Energy storage systems: A review of its progress and outlook, potential benefits, barriers and solutions within the Malaysian distribution network

To ensure access towards an affordable and clean energy for all, the Malaysian government has tabled the National Energy Policy in 2022 which further addresses the energy trilemma challenges and investment objectives on environmental, social and governance (ESG) core values. While Malaysia sets its target to achieve 18 % of total primary supply only relying on renewable energy sources, it is expected that there will be an energy mismatch between supply and demand within the network due to the stochastic behavior of weather dependent renewable energy sources (RES) such as solar PV. Hence, energy storage system (ESS) delivers a better solution with its capability to perform power regulation or as a storage unit to manage with the intermittent generation from existing renewable sources. Therefore, this review outlines the prospect and outlook of first and second life lithium-ion energy storage in different applications within the distribution grid system which aligns with the policies present in Malaysia. This paper also highlights both technical and non-technical reviews on both energy storage technologies. Evidently, the outcome of the paper shows that the application of energy storage exhibits better performance along with the integration of renewable energy sources as compared to the present technology in the Malaysian grid system. In addition, second-life lithium-ion batteries with 80 % of remaining capacity could potentially elevate the present economic value of ESS within its service lifetime. •Overview of the progress and outlook of energy storage adoption on both new and second life energy storage in Malaysia.•Potential benefits of energy storage in terms of economic cost or reliability within the Malaysian distribution network.•Barriers and challenges on the deployment of energy storages within the Malaysian grid system.•Potential research of energy storage interactions in grid applications between supply and demand within the Malaysian distribution network.