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Article history:
Received 4 October 2013
Accepted 1 May 2014
Available online 6 June 2014
Keywords:
Electrochemical energy storage
Power converter interfaces
Smart storage
Topologies
a b s t r a c t
Energy storage concept that supports important technologies for electrical systems is well established
and widely recognized. Several energy storage techniques are available, including an electrochemical
energy storage system used to support electrical systems. These storage systems require interfaces based
on power electronic converters for interconnection with an electrical system. This paper reviews the
literature covering the various types of interfaces developed for electrochemical energy storage systems.
Different electrochemical energy storage devices and their specicities regarding to integration with the
electrical systems are described. . The various power converter interfaces that can be used for electrochemical energy storage systems are presented. These interfaces have been divided into standard,
multilevel and multiport technology. The main characteristics and specicity of each topology considering its application to electrochemical energy storage systems are presented. The review also covers the
smart storage concept and the requirements of the interface to integrate the electrochemical energy
storage devices upon this concept.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Energy storage has become a critical factor with high demand of
electrical energy consumption. In fact, this technology is fundamental for many stand-alone applications. On other hand, in the
context of distributed systems of renewable energy, energy storage
is fundamental not only for stand-alone systems, but also for the
integration of these renewable sources into the electricity system.
In this way, energy storage has a fundamental role in the effort to
combine a future sustainable energy supply with the standard of
technical services and products.
The integration of an energy storage system enables higher efciency and cost-effectiveness of the power grid. It is clear now that
grid energy storage allows the electrical energy system to be optimized, resulting from the solution of problems associated with
peak demand and the intermittent nature of renewable energies
[1,2]. Stand-alone power supply systems are used in many places
around the world where there is no access to the power grid. For
Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 212948545; fax: +351 212948532, skype:
joaofamartins.
E-mail address: jf.martins@fct.unl.pt (J.F. Martins).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2014.05.003
0196-8904/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
those types of systems penetration of renewable sources is growing as a result of rising fuel prices and environmental concerns.
However, to integrate the renewable sources into these systems,
energy storage is generally required [3,4]. Energy storage is also
required for many independent types of equipment, such as portable consumer electronics or electric vehicles.
Several energy storage technologies are available: electrochemical energy storage [5,6], uid storage [7,8], mechanical systems
[9,10], and electromagnetic systems [11,12]. The different energy
storage technologies coexist because their characteristics make
them attractive to different applications. Among these technologies, electrochemical energy storage systems, in spite of being
one of the oldest, is still today a widely used storage technology.
This energy storage technology includes devices, such as batteries,
supercapacitors and fuel cells. Electrochemical storage uses this
equipment as a support for stand-alone power supply systems
and even for several power grid applications.
Appropriate energy storage devices (ESDs) and energy storage
systems (ESSs) are core elements of highly demanded resource efcient, environmentally-friendly and reliable solutions for mobile
and stationary applications, which are topics of highest priority
in the EU policy targeted to a low carbon sustainable economy.
454
suitable to power quality applications. The other is related to longduration storage devices, more suitable for energy management
and stand-alone or mobile applications. Fig. 2 reviews power ratings and discharge times of storage devices.
In terms of ESSs technology, the following categories can be
considered: electrical, chemical, mechanical and thermal. This
paper will cover the rst two categories, which include supercapacitors and super magnetic energy storage devices (electrical)
along with mature and emerging batteries, fuel cells and thermochemical storage (chemical).
2.1. Supercapacitors
The most straightforward way of storing electrical energy is by
using a capacitor, which is basically a set of two conducting plates
separated by a nonconducting dielectric. In a standard capacitor, its
capacitance is given by Eq. (1), where e denotes the permittivity of
the dielectric, d the distance between the plates, and A the area
of each plate. Although they provide high specic power
(1,00,000 W/kg) and life cycle (50,000 cycles), they have low values
of specic energy (0.055 Wh/kg) [15].
