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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 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Roles of retailers in the peer-to-peer electricity market: A single retailer perspective

Despite extensive research in the past five years and several successfully completed and on-going pilot projects, regulators are still reluctant to implement peer-to-peer trading at a large-scale in today’s electricity market. The reason could partly be attributed to the perceived disadvantage of current market participants like retailers due to their exclusion from market participation - a fundamental property of decentralized peer-to-peer trading. As a consequence, recently, there has been growing pressure from energy service providers in favor of retailers’ participation in peer-to-peer trading. However, the role of retailers in the peer-to peer market is yet to be established as no existing study has challenged this fundamental circumspection of decentralized trading. In this context, this perspective takes the first step to discuss the feasibility of retailers’ involvement in the peer-to-peer market. In doing so, we identify key characteristics of retail-based and peer-to-peer electricity markets and discuss our viewpoint on how to incorporate a single retailer in a peer-to-peer market without compromising the fundamental decision-making characteristics of both markets. Finally, we give an example of a hypothetical business model to demonstrate how a retailer can be a part of a peer-to-peer market with a promise of collective benefits for the participants.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Forecasting distributed energy resources adoption for power systems

Failing to incorporate accurate distributed energy resource penetration forecasts into long-term resource and transmission planning can lead to cost inefficiencies at best and system failures at worst. We have developed an open-source tool that employs an advanced Bass specification to calibrate and forecast technology adoption. The advanced specification includes geographic clustering, exogenously estimated market size, and dynamic time steps. Training on historical adoption of rooftop photovoltaics at the U.S. county-level and using detailed techno-economic estimates, our model achieves a two-year average mean-absolute-percentage-error of 19% in predicting system counts at the county-level, weighted by population. Model error was negatively correlated with market maturity - the error was 12% for counties in states with at least 28 W-per-capita of installed capacity. The advanced specification significantly reduces unweighted forecasting percent error compared to a conventional Bass specification: from 196% to 25% for capacity and from 226% to 22% for system count.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Toward evaluating the effect of technology choices on linkages between sustainable development goals

Linkages between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have sparked research interest because a better understanding of SDG co-benefits may enable faster progress on multiple sustainability fronts. However, SDG linkages are typically analyzed without considering the technologies used to implement a primary SDG, which may have secondary effects on other SDGs. Here, we outline an approach to study this problem by connecting the industries and services required to produce a technology to the United Nations SDG indicator framework, using SDG7 and four energy technologies as an illustrative case. We find that all technologies in our set involve potential co-benefits with SDGs 1, 8–10, 12–13, and 17, and trade-offs with SDGs 6, 8–9, 11–12, and 14–15. Deployment services primarily induce co-benefits; manufacturing has mixed impacts. Our work sheds light on the technology characteristics (e.g., scale, high- or low-tech) that influence linkages while also pointing to SDG-relevant characteristics not captured by UN indicators.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Approximate Dynamic Programming With Enhanced Off-Policy Learning for Coordinating Distributed Energy Resources

Herein this paper proposes an innovative approximate dynamic programming (ADP) method for distributed energy resource coordination with the loss of life of battery energy storage system (BESS) explicitly modeled. The dispatch policy is designed to account for both calendrical and cyclical aging effects on BESS, explicitly modeling the impacts of ambient temperature on BESS lifespan. The proposed ADP employs an adaptive critic method and enhanced off-policy deterministic policy gradient (DPG) strategy, addressing the limitations of the on-policy gradient-based ADP approaches, including inadequate exploration, low data usage, and computational complexity. In particular, a customized policy is proposed to guide the algorithm to explore some promising decisions and thereby improve exploration capability and learning efficiency compared to conventional DPG-based learning approaches, which may struggle to find a global optimum due to random noisy action-based exploration or require expert demonstration with extra effort. The proposed method is illustrated using the IEEE 123-node system and compared with the existing ADP methods to prove solution accuracy and demonstrate the effects of incorporating degradation models into control design. Case studies showed that the proposed ADP effectively coordinates DERs with a 10 times smaller optimization gap compared to existing methods, and the incorporation of the BESS life loss model ensures the expected lifespan and results in significant cost savings.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

NETL’s Perspective on Storage Efficiency and CO2-SCREEN

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) by separating it from anthropogenic emissions sources before atmospheric release and storing that CO2 in deep geologic reservoirs. CCS is a powerful method for reducing anthropogenic CO2 which can ultimately diminish the effects of climate change. Prospective CO2 storage resource is the amount of carbon dioxide that can be stored in a given geologic formation typically given as a mass (e.g., metric tons). Obtaining accurate estimates of CO2 storage resources is necessary for governments and industries to make energy-related policy decisions. Researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) under the Department of Energy (DOE) developed a methods and a tool [CO2-SCREEN (Storage prospeCtive Resource Estimation Excel aNalysis) to estimate prospective carbon storage resources for saline formations, unconventional shale formations, and residual oil zones. The methods and tool provide CO2 storage and efficiency outputs in the form of probability estimates (i.e. P10 and P90) as well as partitioning storage and efficiency estimates based on storage mechanism (total, free phase, sorbed phase, and dissolution phase). This presentation will focus on how storage efficiency is calculated based on numerical modeling efforts, how it’s applied in the storage methods and tool, and then highlighting needs for future development.

