Electrical energy storage and Smart Grid technologies to integrate the next generation of Renewable Power Systems

The growth of renewable power sources, distributed generation and the potential for alternative fuelled modes of transport such as electric vehicles has led to concerns over the ability of existing grid systems to facilitate such diverse portfolio mixes in already congested power systems. Internationally the growth in renewable energy sources is driven by government policy targets associated with the uncertainties of fossil fuel supplies, environmental issues and a move towards energy independence. Power grids were traditionally designed as vertically integrated centrally managed entities with fully dispatchable generating plant. Renewable power sources, distributed generation and alternative fuelled vehicles will place these power systems under additional stresses and strains due to their different operational characteristics. Energy storage and smart grid technologies are widely proposed as the tools to integrate these future diverse portfolio mixes within the more conventional power systems. The choice in these technologies is determined not only by their location on the grid system, but by the diversification in the power portfolio mix, the electricity market and the operational demands. This paper presents a high level technical and economic overview of the role and relevance of electrical energy storage and smart grid technologies in the next generation of renewable power systems.

Application of Volterra Equations to Solve Unit Commitment Problem of Optimised Energy Storage and Generation

Development of reliable methods for optimised energy storage and generation is one of the most imminent challenges in modern power systems. In this paper an adaptive approach to load leveling problem using novel dynamic models based on the Volterra integral equations of the first kind with piecewise continuous kernels. These integral equations efficiently solve such inverse problem taking into account both the time dependent efficiencies and the availability of generation/storage of each energy storage technology. In this analysis a direct numerical method is employed to find the least-cost dispatch of available storages. The proposed collocation type numerical method has second order accuracy and enjoys self-regularization properties, which is associated with confidence levels of system demand. This adaptive approach is suitable for energy storage optimisation in real time. The efficiency of the proposed methodology is demonstrated on the Single Electricity Market of Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Facile synthesis of copper-manganese spinel anodes with high capacity and cycling performance for lithium-ion batteries

Copper-manganese spinel containing anodes were synthesized by a facile sol-gel method and evaluated in lithium-ion battery applications for the first time. The synergistic effects between copper-manganese and the aqueous binder (sodium carboxymethyl cellulose) provided a high specific capacity and excellent cycling performance. It was found that the specific capacity of the copper-manganese spinel remained at 608 mAh g⁻¹ after 100 cycles at a current density of 200 mA g⁻¹. Furthermore, a relatively high reversible capacity of 278 mAh g⁻¹ could be obtained at a current density of 2000 mA g⁻¹, indicating a good rate capability. These studies suggest that copper-manganese spinel is a promising material for lithium-ion battery applications due to a combination of good electrochemical performance and low cost.

Electric Vehicles and Energy Storage: a case study on Ireland

Renewable energy is generally accepted as an important component of future electricity grids. In late 2008, the Government of the Republic of Ireland set a target of 10% of all vehicles in its transport fleet be powered by electricity by 2020. This paper examines the potential contributions Electric Vehicles (EVs) can make to facilitate increased electricity generation from variable renewable sources such as wind generation in the Republic of Ireland. It also presents an overview of the technical and economic issues associated with this target.

A Lead-Free and High-Energy Density Ceramic for Energy Storage Applications

In this work, we demonstrate a very high-energy density and high-temperature stability capacitor based on SrTiO3-substituted BiFeO3 thin films. An energy density of 18.6 J/cm3 at 972 kV/cm is reported. The temperature coefficient of capacitance (TCC) was below 11% from room temperature up to 200°C. These results are of practical importance, because it puts forward a promising novel and environmentally friendly, lead-free material, for high-temperature applications in power electronics up to 200°C. Applications include capacitors for low carbon vehicles, renewable energy technologies, integrated circuits, and for the high-temperature aerospace sector. © 2013 Crown copyright

Effect of weather and the hybrid energy storage on the availability of standalone microgrid

This paper presents a model for availability analysis of standalone hybrid microgrid. The microgrid used in the study consists of wind, solar storage and diesel generator. Boolean driven Markov process is used to develop the availability of the system in the proposed method. By modifying the developed model, the relationship between the availability of the system with the fine (normal) weather and disturbed (stormy) weather durations are analyzed. Effects of different converter technologies on the availability of standalone microgrid were investigated and the results have shown that the availability of microgrid increased by 5.80 % when a storage system is added. On the other hand, the availability of standalone microgrid could be overestimated by 3.56 % when weather factor is neglected. In the same way 200, 500 and 1000 hours of disturbed weather durations reduced the availability of the system by 5.36%, 9.73% and 13.05 %, respectively. In addition, the hybrid energy storage cascade topology with a capacitor in the middle maximized the system availability.

