Battery energy storage systems have gained increasing interest for serving grid support in various application tasks. In particular, systems based on lithium-ion batteries have evolved rapidly with a wide range of cell technologies and system architectures available on the market. On the application side, different tasks for storage deployment demand distinct properties of the storage system. This review aims to serve as a guideline for best choice of battery technology, system design and operation for lithium-ion based storage systems to match a specific system application. Starting with an overview to lithium-ion battery technologies and their characteristics with respect to performance and aging, the storage system design is analyzed in detail based on an evaluation of real-world projects. Typical storage system applications are grouped and classified with respect to the challenges posed to the battery system. Publicly available modeling tools for technical and economic analysis are presented. A brief analysis of optimization approaches aims to point out challenges and potential solution techniques for system sizing, positioning and dispatch operation. For all areas reviewed herein, expected improvements and possible future developments are highlighted. In order to extract the full potential of stationary battery storage systems and to enable increased profitability of systems, future research should aim to a holistic system level approach combining not only performance tuning on a battery cell level and careful analysis of the application requirements, but also consider a proper selection of storage sub-components as well as an optimized system operation strategy.

For reliable lifetime predictions of lithium-ion batteries, models for cell degradation are required. A comprehensive semi-empirical model based on a reduced set of internal cell parameters and physically justified degradation functions for the capacity loss is developed and presented for a commercial lithium iron phosphate/graphite cell. One calendar and several cycle aging effects are modeled separately. Emphasis is placed on the varying degradation at different temperatures. Degradation mechanisms for cycle aging at high and low temperatures as well as the increased cycling degradation at high state of charge are calculated separately. For parameterization, a lifetime test study is conducted including storage and cycle tests. Additionally, the model is validated through a dynamic current profile based on real-world application in a stationary energy storage system revealing the accuracy. Tests for validation are continued for up to 114 days after the longest parametrization tests. The model error for the cell capacity loss in the application-based tests is at the end of testing below 1% of the original cell capacity and the maximum relative model error is below 21%.

Due to their decreasing cost, lithium-ion batteries (LiB) are becoming increasingly attractive for grid-scale applications. In this paper, we investigate the use of LiB for providing secondary reserve and show how the achieved cost savings could be increased by using model-based optimization techniques. In particular, we compare a maximum use dispatch strategy with two different cost-minimizing strategies. For the estimation of state-dependent battery usage cost, we combine an existing electro-thermal LiB model of a mature lithium-iron-phosphate battery cell with corresponding semiempirical calendar and cycle aging models. We estimate the benefit of storage operation from the system operator's point of view by gauging the avoided cost of activated reserve. Our evaluation is based on two years worth of data from the German reserve market. The proposed cost minimizing dispatch strategies yield significantly better results than a dispatch strategy that maximizes battery utilization.