Microgrid Energy Storage System Standards

The prosperity of microgrids and distributed energy resources (DER) promotes the standardization of multiple technologies. A sound and applicable standard system will facilitate the development of renewable energy and provide great guiding significance for technology globalization.

For instance, in the first microgrid standard IEEE 1547.4, the electrical energy storage (EES) is solely regarded as a type of DER to be regulated without specific technical requirements. However, energy storage devices have gradually become a critical part of microgrid in terms of planning and operation stages [42, 43].

This paper provides a critical review of the existing energy storage technologies, focusing mainly on mature technologies. Their feasibility for microgrids is investigated in terms of cost, technical benefits, cycle life, ease of deployment, energy and power density, cycle life, and operational constraints.

Microgrids are small-scale energy systems with distributed energy resources, such as generators and storage systems, and controllable loads forming an electrical entity within defined electrical limits. These systems can be deployed in either low voltage or high voltage and can operate independently of the main grid if necessary .

Thus, many international microgrid standards are still being developed, several standards are on-going drafting by IEEE and IEC organization, such as self-regulation of dispatchable loads, monitoring and control systems, energy management systems and use case design.

With regard to the off-grid operation, the energy storage system has considerable importance in the microgrid. The ESS mainly provides frequency regulation, backup power and resilience features.