Building Resilience – The Role of Storage in Integrated Energy Networks

The rapid integration of variable renewable energy and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events are challenging the stability of modern power systems. In response, Integrated Energy Networks (IENs)—which couple electricity, heat, gas, and transport sectors—are emerging as a key pathway to higher efficiency, flexibility, and deep decarbonization. However, this growing interdependency also exposes IENs to new vulnerabilities arising from both chronic volatility and acute disruptions. As a result, energy resilience—the ability of an energy system to withstand, adapt to, and recover from disturbances—has become a central objective. Energy storage technologies are fundamental to this goal. Across chemical, electrochemical, mechanical, and thermal forms, storage provides the critical buffer and operational flexibility that IENs require. It supports resilience across timescales, from sub-second frequency regulation to hourly and daily balancing, seasonal energy shifting, and islanded operation during outages.This Research Topic explores the pivotal, multi-faceted role of energy storage in transforming IENs from efficient yet fragile systems into resilient, adaptive infrastructures, addressing key technological, economic, and planning challenges. Integrated Energy Networks are inherently vulnerable to a growing spectrum of disruptions—from the intrinsic variability of wind and solar resources to extreme weather events and cyber-physical threats. These risks undermine system reliability and pose a critical barrier to large-scale renewable energy utilization and carbon neutrality. While the necessity of energy storage for resilience is widely recognized, a significant knowledge gap persists in systematically quantifying, optimizing, and deploying storage within the multi-vector, interconnected context of IENs. Current approaches often treat storage in isolation or prioritize single objectives such as cost minimization, failing to capture its full potential for enhancing system-wide resilience against diverse, concurrent threats. This Research Topic aims to bridge this gap by soliciting research that develops and applies holistic frameworks and tools for storage-centric resilience in IENs. We seek contributions that:- Quantify Resilience: Define metrics, indicators, and models to assess how different energy storage technologies and portfolios mitigate specific IEN vulnerabilities.- Optimize Integration: Develop co-design, planning, and operational strategies for siting, sizing, and operating diverse storage technologies (e.g., batteries, thermal storage, hydrogen, mechanical storage) across multiple energy vectors and fluctuating renewable sources.- Validate Solutions: Present case studies, digital twins, or pilot projects that demonstrate storage-enabled resilience in real-world or high-fidelity simulated IENs.The goal is to move beyond conceptual recognition toward actionable methodologies, enabling the transition of IENs into truly resilient and sustainable infrastructure that supports affordable and clean energy, robust infrastructure, and climate action.This Research Topic focuses on the strategic integration of energy storage as a resilience-enabling asset within multi-vector IENs. Specific themes include:1. Resilience Metrics & ModelingNovel frameworks and tools for quantifying the impact of energy storage on IEN reliability, survivability, service continuity, and system restoration under multi-hazard conditions.2. Multi-Objective PlanningCo-optimization of storage sizing, siting, and technology portfolios for resilience, economic performance, and decarbonization, including life-cycle and techno-economic assessments in complex scenarios.3. Grid-Forming & IslandingControl and protection strategies for storage systems to provide grid-forming capabilities, maintain stability, and enable autonomous operation, islanding, and black-start during and after outages.4. Multi-Energy Storage SynergiesCoordination and joint operation of electrical, thermal, mechanical, and chemical (e.g., hydrogen and other renewable fuels) energy storage across coupled infrastructures to enhance flexibility and resilience.5. Policy & Market DesignsRegulatory frameworks, market mechanisms, and business models that recognize, value, and incentivize the resilience services provided by energy storage in integrated and renewables-dominated systems.We welcome original research articles, review papers, case studies, and perspective papers. Techno-economic analyses, life-cycle assessments, simulation-based and digital-twin studies, and methodological frameworks that advance the development, implementation, and assessment of energy storage technologies and systems within Integrated Energy Networks are highly encouraged. Topic editors: Zhi-Feng Liu, Ling-Ling Li, Haotian Liu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77111/building-resilience---the-role-of-storage-in-integrated-energy-networks