Application of Supercapacitors to Extend the Critical Clearing Time by Time Domain Equal Area Criterion

In recent years, the integration of renewable energy resources has increased in power systems. Typically, renewable energy resources are connected to the main power system through power electronic devices. It could reduce the inertia of power systems, and consequently, jeopardize the stability of power systems. In this paper, the application of supercapacitors in power systems to provide virtual inertia and enhance system stability is investigated through numerical analysis of the equal area criterion in the time domain. As a result, the critical clearing time improvement of power systems by using supercapacitors is numerically calculated. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is validated through PowerFactory and OPAL-RT through laboratory tests. Results show that the implementation of supercapacitors could enhance the critical clearing time at least by 300 ms in the IEEE 39-bus New England test system.