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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,801 records · Page 100

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DOE OSTI2017

Computing an operating parameter of a unified power flow controller

A Unified Power Flow Controller described herein comprises a sensor that outputs at least one sensed condition, a processor that receives the at least one sensed condition, a memory that comprises control logic that is executable by the processor; and power electronics that comprise power storage, wherein the processor causes the power electronics to selectively cause the power storage to act as one of a power generator or a load based at least in part upon the at least one sensed condition output by the sensor and the control logic, and wherein at least one operating parameter of the power electronics is designed to facilitate maximal transmittal of electrical power generated at a variable power generation system to a grid system while meeting power constraints set forth by the electrical power grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2018

Creating a Virtual Utility District: Assessing Quality and Building Energy Impacts of Microclimate Simulations

Buildings in China, India, the United States (US), and United Kingdom (UK) consume 39-45% of each nation's primary energy with fast-growing countries like India projected to use 76% of their primary energy by 2040. In the United States, 73% of all electricity is consumed by buildings. In an effort to better operate electrical grids, needs exist to generate improved load models by better understanding and quantifying weather impacts and microclimate effects on building-specific energy use throughout a city.Scalable methods have been created to allow urban-scale energy modeling – to identify and synthesize a fully-articulated building energy model for every building in an area of interest. This was applied to the 1,385 km2 utility district serviced by the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, TN. Each building is simulated on the world’s 4th-fastest supercomputer, Titan, using the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s flagship whole-building simulation tool, EnergyPlus, to analyze relationships among climatic conditions, urban morphology, land cover, and energy use. The Weather Research Forecast (WRF) model was scaled on several High Performance Computing (HPC) resources to simulate microclimate variation under different urban morphologies. We analyze the differences between WRF-based microclimate simulations and measured weather station data. This information is then used to quantify impact of microclimate variation and variable-specific meteorological variables on the electrical consumption for individual buildings and show impacts at the scale of a utility district.

New, Joshua↗

DOE OSTI2018

A Reduced-Order Aggregated Model for Parallel Inverter Systems with Virtual Oscillator Control: Preprint

This paper introduces a reduced-order aggregated model for parallel-connected inverters controlled with virtual oscillator control (VOC). The premise of VOC is to modulate inverter dynamics to emulate those of nonlinear oscillators with the goal of realizing a stable ac microgrid in the absence of communication, synchronous generation, or a stiff grid. To obtain a reduced-order model for a system of parallel-connected inverters with VOC, we first formulate a set of scaling laws that describe how the controller and filter parameters of a given inverter depend on its voltage and power rating. Subsequently, we show that N parallel inverters which adhere to this scaling law can be modeled with the same structure and hence the same computational burden of the model of a single inverter. The proposed aggregate model is experimentally validated on a system of three parallel inverters with heterogeneous power ratings.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2019

Grid Mix Explorer Version 4

The NETL Grid Mix Explorer allows users to browse regional electricity grid mixes and resulting generation and consumption life cycle inventory and impact data, as well as configure customized mixes of technologies and results. Data is aggregated to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Market Regions (10) or Balancing Authority Area (BA) region (68). This generation mix represents the amount of electricity produced by each power plant type in that region. Note that this can be different than the mix that the region actually uses for electricity (consumption mix). The consumption mix includes the net imports from the various BAs into the selected region. Finally, the tool provides a comparison of the generation and consumption mixes of each of the subregions. As noted above, there can be a significant differences between the two, and the consumption mix is a more accurate reflection of the electricity actually being consumed in an area.

