Engineering topics

Marinovici, Maria C.

Publications and source records attributed to Marinovici, Maria C..

13 records

DOE OSTI2016

Diagramming Transactive Building Business Cases: Using Principles of e3 Value to Document Valuation Studies

Energy management in buildings is becoming more transactive. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Office recently defined innovative use cases wherein market-like mechanisms are used to manage energy within buildings, between buildings, and between buildings and third-party entities, such as power utilities. A next step toward defining a set of transactive use cases in the buildings domain is to carefully diagram the corresponding business cases to capture details of transactions among all stakeholders and their economic value propositions. The principles of e3-value diagramming are applied in this report toward creating business value diagrams. These principles are extended to be consistent with Universal Modeling Language use-case diagrams. Example diagrams are presented for a subset of buildings-domain use cases that were introduced in an earlier Pacific Northwest National Laboratory report. The diagrams are intended to clearly represent an understanding of the transactions through which individual entities accumulate value in their respective use cases, and the diagrams should therefore support economic valuation studies. The report reviews some of the foundational principles of e3 value and includes authors’ insights concerning the formulation of these diagrams using Universal Modeling Language as a more systematic modeling approach.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2016

ADMS State of the Industry and Gap Analysis

An Advanced distribution management system (ADMS) is a platform for optimized distribution system operational management. This platform comprises of distribution management system (DMS) applications, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), outage management system (OMS), and distributed energy resource management system (DERMS). One of the primary objectives of this work is to study and analyze several ADMS component and auxiliary systems. All the important component and auxiliary systems, SCADA, GISs, DMSs, AMRs/AMIs, OMSs, and DERMS, are discussed in this report. Their current generation technologies are analyzed, and their integration (or evolution) with an ADMS technology is discussed. An ADMS technology state of the art and gap analysis is also presented. There are two technical gaps observed. The integration challenge between the component operational systems is the single largest challenge for ADMS design and deployment. Another significant challenge noted is concerning essential ADMS applications, for instance, fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR), volt-var optimization (VVO), etc. There are a relatively small number of ADMS application developers as ADMS software platform is not open source. There is another critical gap and while not being technical in nature (when compared the two above) is still important to consider. The data models currently residing in utility GIS systems are either incomplete or inaccurate or both. This data is essential for planning and operations because it is typically one of the primary sources from which power system model are created. To achieve the full potential of ADMS, the ability to execute acute Power Flow solution is an important pre-requisite. These critical gaps are hindering wider Utility adoption of an ADMS technology. The development of an open architecture platform can eliminate many of these barriers and also aid seamless integration of distribution Utility legacy systems with an ADMS.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2016

Influential Aspects of the Smart City

Using millions of sensors in everyday objects, smart cities will generate petabytes of data, and it will be delivered to multiple users via networks. Multi-disciplinary inter-operability is essential. We propose system engineering management, with multidisciplinary teams as an effective way to deliver real change. Their goal is to develop intelligent and integrated services through the use of digital technologies and open collaboration. We also caution that the process cannot be entirely planned ahead of time, it must be allowed to evolve. New technology will change the game (where does a 3-D printer fit into a smart city?). Municipal planning means central planning – not known for its sensitivity to reality. A successful smart city will include lots of feedback mechanisms for the citizenry.

collaboration↗

DOE OSTI2015

How Well Can We Estimate Areal-Averaged Spectral Surface Albedo from Ground-Based Transmission in an Atlantic Coastal Area?

Areal-averaged albedos are particularly difficult to measure in coastal regions, because the surface is not homogenous, consisting of a sharp demarcation between land and water. With this difficulty in mind, we evaluate a simple retrieval of areal-averaged surface albedo using ground-based measurements of atmospheric transmission alone under fully overcast conditions. To illustrate the performance of our retrieval, we find the areal-averaged albedo using measurements from the Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) at five wavelengths (415, 500, 615, 673, and 870 nm). These MFRSR data are collected at a coastal site in Graciosa Island, Azores supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. The areal-averaged albedos obtained from the MFRSR are compared with collocated and coincident Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) white-sky albedo at four nominal wavelengths (470, 560, 670 and 860 nm). These comparisons are made during a 19-month period (June 2009 - December 2010). We also calculate composite-based spectral values of surface albedo by a weighted-average approach using estimated fractions of major surface types observed in an area surrounding this coastal site. Taken as a whole, these three methods of finding albedo show spectral and temporal similarities, and suggest that our simple, transmission-based technique holds promise, but with estimated errors of about ±0.03. Additional work is needed to reduce this uncertainty in areas with inhomogeneous surfaces.