Ae
d
455
costs, they have inferior characteristics as compared to lithiumion or nickel metal-hydride batteries, including higher memory
effect. They present good specic power (150300 W/kg) and life
cycle (20002500 cycles) but rather poor overall efciency
(6070%) and self discharge (0.0670.6%Energy/day) characteristics. Also, environmental concerns, regarding the extreme toxicity
of cadmium, have been a key factor for the replacement [25].
2.2.1.3. Nickel metal-hydride batteries. Nickel metal-hydride batteries have been on the market for over 20 years as portable and then
traction batteries [26]. They use nickel oxyhydroxide for the positive electrode and metallic cadmium for the negative electrode.
The electrolyte is usually aqueous based on potassium hydroxide
and they are maintenance free. As compared to nickelcadmium
batteries, they provide higher specic energy, life cycle and specic
power but lower efciency and life cycle [27]. They lack the
memory effect.
2.2.1.5. Vanadium REDOX ow battery. Vanadium REDOX ow batteries started in 1984 and store energy by employing vanadium
REDOX couples (V2+/V3+ in the negative and V4+/V5+ in the positive
half-cells), stored in mild sulphuric acid solutions (electrolytes).
They present interesting specic energy (1030 Wh/kg) and efciency (7085%) and a very high life cycle (12,00014,000 cycles)
[34]. Self discharge is within the range of ow batteries
(0.2%Energy/day). This battery type is particularly suited for
large-scale stationary applications [35,36]. The environmental
impact is lower than that for the lead-acid battery [37].
456
makes fuel cells one of the most promising devices for energy storage. Specic characteristics of different fuel cell applications can be
improved with nanotechnology. In fact, using this technology it is
possible to decrease the weight of electrodes and to increase the
conductivity and electrochemically active surface of catalysts
[53]. A technology using microbial fuel cells (MFC) has been considered very interesting among academic researchers in the last
years [54,55]. This technology converts the energy stored in chemical bonds in organic compounds to electrical energy achieved
through the catalytic reactions by microorganisms.
2.3.1. Regenerative fuel cells
Regenerative fuel cells can operate both as a regular fuel cell
and as an electrolyzer. They consume some reactant to produce
electricity and an output chemical (discharging mode), and reversely, they consume electricity and the output chemical to produce
the rst reactant (charging mode). Only hydrogen proton exchange
membrane (PEMFC) fuel cells can work as regenerative fuel cells
[56]. Recent state-of-the-art developments report high specic
energy values (4001000 Wh/kg) for regenerative fuel cells [57].
2.4. Thermochemical storage
Thermochemical storage is based on the acquisition of solar
energy and consequent energy storage (or transport) in synthetic
oil or molten salt. These solar fuels will be used for electricity generation [58]. Solar fuels are still at an earlier stage of development.
They can also be obtained from electricity, but the competitiveness
of these systems comes from the ability to produce them from
solar energy. These solar fuels include, for instance, solar hydrogen
[59], solar metal [60] or solar chemical heat pipes [61].
3. Power converter technologies
This section focuses on the interfaces for the interconnection of
the electrochemical energy storage systems with the electrical system. These interfaces are based on power electronic converters.
They can be divided into three different categories: standard topologies, multilevel topologies and multiport topologies. Standard
topologies are usually known as two-port converters due to the
input port that connects to the energy source and the output port
that connects to the load. The structure of the power converter can
be divided into single stage or double stage. In the single stage,
only a unique power converter is used to control the charge and
discharge of the storage system and at the same time to connect
to the AC grid. In the double stage, two power converters are used:
a DC/DC converter to control the charge and discharge of the storage systems and a DC/AC converter to interface with the AC grid.
The multilevel topologies are normally used for high voltage applications. These topologies allow synthesis of a desired AC voltage
from several levels of DC voltages and reduce the voltage blocking
of the power switches. Finally, the multiport topologies allow the
processing of the energy from multiple energy sources or to a
multiple load.