Work Extraction and Energy Storage in the Dicke Model

We study work extraction from the Dicke model achieved using simple unitary cyclic transformations keeping into account both a non optimal unitary protocol, and the energetic cost of creating the initial state. By analyzing the role of entanglement, we find that highly entangled states can be inefficient for energy storage when considering the energetic cost of creating the state. Such surprising result holds notwithstanding the fact that the criticality of the model at hand can sensibly improve the extraction of work. While showing the advantages of using a many-body system for work extraction, our results demonstrate that entanglement is not necessarily advantageous for energy storage purposes, when non optimal processes are considered. Our work shows the importance of better understanding the complex interconnections between non-equilibrium thermodynamics of quantum systems and correlations among their subparts.

Robustness of Damping Control Implemented by Energy Storage Systems Installed in Power Systems

An energy storage system (ESS) installed in a power system can effectively damp power system oscillations through controlling exchange of either active or reactive power between the ESS and power system. This paper investigates the robustness of damping control implemented by the ESS to the variations of power system operating conditions. It proposes a new analytical method based on the well-known equal-area criterion and small-signal stability analysis. By using the proposed method, it is concluded in the paper that damping control implemented by the ESS through controlling its active power exchange with the power system is robust to the changes of power system operating conditions. While if the ESS damping control is realized by controlling its reactive power exchange with the power system, effectiveness of damping control changes with variations of power system operating condition. In the paper, an example power system installed with a battery ESS (BESS) is presented. Simulation results confirm the analytical conclusions made in the paper about the robustness of ESS damping control. Laboratory experiment of a physical power system installed with a 35kJ/7kW SMES (Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage) was carried out to evaluate theoretical study. Results are given in the paper, which demonstrate that effectiveness of SMES damping control realized through regulating active power is robust to changes of load conditions of the physical power system.

Preparation of controlled porosity carbon-aerogels for energy storage in rechargeable lithium oxygen batteries

Porous carbon aerogels are prepared by polycondensation of resorcinol and formaldehyde catalyzed by sodium carbonate followed by carbonization of the resultant aerogels in an inert atmosphere. Pore structure of carbon aerogels is adjusted by changing the molar ratio of resorcinol to catalyst during gel preparation and also pyrolysis under Ar and activation under CO2 atmosphere at different temperatures. The prepared carbons are used as active materials in fabrication of composite carbon electrodes. The electrochemical performance of the electrodes has been tested in a Li/O2 cell. Through the galvanostatic charge/discharge measurements, it is found that the cell performance (i.e. discharge capacity and discharge voltage) depends on the morphology of carbon and a combined effect of pore volume, pore size and surface area of carbon affects the storage capacity. A Li/O2 cell using the carbon with the largest pore volume (2.195cm3/g) and a wide pore size (14.23 nm) showed a specific capacity of 1290mAh g-1.

Energy storage in electrochemical capacitors: designing functional materials to improve device performance

Electrochemical capacitors, also known as supercapacitors, are becoming increasingly important components in energy storage, although their widespread use has not been attained due to a high cost/ performance ratio. Fundamental research is contributing to lowered costs through the engineering of new materials. Currently the most viable materials used in electrochemical capacitors are biomassderived and polymer-derived activated carbons, although other carbon materials are useful research tools. Metal oxides could result in a step change for electrochemical capacitor technology and is an exciting area of research. The selection of an appropriate electrolyte and electrode structure is fundamental in determining device performance. Although there are still many uncertainties in understanding the underlying mechanisms involved in electrochemical capacitors, genuine progress continues to be made. It is argued that a large, collaborative international research programme is necessary to fully develop the potential of electrochemical capacitors.