The use of Supercapacitors in Microgrids as Hybrid Energy Storage Systems - a review

The integration of renewable energy sources together with Energy Storage Systems in microgrids has been one of the most explored emerging solutions in power systems application. In this context, batteries stand out due to their ability to support the network in many cases such as: peak shaving, voltage and frequency regulation, reactive control, etc. However, the batteries lifetime is greatly reduced by their operation mode. In this context, the application of supercapacitors is ideal in transient events in order to relieve the variations of the network, with fast response even in sudden variations of power without affect their lifetime. Thus, the application of supercapacitors with batteries, called as Hybrid Energy Storage Systems (HESS), presents itself as a viable solution capable of maximizing battery lifetime and improving system response during transient events. Once there are different engineering approaches for this issue, this paper presents a review based on the PROKNOW-C research methodology in order to systematically investigate the application of hybrid energy storage systems focused on the application of supercapacitors in microgrids.