3.1. Standard topologies
3.1.1. Single stage
In the energy storage systems, a bidirectional AC/DC converter
with a proper charging/discharging prole is typically required to
transfer energy between the energy storage and the AC grid. The
non-isolated single stage topologies are the simplest and most efcient for the interfacing of energy storages with AC systems. The
most commonly used topology for the single-phase AC systems is
the single-phase converter shown in Fig. 3a [62]. By replacing
457
grid
grid
storage
storage
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3. Single-phase (a) and three-phase (b) bidirectional AC/DC converters.
grid
shoot-through immunity that is not forbidden [72,73]. The quasiZ-source inverters (qZSI, Fig. 4b) proposed in [74,75] enable further
improvement of the traditional ZSIs. Besides the advantages inherited from the ZSI, the qZSIs also have several merits, such as
reduced passive component ratings, continuous input current,
and a common DC rail between the DC source and the inverter.
Utilizing shoot-through states for the voltage boost function, the
ZSI and qZSI have substantially wider regulation freedom, thus
providing better utilization of the energy storage.
Originally, because of the presence of the diode in the impedance networks, the power ow in the ZSI and qZSI is limited to
one direction, i.e. from the DC source to the AC side. To ensure
the bidirectional power, an additional power switch is connected
across the diode so that it can handle the current during rectier
mode operation [76,77].
Another approach to the highly efcient single-stage AC/DC
conversion is presented in Fig. 5a. This topology that consists of
two buck converters has the features of the conventional halfbridge inverter. It is called a dual-buck half-bridge inverter
[8284]. The converter exhibits two distinct merits: rst, there is
no shoot-through problem because no active power switches are
connected in series in each phase leg. Second, the reverse recovery
dissipation of the power switch is substantially reduced because of
no freewheeling current owing through the diode of the power
switches. To improve the utilization of the DC bus voltage and to
eliminate the two DC bus capacitors, the topology could be modied by replacing the two-capacitor leg with a two-switch leg.
The bidirectional matrix converter (Fig. 6a) is another alternative approach to the single-stage AC/DC power conversion. The
topology was derived from the well-known three-to-three AC/AC
matrix converter. It has a low-pass LC lter between the DC terminals and the DC source/load terminals, with no intervening impedance except for snubbers and wiring [85]. Both polarities of
voltages and currents may be controlled during the bidirectional
grid
storage
(a)
storage
(b)
Fig. 4. Three-phase impedance source bidirectional AC/DC converters: ZSI (a) and qZSI (b).
458
grid
grid
storage
storage
(a)
(b)
Fig. 5. Dual-buck half-bridge AC/DC converter: single-phase (a) and three-phase (b) congurations.
sw
2
storage
grid
storage
grid
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6. Three-phase impedance source bidirectional AC/DC converters: ZSI (a) and qZSI (b).
459
DC
Grid
DC
Storage
DC
AC
suitable for ZSI and qZSI with only minor modications needed to
add the shoot-through states [80,81].
3.1.2. Double stage
A two-stage interface converter (Fig. 7) consists of a DC/DC conversion stage and a DC/AC or inverter stage. The DC/DC stage
boosts the DC voltage to the suitable level so that the inverter stage
can be directly interfaced to the low voltage grid [89]. In general,
the DC/DC stage topologies can be divided into two main groups:
non-isolated and isolated. In the literature many non-isolated bidirectional topologies have been studied and proposed for the DC/DC
stage, e.g. half-bridge, Ck, SEPIC, etc. [90,91]. However, the
research over one decade has shown that the most practical
topology for the DC/DC stage is the conventional bidirectional
buck-boost topology.
