With the increase of power generation from renewable energy sources and due to their intermittent nature, the power grid is facing the great challenge in maintaining the power network stability and reliability. To address the challenge, one of the options is to detach the power generation from consumption via energy storage. The intention of this paper is to give an overview of the current technology developments in compressed air energy storage (CAES) and the future direction of the technology development in this area. Compared with other energy storage technologies, CAES is proven to be a clean and sustainable type of energy storage with the unique features of high capacity and long-duration of the storage. Its scale and cost are similar to pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS), thus CAES has attracted much attention in recent years while further development for PHS is restricted by the availability of suitable geological locations. The paper presents the state-of-the-art of current CAES technology development, analyses the major technological barriers/weaknesses and proposes suggestions for future technology development. This paper should provide a useful reference for CAES technology research and development strategy.

Power generation from renewable energy has become more important due to the increase of electricity demand and pressure on tough emission reduction target. This has brought great impact on grid reliable operation. Wind curtailment often happens when grid can not accommodate more wind power. Various solutions are under investigation and energy storage (ES) is one of the recognized potential ways forward. Among all the ES technologies, Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) has demonstrated its unique merit in terms of scale, sustainability, low maintenance and long life time. The paper is to provide an overview of the current research trends in CAES and also update the technology development.

With the number of wind farms connected to the power system increasing rapidly, the impact of wind power generation system on power grid system stability is becoming increasingly prominent. Especially when the power grid has transient fault, there will be problems such as reverse power flow, large-area power failure of wind farm and so on. This will directly lead to the power system instability and seriously affect the power grid security and stability. Especially in the stage of voltage recovery after the fault is eliminated, the low-voltage fault of the power grid might lead to a sharp rise in the voltage of power grid and overvoltage on the high-voltage line connected to the power grid with wind farm, resulting in the disconnection of the wind power grid connected system. However, China’s current standards do not specify the high-voltage crossing of wind power grid connected system, especially the high-voltage crossing detection device, detection method and detection procedure. Therefore, it is urgent to study the detection technology of wind power high voltage crossing and put forward the detection method. There are many reasons for high-voltage power grid fault, and the interaction between power grid and inverter is more complex in high-voltage fault. If the type test method is used to simulate various high-voltage fault conditions in power system and carry out the test and study on the HVRT( high voltage ride through) performance of wind turbine, the human and material cost is huge and there are many potential safety hazards. At the same time, the grid connection performance of wind turbines are largely related to the control strategy of the controller. Therefore, the semi physical simulation method can be used to research the HVRT detection technology of wind turbine. This can effectively avoid the safety problem of large current and high voltage in the primary circuit, and realize the physical connection between the real controller and the flexible high voltage fault platform model through hardware in the loop simulation. It can simulate the wind turbine capability of high-voltage ride through under various high-voltage fault conditions. It not only has low test cost, but also can deeply study the interaction between power grid and power grid.

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