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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 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Puerto Rico Demand Response Impact and Forecast Tool (PR-DRIFT) - Beta Version [Slides]

Due to high fossil fuel imports, high electricity rates, an unreliable electricity grid, and 100% renewable electricity goals, demand response can play a crucial role for the Puerto Rico electricity grid. The Puerto Rico Demand Response Impact and Forecast Tool (PR-DRIFT) is a spreadsheet-based tool in which users can estimate the potential impacts of demand response, energy efficiency, and VRE and storage adoption in Puerto Rico from 2021 through 2040. The tool includes projections for solar, wind, and battery adoption based on released RFPs and energy targets (including Act-17 2019) to generate a projected net load profile for each hour through 2040. Based on user inputs and default assumptions, the tool also projects load profile impacts of demand response and energy efficiency, and is specifically focused on highlighting projected demand response technical potential. This demand response technical potential can be used by local utilities, regulators, program administrators, or researchers to help design demand response programs for larger impact.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1973

Experiments for the study of cosmic gamma-ray bursts

Several experiments are outlined which are designed for investigating cosmic gamma ray bursts; they form a research program that includes balloon experiments currently under development and satellite experiments proposed for future missions. The satellite proposals, in most cases, are either suggested for payloads that are presently defined as to experimental complement, or are for hypothetical spacecraft. Thus, these proposals at present serve to indicate, at least, the possible usefulness of various space missions for cosmic gamma-ray burst studies. Taken as a whole, this program of gamma ray burst experiments should improve on the present observations of the temporal variations, size spectrum, energy spectra, polarizations, directional locations and distribution of source directions, each by several orders of magnitude of improved resolution or of dynamic range.

Cline, T. L.↗
DOE OSTI2018

Positrons at JLab advancing nuclear science in Hall B

In this talk I address two high impact physics programs that require the use of polarized and unpolarized positron beams in addition to using electron beams of the same energy. First, I address what will be gained from using positron beams in addition to electron beams in the extraction of the Compton Form Factors (CFFs) and generalized parton distributions (GPDs) from Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) on a proton target. Furthermore a second high impact science program I discuss an experimental scenario using unpolarized positrons to measure elastic scattering on protons in an effort to determine definitively the 2-photon exchange contributions in order to resolve a longstanding discrepancy in the determination of the proton’s electric and magnetic form factors.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2001

Preliminary Study of Electron Emission for Use in the PIC Portion of MAFIA

This memorandum summarizes a study undertaken to apply the program MAFIA to the modeling of an electron gun in a traveling wave tube (TWT). The basic problem is to emit particles from the cathode in the proper manner. The electrons are emitted with the classical Maxwell-Boltzmann (M-B) energy distribution; and for a small patch of emitting surface; the distribution with angle obeys Lambert's law. This states that the current density drops off as the cosine of the angle from the normal. The motivation for the work is to extend the analysis beyond that which has been done using older codes. Some existing programs use the Child-Langmuir, or 3/2 power law, for the description of the gun. This means the current varies as the 3/2 power of the anode voltage. The proportionality constant is termed the perveance of the gun. This is limited, however, since the 3/2 variation is only an approximation. Also, if the cathode is near saturation, the 3/2 law definitely will not hold. In most of the older codes, the electron beam is decomposed into current tubes, which imply laminar flow in the beam; even though experiments show the flow to be turbulent. Also, the proper inclusion of noise in the beam is not possible. These older methods of calculation do, however, give reasonable values for parameters of the electron beam and the overall gun, and these values will be used as the starting point for a more precise particle-in-cell (PIC) calculation. To minimize the time needed for a given computer run, all beams will use the same number of particles in a simulation. This is accomplished by varying the mass and charge of the emitted particles (macroparticles) in a certain manner, to be consistent with the desired beam current.