Source record↗

DOE OSTI2020

2018 Renewable Energy Grid Integration Data Book

The 2018 Renewable Energy Grid Integration Data Book identifies the status, key trends, challenges, and solutions of renewable energy grid integration in a highly visual format. It provides an overview of selected key grid integration metrics that represent complex interactions among generation characteristics, market rules, and environmental and safety factors, which may vary by geography, season, and time of day; and the data book presents metrics that either indicate how much variable renewable energy (VRE) is currently being integrated onto the grid or measure factors that may increase or decrease the challenges associated with integrating VRE generation onto the grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2021

Impact of DER Communication Delay in AGC: Cyber-Physical Dynamic Co-Simulation: Preprint

Distributed energy resource (DER) frequency regulations are promising technologies for future grid operation. Unlike conventional generators, DERs might require open communication networks to exchange signals with control centers, possibly through DER aggregators; therefore, the impacts of the communication variations including the latency on the system frequency stability need to be investigated. This paper develops a cyber-physical dynamic simulation (CPDS) model based on the Hierarchical Engine for Large-Scale Co-Simulation (HELICS) to evaluate the impact of the communication variations, such as delays in DER frequency regulations. The feasible delay range can be obtained under different AGC parameter settings. The results show that the risk of instability generally increases with the communication delay and that the difference of AGC provided from DER and conventional generation units should be recognized when designing frequency regulation controllers.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Progress on Optimizing Wind Farms and Rotor Designs Using Adjoints

Modern wind plants are increasingly tasked with multiple performance objectives. In addition to designing plants that maximize power output and minimize the levelized cost of energy (LCOE), the design and operation of wind plants is increasingly influenced by challenges regarding grid integration of variable generation renewables. This places a growing emphasis on making wind plants more controllable and predictable. WindSE is a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model designed around analytical gradient and adjoint methods, with the ability to capture terrain-induced effects, as shown in Figure 1. The recent addition of an unsteady solver with an actuator line method (ALM) and ongoing work to enable massively parallel optimizations gives it a unique niche to explore coupled plant-level controls and design problems. This code is an open source python package built on the FEniCS framework that utilizes fast, parallel PETSc solvers to model fluid flow throughout wind-farm scale domains. Two recent studies performed using WindSE demonstrate the capability to optimize under a wide variety of flow conditions and objective functions. In the first, we present an optimization focused on modifying the layout of a wind farm with a fixed number of turbines for maximum total power output [1]. This study highlights the ability to quickly perform simulations using the steady Navier-Stokes solver combined with rotors represented as actuator disks while also stressing the importance of capturing terrain-induced effects. Gradient-based optimization using the RANS equations is viable due to the inclusion of efficiently computed adjoint derivatives. We interpret the physical results of the optimal layout and also discuss the computational cost of scaling to larger problems. In the second study, we present the capabilities of the unsteady Navier-Stokes solver, where rotor-blade profiles represented by actuator lines are optimized to enhance wake steering effects and overall power production [2]. We quantify the wind plant performance gains obtained from this type of simultaneous control co-design optimization as compared to optimizing the blade design and yaw independently. Figure 2 shows the differences between a baseline two-turbine system and an optimized system where we fine-tune the blade chord profile. Results and challenges from each study are quickly summarized and used to motivate the current development efforts within WindSE. Current and future work is focused on enabling higher-resolution studies with more degrees of freedom through parallelization of both the simulation and optimization algorithms. We present benchmarking results to show that WindSE performs well in both weak- and strong-scaling tests and further demonstrate that the optimizer obtains the same convergence rates in both shared- and distributed-memory environments. Using larger wind farms, we can study deep-array effects within an optimization context, allowing the use of objective functions that have been previously unstudied. As an example, we present ongoing work on a blockage metric which characterizes the loss of available kinetic energy due to wake effects from multiple upstream turbines.

adjoint optimization↗

DOE OSTI2022

Case Study: Hybridizing Nuclear Energy Systems in the U.S.