The bidirectional half-bridge topology is the most widely used
solution due to its simplicity and relatively high efciency of over
90% [91]. The bidirectional half-bridge topology consists of two
transistors and one inductor, as shown in Fig. 8a. It operates in
buck mode when charging the energy storage and in boost mode
when drawing energy from the storage device. Low component
count and simplicity result in reliable and low cost solution, which
guarantees its popularity in many applications. However, there are
some limitations which should be taken into account. The boost
capability is quite limited and usually many energy storages
should be connected in series to achieve the needed DC-link voltage level. The current through the freewheeling diode (D1) of the
topside transistor, which reduces the ride-through capability, is
not fully controllable. In the case of a short circuit in the DC-link,
the energy storage is shorted as well. This problem can be solved
with a double bidirectional half-bridge converter, as shown in
Fig. 8b. The current can be fully controlled in both directions. Faults
can be isolated from both sides: energy storage side and inverter
side.
Quite similar to the bidirectional half-bridge converter is the
bidirectional buck-boost converter. It is derived directly from
T1
Storage
C Udc
T2
D2
T1
L1
Grid
AC
Grid
DC
Storage
D1
DC
L2
C1
T2 Udc
C2
AC
Storage
L1
T1
T2
D3 T3
D1
D4 T4
D2
(a)
L2
Udc
Grid
DC
AC
(b)
Fig. 8. Step up DC/DC converters for energy storage: bidirectional half-bridge (a), double bidirectional half-bridge converter.
(a)
Grid
DC
T2
Udc
AC
T3
Storage
Storage
T1
T1
Grid
C
T2
Udc
T4
(b)
Fig. 9. Step-up/step-down DC/DC converters for energy storage: bidirectional buck-boost converter (a), bidirectional buck-boost cascade converter (b).
460
Storage
L1
C1
T2
Grid
DC
T1
L2
Udc
C2
AC
By changing the places of the inductor L1 and the switch T1, one
derives a new converter topology called SEPIC/Luo (Fig. 11). It is a
bidirectional step-up/step-down converter, which is originally
derived from the SEPIC and Luo converters. In the charging mode
of energy storage, the converter works as the SEPIC converter
and in the discharging mode as the Luo converter. The SEPIC/Luo
converter does not reverse the voltage and needs a transfer capacitor with lower voltage rating than that of the Ck converter. The
main drawbacks are: it requires two large inductors, the output
current is discontinuous and the output capacitor is large [91,92].
In some applications the isolation of the energy storage is
required. In this case a medium frequency transformer together
with appropriate power electronics should be implemented. In
general, four topologies and their variations can be considered in
this case: a half-bridge, a full-bridge and a push-pull topology
[96,97]. Push-pull half-bridge topology has quite low efciency
and suits best for low power applications. Therefore, it was
excluded from further investigation.
The most widely used solution is the bidirectional buck-boost
converter combined with a dual active bridge (DAB), as indicated
in Fig. 12 [98,99]. The bidirectional buck-boost regulates the input
voltage of DAB and keeps it constant. This allows DAB to work in
one operating point and with a maximum efciency. The transformer of the DAB provides additional boost and isolation. Thus,
Buck-boost
Storage
T11
D11
T1
D1
T3
D3
TR
T5
D5
D7
T7
Grid
DC
C2 Udc
C1
T12
D12
T2
D2
T4
D4
T6
D6
T8
AC
D8
Grid
DC
Grid
DC
AC
AC
(a)
(b)
Fig. 13. Dual half-bridge converters: voltage-fed (a) and current-fed (b).
Table 1
Comparison of isolated DC/DC converters.
Primary side
Secondary side
Efciency
Application
Push-pull
Half-bridge
Full-bridge
Half-bridge
Half-bridge
Full-bridge
Low power
High/medium power
High/medium power
461
The cascaded H-bridge converter (CHB) structure was introduced by Baker and Banister through a patent in 1975 [115].
Subsequently, this structure has been extended for three-phase
systems [116118]. This structure is based on the series connection of H-bridges with separate DC sources. Due to this conguration and the characteristics of the multilevel inverters, this
structure was used for electrochemical energy storage systems.
Fig. 14 shows a three-phase cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter
proposed for this kind of storage systems [119127]. This structure
consists of a series connection of several storage elements connected to a power converter module. This overcomes the disadvantage of series storage systems like fuel cells: if one of the fuel cells
fails, the system will not work (replacement or an external bypass
is required). As shown in Fig. 14, another advantage of this system
is that it allows for a transformer less energy storage system.
