Assessing the Role of Energy Storage in Multiple Energy Carriers toward Providing Ancillary Services: A Review

Abstract

Renewable energy power plants and transport and heating electrification projects are being deployed to enable the replacement of fossil fuels as the primary energy source. This transition encourages distributed generation but makes the grid more weather-dependent, thus reducing its inertia. Simultaneously, electrical network operators face voltage, frequency, and stability challenges at the distribution level. Networks were not designed to manage the stochasticity of renewable energy sources or the congestion caused by the new transport and heating demands. Such challenges are commonly addressed through infrastructure reinforcements. This review studies how energy storage systems with different carriers can provide a collaborative solution involving prosumers as ancillary services providers at the distribution level. We focused on the European urban context; thus, we analyzed renewable energy sources, batteries, supercapacitors, hydrogen fuel cells, thermal energy storage, and electric vehicles. A thorough review of successful implementations proved that including storage in one or more carriers benefits the distribution system operators and the prosumers, from both technical and economic perspectives. We propose a correlation between individual energy storage technologies and the ancillary services they can provide based on their responses to specific grid requirements. Therefore, distribution system operators can address network issues together with the prosumers. Nevertheless, attractive regulatory frameworks and business models are required to motivate prosumers to use their assets to support the grid. Further work is recommended to describe the joint operation of multiple storage technologies as multicarrier systems, focusing on the coupling of electrical and thermal energy storage. Additionally, how ancillary services affect the energy storage system’s aging should be studied.

Second-Life Electric Vehicle Batteries for Home Photovoltaic Systems: Transforming Energy Storage and Sustainability

“…This lessens the grid's peak electricity use. Energy storage technologies lessen supply and demand volatility by providing ancillary services like voltage support and frequency regulation [46]. In the event of blackouts or grid outages, the energy storage system may serve as a backup power source, ensuring that Multimedia University's critical loads always have access to electricity.…”

Sustainable Electrification—Advances and Challenges in Electrical-Distribution Networks: A Review

“…This section provides an analysis centered around the integration of hydrogen within the context of electric-distribution systems. In the study conducted by [79], challenges associated with distributed generation and the intermittency of renewable energy sources are addressed. The proposal focuses on collaborative solutions involving energy storage, highlighting the crucial role of hydrogen fuel cells.…”

“…The evolution of hydrogen integration into electrical-distribution networks points towards various future trends reflecting the transformative role of this technology. Pioneering research by [79] emphasizes the need for attractive regulatory frameworks and business models to motivate prosumers to actively support the grid. The trend towards multi-carrier systems, as proposed in [82], suggests that combining different storage technologies, including hydrogen, will provide optimal flexibility and efficiency to handle the variability of renewable energy sources.…”

A Comprehensive Review on Recent Developments of Hosting Capacity Estimation and Optimization for Active Distribution Networks

“…A comprehensive review of the state of the art of ESSs is established in terms of their topologies, control schemes, technical characteristics, benefits, and others, at both network and customer sides in [38], [289]. Moreover, the impacts of applied ESSs as ancillary services on the various PIs and their role in enhancing the HC, are explained in [300]. One of the most important roles of the ESSs is performing peak shaving strategy for loads.…”

“…One of the most important roles of the ESSs is performing peak shaving strategy for loads. To overcome PQ issues and reduce energy costs in high energy demand intervals, the peak shaving strategy is used by regulating the energy consumption from the UG and ESSs [300]. Another role of ESSs is to maintain frequency stability by integrating the DERs inverters with them under complete control of active and reactive power exchange which is the same concept of virtual inertia.…”