An effective SMES system control for enhancing the reliability of hybrid power generation systems

•A new efficient control strategy for superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems is proposed.•Currently, SMES systems are widely integrated in modern power systems due to their economic and technical advantages.•The problem is how to mitigate the fluctuation in the power generated by hybrid power generation systems caused by the variable weather conditions.•A SMES system with its controllers was proposed in this research in order to solve the mentioned problem.•The proposed SMES system with its controllers is very effective in smoothing out the fluctuations of power provided by the hybrid power generation system to the power grid. Recently, with the rising electrical energy demand, renewable energy resources (RERs) are considered an optimal solution for satisfying consumption needs. The power generated from RERs has an intermittent and unpredictable nature, given that it depends directly on weather conditions. Thus, the amount generated power from RERs will be taken in fluctuated curve form. This paper focuses on addressing the issue of fluctuation in the power output of a Solar-Wind hybrid power generation systems (HPGSs) resulting from variable weather conditions. Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) system provide a viable solving to the issue of power output fluctuations in HPGSs due to their unique characteristics. To this aim, this paper proposes two robust controllers for SMES systems to smooth out the power provided by a HPGS. In order to evaluate the proposed SMES system efficiency's during significant and fast fluctuations (at level of up to ∼1 MW in the range and seconds in the duration), computer simulations were implemented using the MATLAB/Simulink software package. The results obtained from the simulations have confirmed that the controllers of the proposed SMES system could efficiently reduce power output fluctuations from HPGSs, minimize power losses on the transmission lines, and regulate the voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC) at an acceptable standard level.