Guest editorial: energy storage in smart grids

Abstract

Energy storage systems and smart grids cooperation is now crucial and will encourage collaborative engagement by different players in the energy market, offering sophisticated management and control approaches. Therefore, new advances and innovative solutions for such cooperation are of preeminent importance. Moreover, electric mobility should also be considered in this scenario. Electric vehicles (EVs) can be seen as distributed energy storage systems that generally need to be charged but, in some cases, can be adopted to support the grid thanks to vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-for-grid (V4G) modes, offering advantages of controlled operation with active or reactive power. So, energy storage systems can be distinguished into aggregated and distributed structures, and they can be based on different technologies, such as batteries, fuel-cells, and super-capacitors. Furthermore, the integration of new renewable energy solutions with energy storage systems in smart grids should also be promoted. Power and energy management are crucial for the upcoming challenges and novel opportunities in smart grids. In line with this trend, this Special Issue aims to present further research on and developments in energy storage systems in smart grids, including power electronics converters, novel modulation schemes, energy and power management strategies, advanced battery packs and Battery Management Systems (BMSs). Novel renewable energy solutions are also of interest, as well as their cooperative and strategic integration with storage and EV chargers. Advanced EV services, such as V2G and V4G in the perspective of contributions to improve power quality, can also be considered. Three main topics can be found in this Special Issue: power electronic converters, converter and machine modelling and lithium-ion battery packs. In the following section, the papers accepted per each topic will be rapidly summarized along with their main achievements.