Abstract
Ocean energy plays essential roles in reducing carbon footprint and transforming towards carbon neutrality, with cleaner power production, whereas the vertical cascade ocean energy systems with spatiotemporal power supply characteristics might lead to fluctuated power frequency, disruptive disturbance and grid shock. Hybrid renewable energy dispatch, coordinated demand-side management, and electrical energy storages for grid ancillary services provision with different response time-durations are effective solutions to integrate ocean energy with stable and grid-friendly operation. This study is to review advanced ocean energy converters with thermodynamic, hydrodynamic, aerodynamic, and mechanical principles. Power supply characteristics from multi-diversified ocean energy resources are analysed, with intermittency, fluctuation, and spatiotemporal uneven distribution. Hybrid ocean energy storages with synergies are reviewed to overcome the intermittency and provide grid ancillary services, including pumped hydroelectric energy storage, ocean compressed air energy storage, and ocean hydrogen-based storage in different response time durations. Applications of diversified ocean energy systems for coastal residential communities are reviewed, with energy management and controls, collaboration on multi-carrier energy networks. Furthermore, application of artificial intelligence is reviewed for sustainable and smart ocean energy systems. Results indicated that, effective strategies for stable and grid-friendly operations mainly include complementary hybrid renewable system integrations, synergies on hybrid thermal/electrical storages, and collaboration on multi-carrier energy networks. Furthermore, depending on the geographical location, flexible on-shore and off-shore installation of transformers can provide large-scale ocean energy system integrations for long-distance transmission, with low transmission losses, low resistive losses, and simple system configuration. Research results can provide a heuristic overview on ocean energy integration in smart energy systems, providing alternatives for solar and wind energy resources and paving path for the carbon-neutrality transition.