Fig. 15 shows four of the possible converter cell structures.
Fig. 15a shows the rst structure where the energy storage unit
is connected directly to the H-bridge. In this structure, the converter cell generates an AC voltage and at the same time controls
the charge and discharge of the corresponding energy storage unit.
The second structure (Fig. 15b) uses a double-stage scheme. The
half bridge that is connected to the storage unit controls the energy
that charges or discharges the corresponding storage unit. The DC
DC also allows to decouple the DC-link of the inverter to the energy
storage unit allowing the grid side power converter to operate over
a wide modulation index. The third structure (Fig. 15c) uses an
interleaved boost converter that allows reduction of the inductor
current ripple (reducing its core size). Fig. 15d shows the fourth
structure that is based on the dual active bridge. This structure
allows one to obtain galvanic isolation and usage of signicant
lower voltage energy storage units compared with the total DC
AC output voltages. In [128] a fault tolerant control for a battery
energy storage system based on a cascade H-bridge multilevel
inverter is presented. This shows another important feature of
the multilevel converters, since even with a single converter cell
or a battery unit fault, a fault tolerant control allows continuous
operation with the remaining healthy storage units.
The neutral point clamped (NPC) multilevel inverter proposed
by Nabae, Takahashi and Akagi in 1981 [110] was essentially a
three-level diode clamped inverter. However, structures with
extended voltage levels have also been studied and implemented.
This structure uses a series string of capacitors to divide the DC
side voltage into several levels. One of the disadvantages of this
topology is that a charge-balancing control system for the capacitors is required. Fig. 16 shows a single-stage grid connected structure of the NPC and Active Neutral Point Clamped (ANPC) converter
[124,125,129]. Due to the active neutral-point clamped switches,
the ANPC has more than one switching state to generate the zero
output voltage. Thus, using an optimum sequence of switching
states and commutations, better loss distribution among the
devices will be obtained allowing for an higher semiconductor
switch utilization [131]. Storage systems based on the diode
clamped multilevel inverter with a two-stage converter structure
were also proposed by [127] and [132] (Fig. 17a)). In [125] a structure based on the ANPC used to provide a galvanic isolation is
presented (Fig. 17b).
As an alternative topology to the NPC, Meynard and Foch
introduced the ying capacitor multilevel inverter (FC) in 1992
[133]. This structure is similar to the NPC. However, instead of
using clamping diodes, the inverter uses capacitors to divide the
input DC voltage. Fig. 18 shows a three-phase ying capacitor
multilevel inverter used by Trintis [124] to compare the structure
with other multilevel structures in battery energy storage
systems.
Based on the previous multilevel structures, a hybrid converter
was proposed. This structure is called modular multilevel
462
Power
Converter
and
Energy
Storage
Building
Block
Power
Converter
and
Energy
Storage
Building
Block
Power
Converter
and
Energy
Storage
Building
Block
Power
Converter
and
Energy
Storage
Building
Block
Power
Converter
and
Energy
Storage
Building
Block
Power
Converter
and
Energy
Storage
Building
Block
Power
Converter
and
Energy
Storage
Building
Block
Power
Converter
and
Energy
Storage
Building
Block
Power
Converter
and
Energy
Storage
Building
Block
Fig. 14. Energy storage system based on the cascade H-bridge multilevel inverter.
(a)
(c)
(b)
(d)
Fig. 15. Converter cell structure: (a) single-stage converter cell; (b) basic double-stage converter cell; (c) interleaved converter cell; and (d) cell using a converter with
isolation.
converter (MMC) based on the combination of the cascade Hbridge converter and the ying capacitor converter. This multilevel
structure was introduced by Marquardt through a patent in 2002
[134]. The structure consists of a series connection of identical
modules based on half-bridge cells and an inductor (Fig. 19). Thus,
this kind of a converter is suitable for medium and high voltage
[135,136]. Due to the modularity of this multilevel structure, the
topology has been examined as an application in medium voltage
battery energy storage systems [126]. Three different possible con-
verter cell structures have been presented [137]. Fig. 20a shows the
structure with the reduced number of active components. The second structure is an extension of the rst one. In this structure
(Fig. 20b) an interleaved boost converter is used, allowing reduction of the inductor current ripple. The third structure (Fig. 20c)
is based on the dual active bridge converter. This solution allows
high efciency and high boost ratios to be achieved.
