is the
instantaneous current flowing through the DC bus.

B.  Grid-Tied Inverter
In order to enable extremely fast reversal of
power flow, a Grid-Tied Inverter was purchased from
One-Cycle Control (Irvine, CA, USA) and used
without modification. This high frequency device
has the ability to switch from one state of power to
the next within one frequency cycle, which allows for
fast switching and cycling of power. This inverter
supports operation between 330V and 400V on the
DC side, and 208V/100A (rms) on the AC side.
From these parameters a maximum power rating of
36kW can be obtained, but, for consistency with
operation of the original Zinc/Bromine battery
inverter operation, the power rating is held at around
24kW. Further, to accommodate the voltage limits
on the DC side the SESS is reconfigured to a 2P9
combination, with an expected capacitance of 37F.

(2)

2) Solar Irradiance data used


The solar data that is used for this model comes
from that collected by the National Renewable and
Energy Laboratory (NREL) using a Pyranometer
located on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, which reports

D. Frequency Dependent Effective Energy Rating


The energy rating of the system is measured in
two ways: the effective capacitance at a given
charging or discharging frequency, and a normalized

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2013 1st IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech)

the irradiance at the site with a time resolution of one


second and retrieved from NRELs website [8]. To
convert the given data points to a corresponding
power requires an additional step, outlined in (4).
The factor of 0.015 is the scaling factor to symbolize
a 100kW solar installation.

The time constant used for filtering reflects the


time interval in which the SESS attempts to control
large fluctuations, and therefore how aggressively it
expends SOC to avoid changes to the power flow of
the system. To optimize system performance (e.g.,
minimize ramp events), an evaluation of the effect of
the time constant, T, is needed. Thus, a parameter
sweep is performed on T to determine the sensitivity
of the system performance to this value.

(4)

3) Smoothing of High Frequency Solar Spikes


Since the fundamental contribution of the
inclusion of a SESS to enhance grid stability is to
eliminate short duration changes in power output by
either supplying or absorbing extra power (depending
on whether a dip or spike in power production is
observed), a basic model was developed to evaluate
the effect of energy capacity of the SESS on avoiding
the high ramp rates associated with solar power on
days with broken clouds and associated ramp events.

Fig. 3. Filtering High Frequency Power Fluctuations.

The effect of inclusion of a SESS in the system


is therefore akin to inclusion of a low pass filter on
the raw solar power data with the exception that if
SOC capacity to absorb (i.e., SOC = 1) or supply
(SOC = 0) energy is depleted, the smoothing function
is removed and the unfiltered data is now observed.
The rate at which the system attempts to supply/sink
energy can be essentially considered the time
constant of the low pass filter.

Fig. 4. SESS model to Smooth Large Solar Fluctuations.

4) Control of Solar Ramp Events


In addition to merely mitigating short duration
changes in output power, minimizing ramp events is
greatly useful to enhance grid stability. Therefore, a
modified control algorithm with the specific goal for
minimizing ramp events utilizing only the SESS is
also developed.

The effect of the SESS on the solar raw data is


therefore processed by a low pass filter with an
adequate time constant and the original signal is then
subtracted from the smoothed data to recover a signal
representing the required operation of the SESS, as
shown in Fig. 3. This signal is then passed through
the model of the SESS, shown in Fig. 4, which
checks and modifies the current state of the SESS
(i.e., charging/stationary/discharging), and employs
an integrator block to calculate the energy transfer as
modified by the efficiency rating established from the
variable frequency experiments. That energy transfer
is then converted to SOC, which is then used as a
feedback controller for the system. The actual power
output comes from the output of the if statement
block; with the power output being the smoothed
value if available SOC exists to supply/sink energy,
and the same as the input solar data if the available
SOC is fully expended.

Given the definition of a ramp event developed


in II.E.1, the present output is evaluated against the
measurement occurring 180 seconds before. A
MATLAB script was therefore developed that
determines a set point and threshold of each data
value, and attempts to maintain the power within the
window threshold specification limits.
The
procedure of the script is as follows:
x Take the current sample of the raw solar power
and all preceding 180 samples (or less given the
location of the sample).
x Determine the difference between the current
data point and the maximum absolute value of
the 180 samples. If that difference is greater
than 20kW, then a failure event has occurred.
The corresponding real value is the set point.

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2013 1st IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech)

x Determine the threshold around the set point (+


and 20kW) and find the amount of error that
the data point is over (either above or below).
x Use this data as the input to the SESS model.
x To get the output result, add this data to the real
raw solar power, subtract the output of the SESS
and then subtract this value from the real raw
solar power.
III.

