Energy storage technologies opportunities and challenges in smart grids

Energy storage technologies (EST) will have an important position in combination of renewable energy sources (RES) in modern electrical power systems and smart grid. EST can provide more balancing and flexibility to the power system, providing incorporation of intermittent RES to the smart grid. Energy storage technologies have a critical function to provide ancillary services in the power generation source for smart grid. This paper gives a short overview of the current energy storage technologies and their applications available and the opportunities and challenges the power systems faces for successful integration of RES to smart grid. This paper also discusses different types of EST experimentally tested in smart grid environment such as electrochemical batteries, ultra-capacitors and kinetic energy storage systems. Grid services that energy storage could provide are explained in terms of primary application, state of technology and challenges in this paper.