Power quality improvement for wave energy converters using a D-STATCOM with real energy storage

Wave energy converters promise to be an important source of low-carbon electrical energy, but produce output power which fluctuates at a low frequency. The usual solution is to use flywheel energy storage on the shaft output. This paper proposes a novel alternative which uses aggregation to smooth most of the power oscillation and a fast-response power electronics device, the D-STATCOM, to smooth out the residual change. Novel control schemes are examined to prolong the life of the D-STATCOM energy storage element.