B. Effective Energy Rating


The effective capacitance of the SESS is found
for both charging and discharging at four different
frequencies for both high SOC values, shown in Fig.
6, and low SOC values, shown in Fig 7. In both
cases the effective capacitance decreases with an
increase in frequency as expected. Thus, faster
reversals between charge and discharge produce a
lower capacitance and consequent lower SESS
energy rating.
The data clearly indicates that
operation at frequencies above 1 Hz should be
avoided, and preferably no faster than about 0.3 Hz
(i.e., reversals in power flow faster than about every
3 seconds) to avoid significant derating of the system
energy rating.

RESULTS

A. Key Parameters of the System


An example of the experimentally collected data
is shown in Fig. 5. In this figure, the SESS is placed
at a high state of charge, and experiences a 10kW
discharge for 50 seconds, followed by a 10kW
charge, with the charge/discharge cycle repeated five
times. From this low frequency experiment, the
fundamental SESS performance parameters, shown
in Table I, are extracted. The efficiency and the
effective capacitance found in these initial tests will
be used in the remainder of the work presented here.
For the simulations, a capacitance of 35F is used.

Fig. 6. Capacitance vs. Frequency during Charging and


Discharging (High SOC).

Fig. 5. Charge and Discharging Profile at Low Frequencies.

Table I. Measured SESS fundamental parameters


System Parameters for Simulation

Cycle

Parameter

Value

Units

Discharge

Energy

-181.0(1.7)

Wh

Charge

Energy

195.4(0.8)

Wh

Ch/Dis.

Round Trip Efficiency,

0.93

Charge

Capacitance

35.4

Discharge

Capacitance

32.5

Fig. 7. Capacitance vs. Frequency during Charging and


Discharging (Low SOC).

Another interesting observation is that the


effective capacitance when charging is generally
greater than the effective capacitance when
discharging and that the capacitance is higher at high
SOC. This is likely due to the fact that at high SOC

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2013 1st IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech)

the electrochemical double layer is significantly


charged and more work is required to further add to
the double layer polarization, whereas in the
discharging mode, entropic effects contribute to the
dissipation of the double layer, thus decreasing the
available work. The efficiency loss is therefore
primarily experienced in the discharge process, and is
more pronounced at high SOCs.

C. Simulation to Control High Frequency Ramps


Given the high variability of the output of a solar
energy installation unsupported by an energy storage
buffering system, one of the objects of this work was
to evaluate the efficacy of the SESS in removing the
high ramp rate events observed. Fig. 11 is a
comparison of the raw solar data and the SESS
filtered data, using a time constant of 30s. The top
graph displays two waveforms, with raw data in blue
and SESS filtered data in green, illustrating the
ability of the SESS to remove many of the sharp
changes in power for an unsupported power
installation.
The data representing the SESS
supported energy system results in fewer failure
events at the given time interval. The middle graph
of Fig. 11 shows the rate of failure events for the
unsupported system and the bottom graph of Fig. 11
shows the rate of failure events for the SESS
supported system. A comparison between the two
traces shows a significant reduction in the amount of
failure events associated with the filtered data.

Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 show both the normalized SOC


derating coefficient in the charging and discharging
modes versus different frequencies (in one figure),
for both a high SOC and a low SOC respectively.
The two prominent trends found in effective
capacitance calculations are also present here. As
frequency increases, the derating coefficient increases
which corresponds to a lower energy rating. Also,
there is again an interesting asymmetry on the charge
and discharge cycle, as seen in the capacitance
figures. Again, it should be noted that operation at
high SOC suffers more than operation at low SOC.

Evaluation of the best time constant, T, that


corresponds to the minimum number of ramp events
was also carried out. Fig. 10 shows a sweep of this
parameter from 10s to 100s (in steps of 5s). It is
clear from this figure that a T value of 25s
corresponds to the highest reduction of time the
system spends in a ramp failure state. The filtered
data decreases the total time the output is in a ramp
failure state from around 10,124 s to 7,625 s for the
given day.
Fig. 8. Normalized Derating SOC Coefficient vs. Frequency (High
SOC).

Fig. 10. Sweep of number of failures vs. Time Constant, T to find


the Minimum Failure Events.
Fig. 9. Normalized Derating SOC Coefficient vs. Frequency (Low
SOC).

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2013 1st IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech)

Figs. 13 and 14 show the output and SOC for each of


the algorithms operating on the same subset of the
data. Fig. 13 shows the operation of the Ramp
Control Algorithm (#2) and Fig. 14 corresponds to
the Ramp Rate Algorithm (#1). It can be seen that
For the Ramp Control Algorithm, the failures occur
when the SESS charges (or discharges) to its limits
while for the Ramp Rate Algorithm the time constant
filter control allows the power output to dip below
the threshold even when SOC is still available and
yielding a failure event, which is shown in the middle
plot of the figure. The solar Ramp Control algorithm
further reduced the amount of time spent in a failure
event to around 5,709 s for the day, from the 7,625 s
allowed by the Ramp Rate algorithm using a 25
second time constant filter.

