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Battery Energy Storage and Wind Energy
Integrated into the Smart Grid
Matthew Clayton Such, Member, IEEE, Cody Hill, Member, IEEE
Abstract— Innovations in electricity infrastructure of today’s
Smart Grid will allow distributed renewable resources to provide
transmission level support when combined with new energy
storage technology. The modernization of the existing grid
requires the implementation of controls and communication
architecture that are capable of coordinating as available
resources such as wind generation, energy storage and loads in
order to improve the efficient and economic operation of the
electric power distribution system. Integration of energy storage
systems into the Smart Grid can manage the real power
variability of wind generation by providing ramp rate variation
control and frequency regulation via droop control response.
These control features drastically increase reliability of the Smart
Grid, enables more effective grid management.
Operational issues raised by the variability and high ramping
characteristics of wind generation can be mitigated with the
integration of battery energy storage systems. This paper
presents several control methodologies for battery energy storage
systems. Results are discussed particularly with respect to
developing better insight into the dynamic performance of such
resources and how to manage problems associated with the
viability in real power output of wind generation.
Index Terms—Battery Energy Storage Systems, Smart Grid,
Wind Energy, Renewables, Rate Variation, Frequency Control.
I. INTRODUCTION
W Ind energy is among the fastest growing sources of
electric power today, driven in part by the adoption of
renewable portfolio standards (RPS) in many states.
Increasing the penetration of wind power generation supports
such varied goals as promoting energy independence, reducing
the country’s reliance on foreign fuels, and reducing
smokestack pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. A major
drawback of wind energy is its inherently intermittent nature,
an issue which the power grid could handle when renewable
energy sources were mostly a novelty, but which poses
significant challenges today in regions where large quantities
of wind resources are being developed [1]. Battery energy
storage systems (BESS) are being used in several utility-scale
projects to help integrate wind power into the grid in a variety
of challenging locations. Battery energy storage systems
Manuscript received July 20, 2011. This work was supported in part by
Xtreme Power Systems of Kyle, TX.
C. A. Hill is with the University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712 USA (phone:
512-820-9621; e-mail: chill@xtremepower.com).
M. C. Such is with the Xtreme Power Systems, Kyle, TX 78640 USA
(phone: 512-789-5790; e-mail: csuch@xtremepower.com).
978-1-4577-2159-5/12/$31.00 ©2011 IEEE
provide a single solution to a variety of problems that plague
wind farm developers, and are capable of providing voltage
and frequency support in the face of fluctuating generation.
Battery energy storage systems are comprised of batteries,
power electronics for conversion between alternating and
direct current, and the control system. The batteries convert
electrical energy into chemical energy for storage. Different
types of battery chemistries have various advantages and
tradeoffs in terms of power and energy capabilities, size,
weight, and cost. In large grid-tied applications, the most
common batteries are typically Sodium-sulfur, Lead-Acid, or
Lithium-Ion chemistries. Various other chemistries have been
used in pilot projects and laboratory tests, a reference
discussing different electrochemistries is found in [2]
Batteries are charged and discharged using DC power, which
must be converted by a bi-directional power electronic
interface.
The power electronic interface is often referred to as a
power conversion system (PCS). The PCS regulates the flow
of power between batteries and the power grid, and can
respond to a changing power command on sub-cycle
timescales, far faster than typical peaking thermal plants. The
power electronics are capable of taking independent control
signals for real and reactive power on the AC side of the PCS,
which enables the BESS to provide power factor and voltage
support functions. This function is referred to as four quadrant
operation, and can eliminate the need for such system
components as capacitor banks at the point of interconnection
of the wind plant and the grid.
Wind power’s inherent intermittency poses challenges in
terms of power quality and reliability. Weather events can to
increase wind generation from negligible levels to maximum
output in a very short periods of time. Wide-area weather
related output fluctuations can be strongly correlated in a
given geographical area, which means that a set of wind
turbine generators interconnected on the same transmission
line can have very volatile real power flows. The resulting
output fluctuations can adversely affect the grid in the form
and voltage sags if steps are not taken to quickly counteract
the change in generation. In small power systems, frequency
can also be adversely affected by sudden changes in wind
generation. BESS, whether located at the wind plant or
distributed along a feeder, can provide power quickly in such
scenarios so as to minimize disturbances [3]. With the right
control schemes, grid-scale BESS can mitigate the above
challenges while improving system reliability and improving
the economics of the renewable resource, thus providing a true
Smart Grid solution to the integration of distributed renewable
energy sources to the 21st century grid.

