Michio Okamura

A novel utility‐interactive electrical energy storage system making use of electrical double‐layer capacitors and an error tracking mode PWM converter

A novel electrical energy storage system interacting with a commercial ac network was designed and experimentally evaluated. It consists of an ac/dc converter modulated by a constantly sampled PWM scheme called Error Tracking Mode and electrical double-layer capacitors paralleled by monitor circuits. The ac ratings are 100 V, 500 W, and 1.0 power factor. The storage capacity is designed to be 500 Wh. Since the voltage of the capacitor bank decreases to one-fourth with discharge, a reversible step-down chopper is inserted between the bank and the ac/dc converter. ac/dc converter efficiencies of 95.6 and 95.8% were obtained in rectifier operation and inverter operation, respectively. The average switching frequencies were set between 10.4 and 11.2 kHz for all operating conditions. Chopper efficiencies of 94.6% and 93.1% were measured in the charge and discharge modes, respectively. The storage efficiency of the capacitor bank was 89.8%. This novel utility-interactive energy storage system has demonstrated good and rapid performance.