Investigation on the operation of VRB-ESS

Abstract

With the societal developments, there is a rapid increase in demand for energy and all countries face a serious problem of electric energy shortage. Most of the electric energy we use is produced by expending different resources such as coal, petroleum and natural gas. In order to deal with the electric energy shortage and reduce the growing environmental stress, more and more researchers are devoted to finding better ways to harness renewable energy. There are various limitations of traditional measures to deal with the problem such as reliability, robustness, efficiency, etc. Energy storage systems can solve most of the limitations and VRB is considered as one of the viable options in large scale energy storage. In this report, the operational characteristics of a VRB have been studied. Further, the study includes history, types, both advantages and disadvantages, electrochemistry, and construction. A battery emulator is used to conduct experiments to study the battery characteristics and the data is used to prove that it can behave like a typical VRB. These results are helpful for a thorough investigation on the operation of VRB-ESS.