This case study was presented at the ICTP-IAEA VIRTUAL Course on Nuclear-Renewable Integrated Energy Systems: Phenomenology, Research and Development. It provides preliminary results on an analysis of hybridizing the two nuclear power plants owned by Xcel Energy and located in Minnesota. The analysis extends previous analyses that provided only price-taker results. Those assume adjusting the generation sold to the grid does not impact locational marginal electricity prices nor do they estimate impacts on the total net cost to serve the load. This presentation summarizes the new technique that was developed to both optimize the size and operations of the hybridized system and the resulting impacts on the grid when it is operated optimally.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2016

Decommissioning of NPP in Europe? Strategies, Risks and Opportunities - 16124

This paper offers a strategic perspective on the rapidly developing European nuclear decommissioning scene, with a particular focus on the German market. We will identify a number of strategic themes that might be interesting to international companies practicing in decommissioning. The market size and valuation has received attention in several studies published in the last three years due to political concerns surrounding the funding of decommissioning. This paper will focus mainly on the decommissioning and decontamination (D and D) of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), commercially operated reactors generating electricity for power grids. There is also a substantial developing market also in D and D of fuel cycle facilities, research reactors and military production sites. However, they represent a rather different technical and financial challenge so will not be explored here. Further, we also restrict our geographic scope to European Union members and Germany in particular, to ensure our observations offer specific value. Our principal contention is that the German national industry holds too little capacity to fully undertake its own decommissioning program; leading to a conclusion that the European program as a whole will require significant support from international companies. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2025

A Rapid Procedure Development Approach for Multi-stage Validation of Novel Nuclear Power Plant Systems

The integration of renewable energy sources into the modern grid introduces variability in generation, challenging nuclear reactors to remain economically viable amid low wholesale electricity prices. To address this, Idaho National Laboratory?s Flexible Plant Operation and Generation program explores alternative revenue streams, including commoditizing excess thermal energy. A Thermal Power Dispatch (TPD) system enables steam extraction from the secondary loop for industrial uses like hydrogen production via high-temperature steam electrolysis.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Vulnerability Studies Under EMP: Impedance and PCI Testing of the Grid Control Devices

Control devices such as inverters and generator controllers are critical for the stable operation of the power grid, especially for power stability control and power dispatch. However, the Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) is a potential threat to electronic devices in modern power grids, therefore decreasing the power grid resilience and bringing unrecoverable damages to the devices. To reveal the impact mechanism of the EMP, impedance and Pulse Current Injection (PCI) testing is established to study the vulnerability of the grid control devices. The impedance of the grid control devices is accurately measured using impedance analyzers with different frequency ranges. Then the voltage and current responses are tested based on the PCI testing. The vulnerability experiments based on two grid control devices are carried out. And the comparison results reveal that most ports would be damaged under EC8, and some ports can survive under EC5 according to the calculated PCI response and cumulative energy. The results can provide a reference for the future design of control devices and the strategic resilience of power grids.

Qiu, Wei↗

DOE OSTI2018

Columbia University Synthetic Power Grid with Geographical Coordinates

The following data set is generated based on the statistical properties of the US Western Interconnection. This data set consists of four tables, each contained in a single comma-delimited CSV file. The files contain the data regarding the buses and lines in the synthetic network generated based on the topology of the Western Interconnection (WI) power grid.

