A brief discussion is presented regarding the current development and applications of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) from the recent achievements in both the academic research and commercial sectors. It is reviewed the architecture of BESS, the applications in grid scale and its benefits of implementing it in power systems. BESS can help to improve the penetration levels of RES (renewable energy resources), and it is listed some of the most relevant application where BESS plays an important role. Also, it is summarized the criteria used to assess the environmental impacts of BESS and how it is compared with conventional units. Finally, some study cases are presented and where BESS have been tested.

This paper compares the potential for building energy saving of various passive and active strategies and on-site power generation through a grid-connected solar photovoltaic system (SPVS). The case study is a student welfare unit from a university campus located in the tropical climate (Aw) of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The proposed approach aims to identify the most effective energy saving strategy for building retrofit in this climate. For this purpose, we modeled the base line of the building and proposed energy saving scenarios that were evaluated independently. All building simulations were done in OpenStudio-EnergyPlus, while the on-site power generation was carried out using the Homer PRO software. Results indicated that the incorporation of daylighting controls accounted for the highest energy savings of around 20% and 14% in total building energy consumption, and cooling loads, respectively. Also, this strategy provided a reduction of about 35% and 43% in total building energy consumption, and cooling loads, respectively, when combined with triple low-e coating glazing and active measures. On the other hand, the total annual electric energy delivered by the SPVS (output power converter) was 66,590 kWh, from where 48,497 kWh was supplied to the building while the remaining electricity was injected into the grid.

In this paper, the energy performance of a university campus in a tropical climate is assessed, and four mixed classroom buildings are compared using benchmarking methods based on simple normalization: the classic Energy Use Intensity (EUI), end-used based EUI, and people-based EUI. To estimate the energy consumption of the case studies, building energy simulations were carried out in EnergyPlus using custom inputs. The analysis found that buildings with more classroom spaces presented higher energy consumption for cooling and lighting than others. In comparison, buildings with a greater percentage of laboratories and offices exhibited higher energy consumption for plug loads. Nevertheless, differences were identified when using the people-based EUI since buildings with larger floor areas showed the highest values, highlighting the impact of occupant behavior on energy consumption. Given the fact that little is known about a benchmark range for university campuses and academic buildings in hot and humid climates, this paper also provides a comparison against the EUIs reported in the literature for both cases. In this sense, the identified range for campuses was 49–367 kWh/m${}^2$/year, while for academic buildings, the range was 47–628 kWh/m${}^2$/year. Overall, the findings of this study could contribute to identifying better-targeted energy efficiency strategies for the studied buildings in the future by assessing their performance under different indicators and drawing a benchmark to compare similar buildings in hot and humid climates.

This paper shows the technical–economic, operational and environmental feasibility of four off-grid hybrid power systems to supply energy to the Cerrito de los Morreños community in Ecuador. These configurations consist of combinations of diesel generators, solar photovoltaic systems, and battery energy storage systems. Each configuration was simulated and the results were analyzed for two different load conditions: (1) the existing load profile and (2) a reduced load profile by incorporating an energy efficiency initiative. Homer Pro software was used to perform the simulations. The planning horizon for the simulations was selected to be 15 years. The results showed the diesel/photovoltaic/battery configuration with energy efficiency showed the best performance, which was achieved with a photovoltaic system of 160 kWp, the existing generator of 165 kW and a storage system of 283 kWh. The stand-alone diesel generator and photovoltaic/diesel configurations showed higher Net Present Costs, instability problems and higher CO₂ emissions. Additionally, the configurations without energy efficiency had increases of between 15% and 40% higher costs compared to their respective energy-efficient scenarios. The information in this work could be useful for some organizations in Ecuador who are interested in investing in rural electrification projects with renewable energy to reduce and/or compensate their CO₂ emissions.