A Review of Battery Energy Storage Systems for Residential DC Microgrids and Their Economical Comparisons

In residential DC microgrids integrated with renewable energy sources (RESs), prosumer's power generation and load demand are not matched due to inherent sporadic nature of RESs. One way to address this issue is to add an energy storage system (ESS). The ESS is useful in fluctuation suppression, load following, time shifting, peak shaving, energy saving and emergency power. Moreover, an ESS will resolve overvoltage issue in utility grids due to exported surplus energy from residential RESs. Therefore, this paper will review battery ESSs that can be used in residential DC microgrids. Three major battery chemistries, i.e. lead-acid, lithium ion (Li-ion) and Zinc bromine (ZB) are reviewed. The analysis of the levelized cost of energy reveals that lead-acid batteries are economically less competitive compared with Li-ion and ZB batteries in residential DC microgrid applications.