This paper describes the operation and control
methodologies for a grid-scale BESS designed to mitigate the
negative impacts of wind integration, while improving overall
power distribution system efficiency and operation. The
fundamentals of wind power integration and BESS technology
are presented below, followed by specific considerations in the
control features of wind plants coupled BESS installations.
The wind-coupled BESS systems described in this paper
utilize the XP-Dynamic Power Resource (XP-DPR), a
megawatt-scale integrated BESS developed for renewable
energy applications, manufactured by Xtreme Power in Kyle,
TX.
II. WIND POWER INTEGRATION
Undesirable impacts on the grid will be felt as
windpenetration levels increase, both by the utilites and the
customers of electric retail service. Wind generation is
growing more prevalent in the Smart Grid and wind
generation is a key element in the global move toward
increased use of renewable energy. In the U.S., increased
pervasiveness in wind generation capacity is being driven, in
part, by targets established under the auspices of the
Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) [4]. Renewable
Portfolio Standards are now on the law books of 30 states, as
well as in various nations in Europe, Asia, and South America.
These regulations require the increased development and
adoption of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar,
small hydro, and geothermal energy for electricity generation.
Many in the renewable energy community consider these
regulations a vital support for the increased development of
clean energy sources, and credit them with helping to move
new technologies down the development curve towards
making them cost competitive with fossil fuels.
Much of the new renewable energy slated to come on-line is
certain to come from wind, a relatively mature technology
benefitting from decades of research, development, and
commercial installation experience. Wind is an inexhaustible
Fig. 1 Hourly wind generation and load on a power system [5]
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resource in some locations, capable of generating electricity
with no fuel cost or associated air pollution. The total
installed wind capacity is on track to surpass 200GW
worldwide in 2011. For comparison, a very large coal or
nuclear power facility is typically on the order of 1GW.
The major challenge of wind integration is often related to
transporting power to cities and factories from the remote
locations where wind power is often most abundant. Even
when transmission capacity is available, wind power can place
stresses on the power system due to its intermittency. Figure
1Fig. 1 depicts wind speeds and power system load over the
course of a two-week period, and shows that there is often not
a desirable correlation between wind and system load. On a
small power system, such as those of the Hawaiian islands,
such large fluctuations can be beyond the ramping capabilities
of the diesel generators that currently supply upwards of 90%
of the island’s electricity. Wind power fluctuations could
result in deviations in frequency and voltage, and even
blackouts in severe cases when the wind resources are located
on small, remote power systems. BESS can address these
issues, charging and discharging at sub-second timescales to
buffer changes in the wind and the state of the transmission
system. To meet the 40% RPS chosen by the people of
Hawaii, the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) has instated
requirements in their power purchase agreements with
renewable energy developers that effectively necessitate
energy storage at most large generation sites.
III. ESS CONTROL FEATURES TO ENABLE HIGHER WIND
PENETRATION LEVELS
A. Rate Variation Control
During wind-coupled operation, the BESS must counteract quick
changes in output power to ensure that the facility delivers ramp rates
deemed acceptable to the system operator. Allowable ramp rates are
typically specified by the utility in kilowatts per minute (kW/min),
and are a common feature of new wind power purchase agreements
between utilities and independent power producers.
Fig. 2. Ramp Control Ramp Control and Voltage Regulation High
Level Block Diagrams High Level Block Diagrams

Fig. 3. Example of wind smoothing via rate variation control
Note that the ramp rate refers only to real power, and that
the reactive power capabilities of the BESS can be dispatched
simultaneously and independently to achieve other power
system goals.
Ramp rate control (or equivalently rate variation control)
and it is intended to be applied for smoothing real power
fluctuations from an associated wind park. It also can operate
to produce or consume VArs for the purpose of voltage
regulation as a secondary function but the primary function is
ramp rate control of the real power output of a wind park.
Positive power out of the DPR discharges the battery and
injects power into the network while negative power out
charges the battery and absorbs power from the network
Figure 3 depicts the operation of a BESS smoothing the
volatile power output of a wind farm. This behavior translates
to a significant reduction in wear and tear on the diesel
generators supplying the rest of the grid, and helps the thermal
units maintain power balance and the system electrical
frequency. It is typically the case that the specifics of the
thermal units on the system will be a major factor in
determining the allowable ramp-rates for the wind asset.