Kassianov, Evgueni I.↗

DOE OSTI2014

Customer Engagement in AEP gridSMART Residential Transactive System

— In 2013, AEP Ohio (AEP) operated a 5-minute real-time price (RTP) electricity market system on 4 distribution feeders as part of their gridSMART® demonstration project. The RTP households were billed for their electricity usage according to an RTP tariff approved by the Public Utility Commission of Ohio. They were given the incentive that their annual bill would be no greater than if they were on the flat-rate tariff, but they had financial incentives to shift consumption from high price periods to low price periods. Incentives were also available for response under high prices from local events, such as reaching the distribution feeder capacity or a critical peak pricing event. An analysis of this transactive system experiment was completed in early 2014. This paper describes the incentive provided to the customer, the nature of their interaction with the smart thermostat that provided automated response to the transactive signal, and their level of satisfaction with the program.

Widergren, Steven E.↗

DOE OSTI2014

Visualizations for Real-time Pricing Demonstration

In this paper, the visualization tools created for monitoring the operations of a real-time pricing demonstration system that runs at a distribution feeder level are presented. The information these tools provide gives insights into demand behavior from automated price responsive devices, distribution feeder characteristics, impact of weather on system’s development, and other significant dynamics. Given the large number of devices that bid into a feeder-level real-time electricity market, new techniques are explored to summarize the present state of the system and contrast that with previous trends as well as future projections. To better understand the system behavior and correctly inform decision-making procedures, effective visualization of the data is imperative.

Marinovici, Maria C.↗

DOE OSTI2014

Residential Transactive Control Demonstration

Arguably the most exciting aspect of the smart grid vision is the full participation of end-use resources with all forms of generation and energy storage in the reliable and efficient operation of an electric power system. Engaging all of these resources in a collaborative manner that respects the objectives of each resource, is sensitive to the system and local constraints of electricity flow, and scales to the large number of devices and systems participating is a grand challenge. Distributed decision-making system approaches have been presented and experimentation is underway. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a residential demand response demonstration that uses the bidding transactions of supply and end-use air conditioning resources communicating with a real-time, 5 minute market to balance the various needs of the participants on a distribution feeder. The nature of the demonstration, the value streams being explored, and the operational scenarios implemented to characterize the system response are summarized along with preliminary findings.

demand response, dynamic pricing, distributed reso↗

DOE OSTI2014

AEP Ohio gridSMART Demonstration Project Real-Time Pricing Demonstration Analysis

This report contributes initial findings from an analysis of significant aspects of the gridSMART® Real-Time Pricing (RTP) – Double Auction demonstration project. Over the course of four years, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) worked with American Electric Power (AEP), Ohio and Battelle Memorial Institute to design, build, and operate an innovative system to engage residential consumers and their end-use resources in a participatory approach to electric system operations, an incentive-based approach that has the promise of providing greater efficiency under normal operating conditions and greater flexibility to react under situations of system stress. The material contained in this report supplements the findings documented by AEP Ohio in the main body of the gridSMART report. It delves into three main areas: impacts on system operations, impacts on households, and observations about the sensitivity of load to price changes.

Widergren, Steven E.↗

DOE OSTI2014

The Hidden Job Requirements for a Software Engineer

In a world increasingly operated by computers, where innovation depends on software, the software engineer’s role is changing continuously and gaining new dimensions. In commercial software development as well as scientific research environments, the way software developers are perceived is changing, because they are more important to the business than ever before. Nowadays, their job requires skills extending beyond the regular job description posted by HR, and more is expected. To advance and thrive in their new roles, the software engineers must embrace change, and practice the themes of the new era (integration, collaboration and optimization). The challenges may be somehow intimidating for freshly graduated software engineers. Through this paper the authors hope to set them on a path for success, by helping them relinquish their fear of the unknown.

