Comparative review of energy storage systems, their roles, and impacts on future power systems

It is an exciting time for power systems as there are many ground-breaking changes happening simultaneously. There is a global concensus in increasing the share of renewable energy-based generation in the overall mix, transitioning to a more environmental-friendly transportation with electric vehicles as well as liberalizing the electricity markets, much to the distaste of traditional utility companies. All of these changes are against the status quo and introduce new paradigms in the way the power systems operate. The generation penetrates distribution networks, renewables introduce intermittency, and liberalized markets need more competitive operation with the existing assets. All of these challenges require using some sort of storage device to develop viable power system operation solutions. There are different types of storage systems with different costs, operation characteristics, and potential applications. Understanding these is vital for the future design of power systems whether it be for short-term transient operation or long-term generation planning. In this paper, the state-of-the-art storage systems and their characteristics are thoroughly reviewed along with the cutting edge research prototypes. Based on their architectures, capacities, and operation characteristics, the potential application fields are identified. Finally, the research fields that are related to energy storage systems are studied with their impacts on the future of power systems.