ENERGY STORAGE IN MICROGRIDS: CHALLENGES, APPLICATIONS AND RESEARCH NEED

This paper studies various energy storage technologies and their applications in microgrids addressing the challenges facing the microgrids implementation. In addition, some barriers to wide deployment of energy storage systems within microgrids are presented. Microgrids have already gained considerable attention as an alternate configuration in electric power systems that can operate in grid-connected mode or islanded mode. Host grid reliability, electricity rate uncertainty, electricity demand beyond installed capacity, and regulatory and market incentives are some of the drivers motivating the deployment of microgrids. Microgrids offer greater opportunities for including renewable energy sources (RES) in their generation portfolio to mitigate the energy demand reliably and affordably. However, there are still several issues such as microgrid stability, power and energy management, reliability and power quality that make microgrids implementation challenging. Nevertheless, the energy storage system is proposed as a promising solution to overcome the aforementioned challenges.