synthetic data↗

DOE OSTI2018

Columbia University Synthetic Power Grid with Geographical Coordinates

Soltan, Saleh↗

DOE OSTI2024

Leveraging Existing Assets for Long Duration Energy Storage

Increased renewables penetration to electrical grid is necessary to reduce overall emissions from the electrical power generation sector. Nonetheless, its integration creates challenges to grid operators who must match the power being generated by intermittent renewables and other traditional energy sources with the demand from consumers, while ensuring the reliability and power quality for the entire system. Energy storage has been proposed as an alternative to natural gas peaking plants and a form to deliver excess renewable energy generation at times of peak demand. For energy storage to provide benefits to end customers (energy consumers), it must be reliable, efficient, and cost effective. The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), one of the surveys that integrate the Prairie Research Institute (PRI), aims to develop a Center for Energy Storage at Existing Assets (CESEA) at UIUC with the participation of Waste Pressure Corp and Ecotek Engineering USA LLC. CESEA will focus on LDES systems that can integrate to existing infrastructure in a manner that reduces the initial capital expenditure and demonstrates the ability to repurpose fossil assets that would otherwise become stranded, to serve the energy transition. CESEA aims to leverage UIUC’s unique facilities to validate LDES systems performance at a relevant operating environment. UIUC’s facilities include a 85-MW combined heat and power (CHP) power plant, two (2) solar PV plants totaling over 18 MWdc of installed capacity, an electrical grid along with a substation at transmission and distribution voltages, a 22-mile gas pipeline network operating at two pressure levels, along with steam and chilled water distribution networks. The new LDES systems will connect to the existing UIUC grid through a new test electrical station, which will have the capacity to accommodate additional connections to test new devices and technologies as part of future CESEA R&D activities. The test electrical station will contain meters, instrumentation, and controls to accurately capture data and allow optimization of control algorithms. CESEA will initially focus on technologies that: i) utilize existing equipment or facilities to perform at least one of the process steps in LDES (charging, storage, or discharging), ii) leverage mature or commercially available components or controls, iii) show potential for cost-leadership in 10+ hour storage at a commercial scale. Initial technologies that were identified to meet these criteria include Compressed Gas Energy Storage (CGES), and TES. CGES stores electricity by raising the pressure of a compressible gas inside a control volume and converting the stored energy to electricity via expansion-generation. CGES is a generalization of CAES that covers any working gas (not just air). A successful CGES demo will help to circumvent many challenges faced by CAES (long development times due to site prospecting, high cost of compression and storage, heat recovery management, etc.) by: 1) utilizing existing infrastructure (compressors, pipelines, underground storage or pressure vessels) used in the transportation and storage of industrial gases for LDES charging and storage; 2) deploying over sites already-developed for industrial applications with minor additional work; 3) leveraging the price structure of commercial industrial gas to cover the costs of electricity used during charging. A previous DOE-sponsored conceptual study (DE-FE-0032018) estimated the levelized cost of energy of a 1.1 MW / 17 MWh CGES system at $0.08/kWh, with a commercial 10x scale system cost estimated at <$0.04/kWh (Giardinella, 2022). The pilot-sized system was estimated to avoid up to 2693 tons of CO2/year.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2014

A treatment planning approach to spatially fractionated megavoltage grid therapy for bulky lung cancer

The purpose of this study was to explore the treatment planning methods of spatially fractionated megavoltage grid therapy for treating bulky lung tumors using multileaf collimator (MLC). A total of 5 patients with lung cancer who had gross tumor volumes ranging from 277 to 635 cm{sup 3} were retrospectively chosen for this study. The tumors were from 6.5 to 9.6 cm at shortest dimension. Several techniques using either electronic compensation or intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) were used to create a variety of grid therapy plans on the Eclipse treatment planning system. The dose prescription point was calculated to the volume, and a dose of 20 Gy with 6-MV/15-MV beams was used in each plan. The dose-volume histogram (DVH) curves were obtained to evaluate dosimetric characteristics. In addition, DVH curves from a commercially available cerrobend grid collimator were also used for comparison. The linear-quadratic radiobiological response model was used to assess therapeutic ratios (TRs) and equivalent uniform doses (EUD) for all generated plans. A total of 6 different grid therapy plans were created for each patient. Overall, 4 plans had different electronic compensation techniques: Ecomps-Tubes, Ecomps-Circles, Ecomps-Squares, and Ecomps-Weave; the other 2 plans used IMRT and IMRT-Weave techniques. The DVH curves and TRs demonstrated that these MLC-based grid therapy plans can achieve dosimetric properties very similar to those of the cerrobend grid collimator. However, the MLC-based plans have larger EUDs than those with the cerrobend grid collimator. In addition, the field shaping can be performed for targets of any shape in MLC-based plans. Thus, they can deliver a more conformal dose to the targets and spare normal structures better than the cerrobend grid collimator can. The plans generated by the MLC technique demonstrated the advantage over the standard cerrobend grid collimator on accommodating targets and sparing normal structures. Overall, 6 different plans showed 6 different dosimetric parameters. However, an optimal grid therapy plan selection from among these 6 types requires more information from clinical trials and radiobiological studies.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

