Fault Ride-Through Performance of Pumping Cycle Airborne Wind Energy Generators with the Support of Optimally Sized Energy Storage System

Although several types of airborne wind energy generators are under research, the pumping cycle concept has already reached a market commercialization stage. It has a unique load cycle that does not conform with existing grid codes. Therefore, the low voltage ride-through capability of such a system is investigated in this work. The power consumption phase has been identified as the most critical one due to the possible collapse of the DC-link voltage. The use of an energy storage system is proposed as a possible solution. Lithium iron batteries and ultracapacitors are optimally sized using particle swarm optimization and compared in terms of their power rating, size, cost, and depth of discharge. The results suggest that lithium batteries have an edge in this application due to their low cost and high energy density, which could prove beneficial for filtering the system output power or supporting the grid. The system performance under different grid faults is validated using computer simulation for different fault conditions.