A Review of Emerging Cutting-Edge Energy Storage Technologies for Smart Grids Purposes

With the increase in the use of hybrid and renewable energy sources within the scope of measures taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the difficulties brought by daily and seasonal changes in transmission and distribution need to be tackled. Energy storage systems (ESS) are essential technologies because of the support they provide in times of need to overcome supply-demand balance challenges. For this reason, worldwide efforts are being made to develop more efficient energy storage systems. Energy storage facilities can be employed for various purposes in power systems such as reliability procurement, frequency regulation, or redressing fluctuation caused by uncertain and intermittent sources. These technologies deliver power in various scales and various response speed. Even though pumped storage technology is the most common type of grid-scale energy storage, various on-going studies are still looking for other efficient alternatives. Some emerging large-scale storage technologies have been proposed, or even tested as a prototype in small scale. The suggested paradigm needs to be further matured in terms of efficiency and investment cost. This article aims to examine worldwide energy storage applications, their location, applied energy storage technology, total energy and power capacity, and power quality issues.