Hanson, Angela Goodman↗
DOE OSTI2023

Local and utility-wide cost allocations for a more equitable wildfire-resilient distribution grid

Climate-induced extreme weather conditions make electricity infrastructure more vulnerable. They increase the risk of power-line-ignited wildfires which can, in turn, jeopardize electric power delivery. Here, leveraging machine learning, we show that lower-income communities in California not only have lower fractions of power distribution lines undergrounded, but overhead lines and poles in their neighbourhoods are also more vulnerable to wildfires. Should they bear the cost of undergrounding fire-prone lines themselves, they would have to pay a disproportionately higher cost per household. We propose a cost allocation scheme with an income threshold below which the cost is borne by utility-wide ratepayers and above which the cost is borne locally. This scheme can not only minimize the average of undergrounding costs per household as a share of income, but also homogenize such cost–income ratios across communities. Furthermore, our research demonstrates the opportunity to appropriately integrate existing policies to make electricity infrastructure affordable, equitable and reliable amidst climate change.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Development of new baseline models for U.S. medium office buildings based on commercial buildings energy consumption survey data

Building energy estimation for the building sector under various scenarios are needed for building energy regulation and policy making. This often starts with representative baselines (either empirical baseline or modeled baseline). Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) data is a widely used empirical baseline for U.S. commercial buildings, but none of the existing baseline model are developed to represent the CBECS data. This paper aims to develop new baseline models for the U.S. medium office buildings, which can produce modeled baselines consistent with the CBECS data. Here, we introduced the methodology to create baseline models and the criteria to evaluate the performance of baseline models. The methodology consists of three phases: (1) identification of model inputs, (2) model calibration, and (3) model validation with uncertainty analysis. The evaluation index is the coefficient of variation of the root-mean-square deviation (CV(RMSD)) of site energy use intensities (EUIs) between the modeled baseline and empirical baseline. Then 30 new baseline models for two vintages (pre- and post-1980) and 15 climate zones were created. The evaluation shows that the CV(RMSD) is lower than 0.05 for the modeled baselines produced by the new baseline models. As a comparison, the CV(RMSD) is higher than 0.1 for the existing modeled baselines generated by DOE Commercial Reference Building Models. Further analysis shows that the new baseline models are able to capture the uncertainties of the representative features of existing buildings.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Capacity Markets for Transactive Energy Systems

Capacity markets provide important incentives for resource adequacy in electricity markets and may become more important for providing sufficient revenue and generation capacity with changes to energy market prices driven by increasing levels of zero marginal cost resources. However, current capacity market designs also have important shortfalls that may limit the benefits they can provide to the future grid. Current capacity markets are primarily designed for participation from conventional thermal generators, but markets are evolving with increasing levels of variable renewable energy resources. However, further reforms may be necessary to enable more participation from DERs and demand-side resources. To understand the benefits and shortfalls of current capacity market design, we review the historical reasons electricity markets have needed capacity markets or capacity payments for resource adequacy, and how current capacity market designs may create challenges for incorporating increasing levels of DERs and demand-side resources. We then consider how transactive systems, which allow the coordination of bids and offers for DERs and demand-side resources through a market interaction approach, administered by a Distribution System Operator (DSO), can address traditional resource adequacy problems due to inelastic consumer demand. We also consider the need for a DSO-level capacity market in helping to meet resource adequacy, reliability, and other electricity market objectives. We find that because the missing money in electricity markets is largely driven by incentives to meet resource adequacy goals, and the bulk grid would always supply power to the DSO, that resource adequacy is unlikely to be a determining factor in the need for a DSO-level capacity market. Many current reliability problems could also be addressed by the incorporation of more flexible demand enabled with transactive energy systems. However, other DSO objectives, including resilience, reactive power, voltage control, environmental policies, and energy equity could lead to specific challenges that could be aided by a DSO-level capacity market. We consider the possibility of a DSO-level capacity market in addressing these challenges as well as its potential role in coordinating with the Independent System Operator (ISO) who operates the wholesale market. We conclude with suggestions for future research, including the need to develop analytical models of DSO-level capacity market designs to address these potential objectives and examine their implications for DSOs and consumers.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Home Energy Professionals Certifications ISO/IEC 17024: 2021 Policies and Procedures Manual