Multilevel topologies present several advantages. Particularly
the cascaded H-bridge converter structure and the modular
463
w
(a)
(b)
Fig. 16. Energy storage system based on a single stage: (a) NPC; and (b) ANPC.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 17. Energy storage system based on two stages: (a) without galvanic isolation; and (b) with galvanic isolation.
464
Classical power electronic systems usually consist of a switching power converter with the corresponding control system, an
energy source and a load. The power converter allows efcient processing of the electric power from the available energy source to
the load. This power converter is usually known as a two-port converter due to the input port that connects to the energy source and
the output port that connects to the load. However, there are systems that require the energy to be processed from multiple energy
sources or to a multiple load [138141]. Such systems can use two
power electronic structures. The rst structure usually comprises
an intermediate power bus where the multiple sources and/or
loads are connected by two-port converters that are controlled
independently (Fig. 21). The second one consists of a single power
processing stage that has multiple interfacing ports (Fig. 22). The
main advantage of the second structure over the rst one is its
reduced number of stages. Thus, several advantages, such as high
power efciency and power density, lower cost and control simplicity can be achieved. The multiport converter is extremely interesting in systems where energy is harvested from a variety energy
sources in combination with energy storage.
Several multiport topologies have been proposed. Topologies
with and without galvanic isolation have been developed. Fig. 23
shows a topology without a galvanic isolation [138,139]. In this
topology, two of the ports connect the fuel cell and the storage,
and the third port connects the load by a DC-link. This simplest
topology was proposed for hybrid vehicles where high-voltage fuel
cells and a storage are used [138]. A magnetically coupled threeport converter (triple-active bridge converter) is presented in
Fig. 24 [142,143]. In addition to galvanic isolation, this converter
has the advantage of easily matching different port voltage levels
in the overall system. This can be done just by choosing the appropriate numbers of turns for the windings [144]. Leakage inductance
of the transformer is used as the energy transfer element between
ports and the power ow between ports is typically controlled by
the phase shift. Since the leakage inductance of the transformer
could limit the power transfer the additional inductors could be
placed in series with the corresponding windings of the transformer. In [139] a set of three port converters with galvanic isolation are presented. In this work, a set of basic cells used for
constructing multiport bidirectional converters is also proposed.
The full bridges of the topology in Fig. 24 can also be replaced by
half bridges [139]. A multiport topology suitable for applications
using a main source and a storage with low operating voltages
and a need to be boosted were proposed and tested [145]. This
topology integrates a DC-link and a magnetic coupling (Fig. 14).
A simplied scheme of the topology in Fig. 25 was also proposed
[139,146]. In this topology the storage connects directly to the
DC bus (Fig. 26). However, its performance is reduced since the
DC-bus voltage should not vary over a wide range. A topology
where the half bridges of the topology in Fig. 25 were replaced
by full bridges was also proposed [144]. This last topology
(Fig. 27) allows the reduction of the current stress of the switching
devices. A topology where a boost half bridge is used to realize a
current-fed port for the storage device or main source is illustrated
in Fig. 28 (designated as triple-half-bridge bidirectional DC/DC
converter). One of the main advantages of this topology is that it
allows minimization of the ports current ripple [139,147]. A multiport topology for hydrogen-based energy storage with a reduced
number of energy conversion stages was proposed in [148,149].