DOE OSTI2017

Virtual Inertia: Current Trends and Future Directions

The modern power system is progressing from a synchronous machine-based system towards an inverter-dominated system, with a large-scale penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs) like wind and photovoltaics. RES units today represent a major share of the generation, and the traditional approach of integrating themas grid following units can lead to frequency instability. Many researchers have pointed towards using inverters with virtual inertia control algorithms so that they appear as synchronous generators to the grid, maintaining and enhancing system stability. Our paper presents a literature review of the current state-of-the-art of virtual inertia implementation techniques, and explores potential research directions and challenges. The major virtual inertia topologies are compared and classified. Through literature review and simulations of some selected topologies it has been shown that similar inertial response can be achieved by relating the parameters of these topologies through time constants and inertia constants, although the exact frequency dynamics may vary slightly. The suitability of a topology depends on system control architecture and desired level of detail in replication of the dynamics of synchronous generators. We present a discussion on the challenges and research directions which points out several research needs, especially for systems level integration of virtual inertia systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Tracking the PACE of household energy usage: Energy usage impacts of projects financed through Property Assessed Clean Energy programs in California

This report examines the household-level energy impacts of residential property assessed clean energy (R-PACE) projects using normalized metered energy consumption methods. Our analysis covers projects that occurred through an R-PACE program between 2009 and 2017 and includes more than 25,000 electricity meters and 15,000 gas meters. We employ a comparison group, drawn from other R-PACE households with similar locational and usage characteristics whose projects were implemented at different times, to control for some non-project and non-weather factors that may impact energy use. We find that projects consisting of energy efficiency technologies save, on average, about 3% of household electricity usage and 3.5% of household gas usage. R-PACE financing, however, can be used to install central heating or air conditioning equipment for the first time. These projects would be expected to increase energy consumption. Since our data do not directly indicate which projects are new installations, we develop a simple algorithm for identifying them. Removing these inferred installation projects yields average savings of about 5% for electricity and 6% for gas for those households that remain in the sample. Given the mild California climate and the results of another study of similar California projects using similar methods, these results are in line with expectations. Solar PV projects yield large reductions in grid electricity use, averaging 69% of household consumption. We estimate that, collectively, all R-PACE projects installed in California through 2019 would generate annual reductions in grid-tied electricity consumption of 506 GWh (mostly due to solar PV) and gas consumption reductions of 2 million therms in a normal weather year. These impacts are equivalent to the electricity consumption of about 74,000 California households (including both efficiency and PV generation) and the gas consumption of about 4700 California households.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2022

Low-Cost Sulfur Thermal Storage for Increased Flexibility and Improved Economics of Fossil-Fueled Electricity Generating Units (Final Report)

The US electric grid relies on conventional fossil fuel power plants for reliable and secure power, but these plants suffer from physical and financial strain due to the influx of inexpensive and variable solar and wind electricity. Conventional power plants need to generate electricity flexibly and on-demand to accommodate these renewable resources on the grid. Integrating a low-cost thermal energy storage (TES) gives fossil assets the ability to regulate their output efficiently and optimize the plant operation to maximize revenue in the wholesale electricity market. Element 16’s TES concept uses sulfur, a byproduct of the oil & gas industry, as the storage media that is 10 times cheaper than molten salt used in commercial two-tank TES technology. In this project, the team completed a detailed feasibility and technoeconomic study establishing the impact, cost and performance of molten sulfur TES system integrated with fossil assets.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

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