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) enlisted its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to coordinate the development of a framework for new certifications in the weatherization and home performance industry. The Home Energy Professional certifications support DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and the broader residential home performance industry through the credentialing process of defined job task analysis for energy auditors and quality control inspectors. The HEP certifications are not intended to supplant or infringe upon any existing industry-recognized credentials, however, the WAP and the home performance industry have utilized the advanced HEP certifications to promote quality work and standardized job task analysis since 2010. On an ongoing basis, NREL brings industry practitioners and subject matter experts together to develop, review, and revise the certification schemes in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 17024 standard, "Conformity assessment - General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons" (ISO/IEC 17024). This handbook covers the policies and procedures for the process of developing, maintaining, and validating the certification schemes. Each policy and procedure includes the relevant ISO/IEC 17024 section at the beginning.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy Study (PR100) (Six-Month Progress Update) [Slides]

Puerto Rico has committed to meeting its electricity needs with 100% renewable energy by 2050, along with realizing interim goals of 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040, the phase-out of coal-fired generation by 2028, and a 30% improvement in energy efficiency by 2040, as established in Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act (Act 17). Since hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017, DOE and its national laboratories have provided Puerto Rico energy system stakeholders with tools, training, and modeling support to enable planning and operation of the electric power grid with more resilience against further disruptions. On February 2, 2022, DOE, FEMA, and six national laboratories launched the two-year Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy Study (PR100) to conduct comprehensive analysis of stakeholder-driven pathways to Puerto Rico's energy future. The robust and objective energy analysis entails five activities, with an emphasis on power system reliability, resilience, and generation planning. This presentation was delivered in a public webinar on July 21, 2022, providing a high level summary of the progress in the first six months of the study, including presentation of four initial scenario definitions based on extensive stakeholder input.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy Study (PR100)

Puerto Rico has committed to meeting its electricity needs with 100% renewable energy by 2050, along with realizing interim goals of 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040, the phaseout of coal-fired generation by 2028, and a 30% improvement in energy efficiency by 2040 as established in Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act (Act 17). To meet these goals and support widespread end-use electrification, Puerto Rico is exploring renewable energy and innovative technologies for energy storage, distributed generation, distribution control, electric vehicles, and energy efficient and responsive loads that can be deployed in each of Puerto Rico's cities and communities. Launched in February 2022, a two-year study entitled Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy (PR100) will perform a comprehensive analysis of stakeholder-driven pathways to Puerto Rico's clean energy future. This fact sheet describes the five activities this robust and objective energy analysis entails.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

A review of United States energy-only generator interconnection service policy and considerations for reform

Grid interconnection has emerged as a significant obstacle to the development of new electricity resources. There is growing interest in energy-only interconnection, which is an interconnection service option meant to allow the interconnection of new generators without ensuring their energy deliverability during all hours through the transmission system to customers. This approach potentially avoids upfront congestion-related transmission upgrades but could increase curtailment risk. Interest in energy-only interconnection is shaped by incomplete understanding of how interconnection policy functions in different jurisdictions, a knowledge gap that makes it difficult to determine how energy-only interconnection might be better used or re-designed. In this paper, we provide a regulatory review of energy-only interconnection in U.S. interconnection policy and practice, identifying jurisdictions in which rules are close to -or farther from-the theoretical concept of energy-only interconnection service. We find substantial jurisdictional differences in how energy-only interconnection is implemented, driven by differences in resource adequacy frameworks, real-time transmission operations, and state-level procurement practices. U.S. regulators have preferred local jurisdictional flexibility over federal prescription of interconnection study methods and procedures, which also contributes to differences among regions. Such findings raise fundamental questions about whether competition policies in electricity markets should extend beyond spot energy markets and into more prescriptive guidelines around interconnection rules and market entry. This paper sheds light on tensions that energy-only interconnection raises in allowing generators to access the transmission system on an as available basis and discusses how controlling thresholds for congestion-related network upgrades may be a barrier to electricity market entry.