Multiport converters that use interleaved topologies have also
been proposed. These topologies allow the use of multiport converters in high power applications. Fig. 29 shows a three-port
three-phase interleaved topology proposed in [150]. This circuit
is an extension of the three-port triple-active-bridge converter
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
Power
Converter and
Energy
Storage
Building Block
465
466
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 20. Converter cell structure (a) basic double stage converter cell, (b) interleaved converter cell, and (c) cell using a converter with isolation.
Source 1
Source n
Two-port
converter
Two-port
converter
Load 1
Two-port
converter
Load n
Two-port
converter
Fig. 21. Block diagram of a system structure with multiple two-port converters.
DC-link
Source 1
Load 1
Multi-port
Source n
load
converter
Load n
fuel
cell
storage
ESS has been widely used in Distributed Energy Generation Systems, DEGS, mainly as batteries in photovoltaic installations, to
guarantee the power during the off-generation intervals [49]. Nowadays, most of these photovoltaic installations are connected to the
grid (Fig. 31 [152]) and the algorithms to control the ESS are
becoming more sophisticated, resulting in systems that are no
longer named battery management systems but Energy Management Systems (EMS) that can be called Smart Storage if they are
coordinated with the electric grid status. Some of these systems
are no longer associated with renewable energies, and are connected to specic parts of the grid or consumer installations.
There are commercial solutions already in the market to manage the energy on a house, coordinating generation and storage
as, for example, the Home Energy Management System, HEMS,
shown in Fig. 32. This type of EMS could be used without any DEGS
to smooth the consuming curve or even control the energy consumption depending on its price-by-hour, or even they could not
have any ESS to work as an Energy Gateway. In a near future,
EMS can integrate easily the electrical vehicle home chargers into
the distribution grid.
467
fuel
cell
load
fuel
cell
storage
storage
load
fuel
cell
storage
storage
load
fuel
cell
Fig. 26. Three-port converter where the storage connects directly to the DC bus.
load
storage
fuel
cell
Fig. 27. Three-port converter with full bridges combining DC-link and magnetic
coupling.
In [154] the benets of an ESS for domestic users, Fig. 33a, are
analyzed from the point of view of its aggregate effect in a grid,
Fig. 33b. The two main objectives of an energy-balanced management for User-Mode Networks (UMNs) introduced in this work
are energy reliability and efciency. The energy reliability of a network refers to the assurance of an uninterrupted energy distribution to all consumer elements. The energy demand and
generation of a practical network are supposed to uctuate instantaneously and spatially, and this makes the energy reliability issue
the rst priority of network management. A UMN has to ensure
uninterrupted energy delivery to all end users over a specic time
period. This is called the energy assurance period (EAP). The second
priority of the UMN is energy efciency, which is achieved by generation from renewable sources and the self-supporting operation
of the grid (the islanded operation of micro-grids). The self-supporting approach is based on the local generation and consumption
of energy, where the cost of energy is reduced by decreasing losses
in energy transport and the costs of maintenance and management
operations for the sake of the localized service.
When planning to use ESS in sustainable communities, the following key issues have to be taken into account [155]: the degree
and scale of energy autonomy; matching demand with supply; the
importance of socio-economic and political factors; and the energy
autonomy in island and remote communities. It is usually needed
to manipulate the energy demand, known as Demand Side Management (DSM), and it involves the use of a range of techniques
(illustrated in Fig. 34) to improve the match between supply and
demand, and to reduce overall energy demand.
Fostering of DSM and demand response programs is a crucial
application area for Information and Communication Technologies,
ICT, in distribution grids [156, 157]. It is of vital interest for Distribution System Operators, DSO, to know about the actual grid load
and to reshape it if it imperils grid stability. Various price- and
incentive-based demand response programmes have been developed (Fig. 35).
To improve the performance of the ESS when it is associated
with a renewable generation system, some kind of prediction of
the generated power is needed [158].
The benets of ESS for a future smart grid at the distribution
level described in [159] (or for a micro-grid [142]) can be applied
in the following areas:
Voltage control: support a heavily loaded feeder, provide power
factor correction, reduce the need to constrain DGES, minimize
on-load tap changer (OLTC) operations, and mitigate icker,
sags and swells.
