Supercapacitor Assisted Power Converters and Protection Systems for Green Energy Systems

Date: 27/11/2025

Time: 10:00 am

Presenter: Nihal Kularatna

Abstract: (Sponsored by PELS TC 1) Over the last two decades the supercapacitor manufacturers have introduced many types of supercapacitors with capacitance values from fractional farads to 100,000 F. These very long life device families could not only supplement or replace batteries in renewable energy systems and portable products but also be used in unique types of power converters and protection systems. These new converters and protection systems are now described as Supercapacitor Assisted (SCA) techniques, based on a new theory — Supercapacitor Assisted Loss Management (SCALoM). The seminar will present an industrial overview of current supercapacitor families comparing them with other energy storage systems and introduce several SCA techniques with their applications. These techniques will include supercapacitor assisted low dropout (SCALDO) regulator, supercapacitor assisted LED (SCALED), supercapacitor assisted surge absorber (SCASA), supercapacitor assisted inverter, supercapacitor assisted DC refrigerator and supercapacitor assisted transient energy pump for DC circuit breakers.

Nihal Kularatna is an electronics engineer with over 48 years of contribution to profession and research. He has authored ten reference books for practicing electronic engineers including the two consecutive IET Electrical Measurement Series books titled Modern electronic test & measuring instruments (1996) and Digital and analogue instrumentation- testing and measurement (2003/2008). His latest research monograph on sustainable energy and energy storage systems, titled Energy Storage Devices for Renewable Energy Systems: Rechargeable Batteries and Supercapacitors, was published by Elsevier in June 2021, summarizing his applications-oriented research during the last five years, supervising many PhD students at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He was the winner of New Zealand Engineering Innovator of the Year 2013 Award. In 2021, he won the Postgraduate Research Supervision Staff Excellence Award. He was the first full-time CEO of the Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies A Fellow of the IET (London), Fellow of Engineering NZ and a Senior Member of IEEE (USA) and a graduate from the University of Ceylon, during his industrial career at the Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, he was a winner of Presidential Awards for Inventions-1995, the Most Outstanding Citizens Awards-1999 and a TOYP Award in 1993. In 2015, University of Waikato conferred him with a DSc degree for his thesis titled “Contributions to Power Management, Telecommunications and Telecommunications- A Three Decade Journey”. He is currently active in research in non-traditional supercapacitor applications, power supply topologies, transient propagation and renewable energy. He has contributed over 180 papers to learned journals and international conferences. His work on supercapacitor assisted (SCA) circuit techniques such as SCALDO, SCASA and SCATMA culminated numerous US, NZ and PCT patents. Professor Kularatna is the research lead in power electronics group of School of Engineering, the University of Waikato, New Zealand. At international IEEE conferences and industry trade shows he frequently delivers invited tutorials, workshops and lectures on subjects he is passionate about, including the area of innovation and commercialization. His hobbies are gardening and car-grooming.