Fig. 11. (Top) Raw Solar Power Input and SESS Filtered Power
Output. (Middle) Failure Events for the Raw Data. (Bottom)
Failure Events for the SESS Filtered Power Output.

D. Simulation to Control Solar Ramp Events


An alternative approach to SESS operation is to
actively attempt to limit the number of ramp events
seen at the output of the SESS supported system.
Fig. 12 shows the response of this new control
algorithm for both a positive and a negative ramp
event (green waveform in the top figure) as well as
the corresponding failures for the new control
(bottom plot) and the raw data (middle plot).
Looking at the figure in the upper plot, from left to
right, the raw data starts to dip just after the
waveform enters the figure. When the ramp gets
below the level of a failure, the control algorithm
responds by discharging the SESS so as to hold the
output power at the current level to prevent a failure
event. The raw data then jumps back to around the
original value and the control algorithm responds by
charging the SESS to hold the power output constant

Fig. 13. (Top) Raw Solar Data Output and SESS Filtered Output.
(Bottom) SOC of the Ramp Rate Filter.

Fig. 14. (Top) Raw Solar Data Output and SESS Filtered Output.
(Bottom) SOC of the High Frequency Filter.
Fig. 12. (Top) Raw Solar Power Output (blue) and SESS filtered
Power Output (green). (Middle) Failure Events for the Raw Data.
(Bottom) Failure Events for the Ramp Control Filter.

IV. CONCLUSION
This paper presented the integration of a
Supercapacitor Energy Storage System (SESS) to be
used in combination with other energy storage

to prevent a failure in the other direction.

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2013 1st IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech)

devices to enhance grid stability. Through hardware


validation and testing, key parameters were extracted
and analyzed. It was found that:

regarding the grid-tied inverter over the course of this


research. The authors also wish to acknowledge the
National
Renewable
Energy
Laboratorys
Measurement and Instrumentation Data Center as the
source of the solar irradiance data used in this study.

x Effective
capacitance
decreases
and
consequently a normalized derating SOC
coefficient increases with an increase in energy
flow reversal frequency.

REFERENCES
[1] T. K. A. Brekken, A. Yokochi, A. von Jouanne,
Z. Z. Yen, H. M. Hapke, and D. A. Halamay,
Optimal Energy Storage Sizing and Control for
Wind Power Applications, Sustainable Energy,
IEEE Transactions on, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 69 77,
Jan. 2011.
[2] C. Abbey and G. Joos, Supercapacitor Energy
Storage for Wind Energy Applications,
Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions on,
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[3] H. Han, T. K. A. Brekken, A. Von Jouanne, A.
Bistrika, and A. Yokochi, In-lab research grid
for optimization and control of wind and energy
storage systems, in 2010 49th IEEE Conference
on Decision and Control (CDC), 2010, pp. 200
205.
[4] E. Naswali, Modeling and experimental
validation of supercapacitors for use in an Inlab
grid developed for wind integration
applications., Oregon State University,
Corvallis, OR, 2011.
[5] R. Ktz, P. W. Ruch, and D. Cericola, Aging
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capacitors during accelerated constant load
tests, Journal of Power Sources, vol. 195, no. 3,
pp. 923928, Feb. 2010.
[6] S. Barsali, M. Ceraolo, M. Marracci, and B.
Tellini, Frequency dependent parameter model
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[7] P. L. Barbour, S. Casey, and S. N. Walker,
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[8] Oahu Solar Measurement Grid, National
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http://www.nrel.gov/midc/oahu_archive/.

x Charging of the SESS produced an overall


higher energy rating than discharging the system.
Both effective capacitance and the derating
coefficient showed an improvement in the charge
cycle. This asymmetry can be investigate further
with more testing.
x Along with hardware testing, two control
algorithms were developed to control the high
frequency power fluctuations and also limit the
amount of failure events. One-second data, from
a pyranometer located in Oahu, HI was used to
validate both control algorithms.
From
simulations, the following was determined:
x Utilizing the SESS as a kind of low pass filter to
smooth out high frequency fluctuations requires
a time constant of around 30 seconds for
effective reduction in ramps. This is only true if
the system is rated to handle these 30 second
intervals. A more proactive approach could be to
sweep Energy fluctuations as well.
x The SESS can be used as a pseudo rate limiter to
prevent ramps of larger than 20% of project
power in a window of 3 minutes or less. It was
seen to work effectively, given the SOC was not
at or near its limits.
Future work on this topic will include
comprehensive hardware testing of the control
algorithms presented in this paper, as well as other,
more advanced control algorithms.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr. Greg
Smedley, Dr. Tao Tao Jin, Tong Chen, and the rest of
the staff at One-Cycle Control for their excellent
assistance and diligence in responding to questions

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