Power ow management: redirect power ows, delay network
reinforcement, reduce reverse power ows, minimize losses.
468
fuel
cell
load
storage
load
storage
fuel
cell
Fig. 31. Scheme of a grid connected photovoltaic installation with a lithium-ion battery system for homes and small stores [137].
on multiple networks. Events are dened by type, threshold, location and action. Four event types are considered: over-voltage,
under-voltage, over-power and reverse-power-ow. The authors
found that benets greater than the sum of the parts have been
accrued across the dened control objectives. In conclusion, a single device operating to improve conditions on two networks was
developed that is more effective than two devices working in isolated networks.
The use of decentralized energy storage presents several benets when included in the actual grid [161]. Stakeholders in the
market for decentralized electricity storage have several costs
and benets, as indicated in Fig. 37 taken from [160].
There are different strategies for optimizing the operation of
ESS. Some of them are: design for minimizing the cost of the
energy consumed, considering that as in [162], the price of the
469
Fig. 32. Home Energy Management System (HEMS) proposed by Panasonic [153].
Fig. 33. (a) Appliance scheme of a fully functional end-user model that can consume, generate, and store energy domestically. (b) A representation of a tree-like node
hierarchy of a User-Mode Network in the three node levels. Generated energy ows upward and energy ow for consumption is downward [154].
Fig. 34. The various DSM techniques and their impact on demand proles.
energy depends on the time interval of the day and the objective
function is the payment function (PC) calculated as
PC
X
Trh Eh
h2H
the energy) as the case proposed in Fig. 38. Reports in [165] solve
this problem by using a system to re-schedule some selected appliances not to overpass this limit, but that could be solved also by
employing an ESS. By combining the ESS with a re-scheduling appliance system, a lower ESS energy storage capacity is needed. It could
also be applied for other control goals, for instance, to maximize the
comfort index using minimum power consumption [166].
The presence of ESS allows establishing multi-objective optimization algorithms that optimize the energy ux. This energy ux
optimization is illustrated in Fig. 39 for a Green house that has
renewable energy resources, and achieves a reduction of the overall daily cost greater than 50% [167].
In [168,169] a similar analysis is described, but in this case it is
done at the distribution grid level and using Electrical Vehicles (EV)
as ESS in the grid (Vehicle to Grid, V2G). The objective is to minimize the energy production cost, assuming that prices of generated
energy depend on the interval of time, as well as on the price of the
energy charged or discharged in the EV, considering also that the
energy could be transferred from an ESS to other ESS (Fig. 40).
470
Fig. 35. Role of demand response in electrical system planning and operations ordered by the time frame of their application [142,143].
Fig. 36. Field trial network diagram described in [159], showing two feeders and location of ESS at the normally open point. The position of a wind farm on Feeder 1A is
indicated by the letter G.
471
Fig. 37. Key stakeholders in the market for decentralized electricity storage and their private costs and benets [160].
Fig. 38. Typical residential load prole where an active power threshold is applied.
The maximum power that an EV type of use can charge and discharge for a certain state is limited by the maximum charge and
discharge of the individual battery times the number of EVs in
that state. It is also taken into account by the model that an
EV cannot charge and discharge at the same hour.
The maximum power that each EV can charge/discharge during
one hour is constrained by the amount of energy stored in the
battery.
Bound on hourly charging and discharging ramps.
5. Discussion
ESS for application in Electric Systems is a key issue to be solved
for achieving the Electric Systems of the Future. The available
Energy Storage technology do not allow to achieve all the desirable
characteristic of a system for being applying in the Electric Grid, so
nowadays it is require to hybridize two or more technologies.
Usually, two are the main points of view applied when designing an ESS. In one hand the Energy characteristics should be full,
472
Fig. 39. (a) Electrical energy management (absence of energy storage), and (b) optimal electrical energy control (presence of energy storage) [167].
473
474
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