Life cycle assessment and economical evaluation of superconducting magnetic energy storage systems in a power system

✍ Scribed by Shunichi Kamiya; Eiichi Tanaka; Hiroyuki Kita; Jun Hasegawa; Takashi Shirasaki

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 524 KB
• Volume: 131
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0424-7760
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6416(20000415)131:1<32::aid-eej4>3.0.co;2-0

✦ Synopsis

In recent years, the introduction of superconducting magnetic energy storage systems (SMES) into a power system is drawing considerable research effort because of their high efficiency rate and large storage capacity characteristics.

In this paper, the introduction of SMES into a power system and its effects on energy and on environmental issues are addressed. The analysis results show that the introduction of SMES can considerably cut down CO 2 emissions without increasing the production cost if it substitutes for the operation of thermal plants during peak load period. However, to achieve this, nuclear plants are also needed for charging purposes. Thus, an algorithm to find the best generation mix, subject to CO 2 emissions constraints and nuclear plant introduction constraints, is proposed.

The inclusion of nuclear plant constraints increases the coal consumption, hence CO 2 emissions. Nevertheless, in most of the analyzed cases, the introduction of SMES could attain important cost savings and environmental conservation.