Ramp-rate variation control is often referred to as smoothing.
Changes in the wind park MW output will cause an
immediate and opposite change in the BESS output. Factors
that can limit the real power output include the maximum
power generation/absorption of the BESS, battery state of
charge, BESS current limit and bus voltage magnitude.
One important factor that needs to be considered when
implementing a power variability control, is keeping the
battery at an appropriate level of charge. The power output of
a wind farm does not necessarily consist of an equal number
of upward and downward deviations, so the battery could have
a tendency to discharge or charge outside of its desired
operating range. In order to avoid this, a biasing algorithm is
included as part of the ramp control algorithm.
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B. Frequency Response
Even with ramp-rate control, there are still going to be
occasional frequency deviations on the system. By limiting
the ramp rates of power from the Wind/BESS combination,
other generators have an easier task in matching generation to
load in real-time. The result is improved frequency regulation
on the power system, even with large intermittent generation
assets present.
In extreme events, such as a loss of generation or large
load on the system, there are going to be frequency deviations.
The power output of the BESS is programmed to respond to
frequency deviation in a manner similar to the droop control
that is commonly installed on AGC equipped thermal
generation units [6]. Equation 1 characterizes the frequency
droop response behavior of a thermal unit with a governor
using proportional control with a gain of 1/R, where R is
expressed as a percentage. Equation 2 uses the computed
Percent R to determine the real power response to a frequency
event, with units of kilowatts.
(1)
(2)
where is steady-state speed at no load, is steady-
state speed at full load, and is the nominal or rated speed of
the generator. In the BESS controller, this control function
generates a new kilowatt command for the PCS every 10
milliseconds, ensuring considerably improved frequency
stability on island power systems.
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IV. CONCLUSION VI. BIOGRAPHIES

Integration of energy storage systems into the Smart Grid to
manage the real power variability of wind generation by
providing rate variation control can optimize the benefits of
wind resources. Using the BESS to frequency regulation via
droop control response reduces integration challenges
associated wind generation. Coupling wind generation and
storage will drastically increase reliability of the Smart Grid,
enables more effective grid management, and creates a
dispatchable power product from as-available resources. The
rapid-response characteristic of the BESS makes storage
especially valuable as a regulation resource and enables it to
compensate for the variability of wind generation. Battery
energy storage systems can also improve the economics of
distributed solar power generation by reduced need for cycle
traditional generation assets and increasing asset utilization of
existing utility generation by allowing the coupled wind
generation and BESS to provide frequency regulation services.
Matthew Clayton Such received a B.S. ECE degree from The University of
Texas at Austin and is a part-time graduate student in Mechanical Engineering
at the University of Texas at Austin.
He is a Principal Engineer at Xtreme Power Systems. He is responsible
for design, validation, and maintenance of controls systems in XP products,
specifically the large scale storage products. Primary focus on Control and
Systems functions improvements and development.
Cody Hill is a Power Systems/Controls Engineer for Xtreme Power in Kyle,
TX, and works primarily on the design of control systems for battery energy
storage systems in renewable energy applications. He is also a part-time
graduate student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of
Texas at Austin. He received the B.S. ECE degree from the University of
Missouri, Kansas City.

V. REFERENCES
[1] J. Eyer and G. Corey, (2010, Feb.) “Energy Storage for
the Electricity Grid” Sandia Nat’l Labs Publications
[Online]. Available:
http://www.sandia.gov/ess/publications/pubslist_05.html
[2] Energy Storage Association, Technology Comparisons
[Online] Available:
http://www.electricitystorage.org/ESA/technologies/
[3] N. Miller, D. Manz, J. Roedel, P. Marken, and E.
Kronbeck, “Utility scale battery energy storage systems”
in Proc. IEEE Power Energy Soc. Gen. Meeting,
Minneapolis, MN, Jul. 2010.
[4] J. Eyer and G. Corey, (2010, Feb.) “Energy Storage for
the Electricity Grid” Sandia Nat’l Labs Publications
[Online]. Available:
http://www.sandia.gov/ess/publications/
pubslist_05.html
[5] U.S. DOE - "20% Wind Energy by 2030", July 2008.
[6] P. Kundur, Power System Stability and Control, New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1994, pp. 589-594