Gorman, Will↗
DOE OSTI2025

Optimizing district energy systems under uncertainty: Insights from a case study from Washington D.C., USA

This study investigates solutions for delivering affordable heating and cooling to a brownfield site, focusing on a case study in Washington, DC. Moving towards more diverse and resilient energy systems, we identify the optimal portfolio for a district energy system with diverse energy sources to meet the area’s energy demands. Our methodological approach integrates two detailed models: one calculating building-level energy demand and the other optimizing district energy technology choices based on their demand profiles, accounting for uncertainties in energy prices, policies, and other parameters. The results provide an economic comparison of district and individual supply options at the building level, emphasizing the flexibility district systems can offer to the electricity sector. District energy systems demonstrate cost-stabilization benefits amidst volatile energy prices and external uncertainties. For heating, district systems yield significant cost savings compared to individual solutions, driven by fuel flexibility and the use of local renewable energy sources. For cooling, district systems also show advantages, though individual systems may remain more cost-effective for smaller buildings. Additionally, district systems exhibit considerable flexibility on the heating side, as evidenced by variations in electricity consumption. We recommend future research to explore the relationship between the economics of district energy systems, particularly at the building level, and their flexibility potential for the electricity sector across diverse geographic contexts to reduce overall grid costs and promote grid reliability. This includes areas with distinct zoning laws, municipal priorities, utility structures, and funding mechanisms, such as the United States, and regions like Europe with pronounced electricity price volatility.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Circular Economy for Lithium-Ion Batteries Used in Mobile and Stationary Energy Storage: Drivers, Barriers, Enablers, and U.S. Policy Considerations

As large-format battery energy storage (BES) capacity increases in the United States, so will the volume of spent lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) (Bade 2019). Estimates based on a 10-year lifetime assumption found that the volume of LiBs that have reached the end of their utility for electric vehicle (EV) applications could total two million units (four million metric tons) annually by 2040 in the United States (Richa et al. 2014; Ai and Borucki 2018). Although there is currently no publicly available decommissioning or end-of-life (EoL) projection for stationary BES systems, the U.S. energy storage market is expected to grow from an annual deployment of 523 megawatts in 2013 to 7.3 gigawatts in 2025 (Wood MacKenzie and ESA 2020; Wesoff 2020). Despite potential secondary market opportunities and the potential benefits associated with the reuse/recovery of LiB material, anecdotal evidence suggests that in the United States most decommissioned LiBs from EVs are landfilled or otherwise disposed of (Steward et al. 2019; Salim et al. 2019; CPUC 2019; DTSC 2019d; NREL 2019b; Jacoby 2019; DOE 2019). The reuse of large-format LiBs is not at commercial scale and to date consists of only a handful of U.S.-led pilot projects. Similarly, less than 5% of LiBs from EVs are sent to recycling facilities in the United States (Steward et al. 2019; Jacoby 2019; America Made 2019; Patel 2017). As awareness of current practices grows, and the demand for critical LiB materials increases, U.S. industry stakeholders, regulators, and policymakers are starting to (1) consider solutions to drive and enable environmentally sustainable materials management decisions and behaviors and (2) identify barriers to a circular economy for LiBs (Figure 1). Circular economy principles (Figure 1) attempt to transition from a “take-make-consume-dispose” linear economic system to a circular system that allows for the long life, high performance, and the reuse/recovery of products and materials (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2016). We begin this report by summarizing drivers, barriers, and enablers to a circular economy for LiBs used in mobile and stationary BES systems in the United States. We then report on our analysis of federal and state regulatory considerations that may impact the reuse/recovery and disposal of LiBs, and potential civil and criminal liabilities associated with noncompliance. We conclude by highlighting state policies and initiatives in the United States that expressly address reuse/recovery and disposal of large-format LiBs. Our results are based on legal and literature-based research and interviews with mobile and stationary BES industry stakeholders, regulators, and policymakers. While this report addresses stationary BES, as well as mobile BES, much of the information and experience with LiB decommissioning and EoL material management is derived from the increasing management of spent EV LiBs in the United States.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Consumer Benefits of Clean Energy: Energy Efficiency

Meeting national and state decarbonization goals requires a transition to clean energy technologies. Energy efficiency, demand flexibility, renewable energy and storage can reduce consumers’ electricity bills, lower total electricity system costs, and provide health and resilience benefits. Berkeley Lab developed a series of briefs that explore these consumer benefits of a clean energy transition. This brief focuses on energy efficiency benefits, and builds on prior analysis from Berkeley Lab’s Cost of Saved Energy database. We show that energy efficiency remains a low-cost energy and capacity resource; the levelized cost of saving energy for the programs included in the analysis is $\$0.02$/kilowatt-hour and the cost of saving peak demand is less $\$120$/kilowatt. Understanding the impact of the program mix, portfolio size, and duration of implementation for customer-funded energy efficiency portfolios can guide regulatory oversight of these programs, help utilities better utilize energy efficiency as a resource, and inform building energy decarbonization policies.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