Marinovici, Maria C.↗

DOE OSTI2013

The Many Faces of a Software Engineer in a Research Community

The ability to gather, analyze and make decisions based on real world data is changing nearly every field of human endeavor. These changes are particularly challenging for software engineers working in a scientific community, designing and developing large, complex systems. To avoid the creation of a communications gap (almost a language barrier), the software engineers should possess an ‘adaptive’ skill. In the science and engineering research community, the software engineers must be responsible for more than creating mechanisms for storing and analyzing data. They must also develop a fundamental scientific and engineering understanding of the data. This paper looks at the many faces that a software engineer should have: developer, domain expert, business analyst, security expert, project manager, tester, user experience professional, etc. Observations made during work on a power-systems scientific software development are analyzed and extended to describe more generic software development projects.

agile methodologies↗

DOE OSTI2013

Technology Readiness for the Smart Grid

Reluctance to adopt new technology into a utility application is understandable, given the critical nature of the infrastructure and the less-than-ideal experiences of some power companies. The authors of this paper have considered adapting the NASA approach of classifying technology readiness, but find it not quite appropriate because NASA was both the developer and the eventual user of the new technology it was evaluating, whereas a utility is ordinarily in the mode of a customer, acquiring a new product from a manufacturer. Instead of a generic scale of technology readiness, a scale of readiness is proposed specifically for the smart grid, based on the many standards that exist for the relevant technologies. In this paper we present an overall structure for organization those standards. The acceptance of new technology is organized into five SGL (Smart Grid Level) steps, numbered five through 9 to correspond approximately to the last five numbers of the NASA TRL scale. SGL 5 is a certification that the hardware and software of the technology is safe for the system into which is intended to be placed. SGL 6 is documentation that the system is safe for itself, and will have adequate reliability. It is thus clear that the steps differ from NASA’s TRL in that technology development is not required, the transition is more one of documenting already existing system readiness. Since SGL 6 describes a system that is safe for the power system and for itself, it should not be restricted from being in a pilot-scale study, and achieving SGL 7. A larger-scale demonstration in a realistic environment will demonstrate interoperability and achieve SGL 8. Only when systems are installed and operating, and when disposal plans are in place will the designation of fully operable at SGL 9 be granted.

Kirkham, Harold↗

DOE OSTI2013

Modeling Power System Operation with Intermittent Resources

Electricity generating companies and power system operators face the need to minimize total fuel cost or maximize total profit over a given time period. These issues become optimization problems subject to a large number of constraints that must be satisfied simultaneously. The grid updates due to smart-grid technologies plus the penetration of intermittent re- sources in electrical grid introduce additional complexity to the optimization problem. The Renewable Integration Model (RIM) is a computer model of interconnected power system. It is intended to provide insight and advice on complex power systems management, as well as answers to integration of renewable energy questions. This paper describes RIM basic design concept, solution method, and the initial suite of modules that it supports.

Marinovici, Maria C.↗

DOE OSTI2013

Engineering Quality while Embracing Change: Lessons Learned

In an increasingly complex technical environ-ment, failure is accepted as a way of maximizing potential, a way of growing up. Experience can be utilized to improve designs, advance product maturity, and at the same time, can increase team’s training and education. It is not enough to understand the development tools to ensure a project’s success. Understanding how to plan, measure, communicate, interact, and work in teams is mandatory to make a project successful. A manager cannot enforce a process of good communication between team members. Project teams have to work together in supporting each other and establish a constant communication environment. This paper presents lessons learned during the development process of operations research software. The team members have matured and learned during the process to plan successfully, adapt to changes, use Agile methodologies, and embrace a new attitude towards failures and communication.

Marinovici, Maria C.↗