Energy Storage Technologies: The Past and the Present

With the recent advances in the field of applications which require a certain power level over a short period of time and with the air-quality constraints which have become more stringent in the last few decades, the energy storage systems (ESSs) have come to play a crucial role for the electric grid. Various aspects such as the historical evolution of ESSs, technical characteristics, and applications for the ESSs are thoroughly addressed. Special emphasis is given to the interaction between the smart grid (SG) and microcrogrids applications, on the one hand, and the ESSs, on the other hand. Thus, the main goal of this work is to present the specialist and nonspecialist review of the most important ESSs currently available on the market.