In light of the increasing penetration of single-phase loads and generation in the power system, voltage unbalance issues are expected to exacerbate. Single-phase connected photovoltaic (PV) panels may cause unequal three-phase power flows, resulting in unbalanced grid currents and voltages. In addition, the random charging behaviour of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) equipped with single-phase on-board chargers is expected to further contribute to voltage unbalance rise as the number of these devices grows. If voltage unbalance increases to unacceptable levels, it may have adverse effects on power system operation and on the equipment connected to it. Traditionally, the phase swapping technique has been deployed by distribution system operators for voltage unbalance mitigation, while other mitigating techniques include the deployment of power electronics-based devices. The majority of the devices reported in the literature are based on three-phase configurations, including series and parallel active power filters, unified power quality conditioners (UPQCs), static synchronous compensators (STAT-COMs) and, more recently, three-phase distributed generation (DG) inverters.This research proposes the use of single-phase battery energy storage systems (BESSs) for the provision of phase balancing services, which has been considered only in a few literature works, with most of these research papers focusing on three-phase BESSs. In this thesis, a novel control strategy is proposed for single-phase BESS units to compensate voltage unbalance by injecting both active and reactive power simultaneously. The proposed approach is based on the coordinated operation of three independent single-phase BESS inverters using local voltage and current measurements.Initially, a comprehensive literature review is performed with the following aims: a robust classification of the ancillary services currently offered by BESSs, harmonisation of the notation found in the literature for ancillary services, and identification of potential future applications of BESSs to power grids with large number of Low Carbon Technologies (LCTs). Then, the effectiveness of the proposed voltage unbalance compensation method is validated in the simulation environment, where two realistic models of distribution systems are developed. Next, the impact of increasing PV and EV penetration levels on voltage unbalance for a typical UK distribution system is assessed based on a deterministic approach. The control strategy is validated experimentally by carrying out Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) tests. Finally, an equivalent model of the distribution system and BESS inverter is derived, which allows to carry out a preliminary probabilistic study to cater for the uncertainties related to the location and size of the PVs and EVs, and to evaluate the voltage unbalance levels without and with the BESSs controlled to provide voltage unbalance compensation.It is concluded that the proposed BESS control system may effectively reduce the voltage unbalance levels under...