Freeman, Jon C.↗
DOE OSTI2018

Mesoscale to Molecules: Bioimaging Science Program, Principal Investigator (PI) Meeting, February 28–March 1, 2018, Gaithersburg, Maryland

The Mesoscale to Molecules Bioimaging Science Program (Bioimaging Program), within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), sponsors research at national laboratories and universities that addresses grand challenges for biology. These projects are centered on developing a better understanding of the spatial and temporal distributions of key metabolites and biomarkers associated with microbial and plant systems related to bioenergy and environmental systems. The Bioimaging Program is developing new and improved instruments, which are being designed and constructed from the ground up, adapted from other scientific disciplines, or upgraded with new capabilities to create a comprehensive and versatile toolbox for imaging biological dynamics and chemistry. These approaches involve (1) hypothesis-based approaches focused on solving particular problems for plant biology, biofuels, and biogeochemistry and (2) broad-based systems and design-based technologies that can lead to new discoveries. Scientists developing both approaches keep in mind that versatility, transferability, and portability will help foster widespread adoption by the larger science community for future field and laboratory studies.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2018

The Future of U.S. Electricity Efficiency Programs Funded by Utility Customers: Program Spending and Savings Projections to 2030

Electric utility customers spent about $5.8 billion on energy efficiency programs in 2016 to cost-effectively offset a portion of growth in U.S. power needs. That, in turn, affects the need for investment in new electricity infrastructure, across generation, transmission and distribution systems. A new study by Berkeley Lab provides a bottom-up assessment of the potential impact of existing and likely state policies and market conditions to promote or constrain future spending and savings for electricity efficiency programs funded by utility customers in all U.S. states.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS2003

Living with a Star: New Opportunities in Sun-Climate Research

Living With a Star is a NASA initiative employing the combination of dedicated spacecraft with targeted research and modeling efforts to improve what we know of solar effects of all kinds on the Earth and its surrounding space environment, with particular emphasis on those that have significant practical impacts on life and society. The highest priority among these concerns is the subject of this report: the potential effects of solar variability on regional and global climate, including the extent to which solar variability has contributed to the well-documented warming of the Earth in the last 100 years. Understanding how the climate system reacts to external forcing from the Sun will also greatly improve our knowledge of how climate will respond to other climate drivers, including those of anthropogenic origin. A parallel element of the LWS program addresses solar effects on space weather : the impulsive emissions of charged particles, short-wave electromagnetic radiation and magnetic disturbances in the upper atmosphere and near-Earth environment that also affect life and society. These include a wide variety of solar impacts on aeronautics, astronautics, electric power transmission, and national defense. Specific examples are (1) the impacts of potentially- damaging high energy radiation and atomic particles of solar origin on satellites and satellite operations, spacecraft electronics systems and components, electronic communications, electric power distribution grids, navigational and GPS systems, and high altitude aircraft; and (2) the threat of sporadic, high-energy solar radiation to astronauts and high altitude aircraft passengers and crews. Elements of the LWS program include an array of dedicated spacecraft in near- Earth and near-Sun orbits that will closely study and observe both the Sun itself and the impacts of its variations on the Earth's radiation belts and magnetosphere, the upper atmosphere, and ionosphere. These spacecraft, positioned to study and monitor changing conditions in the Sun-Earth neighborhood, will also serve as sentinels of solar storms and impulsive events.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2018

OPTD: Out-of-Pile Transient Database

The DOE Advanced Reactor Technology program has supported knowledge preservation efforts to recover and preserve fuel data from the US sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR) program. Efforts have focused on establishing databases of experimental data generated during the Integral Fast Reactor program (at EBR-II, FFTF, and TREAT) as well as during related out-of-pile examinations of the fuel irradiated at EBR-II. The information in these databases is essential to support further development and licensing activities for advanced fast reactor designs. OPTD, a newly-created database of out-of-pile furnace transient tests on metallic fuel, includes records of 62 tests on irradiated fuel pins conducted in furnace apparatuses constructed in the Alpha-Gamma Hot Cell Facility at ANL. Record discovery is ongoing, and at present, the database includes hundreds of documents describing these tests and related results. Access is currently available to Department of Energy researchers and can be extended to members of industry and the public as the content is approved for distribution. This report describes the out-of-pile furnace testing program, the content available in the database, and the structure of the web-accessible interface.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Dispatch optimization of electric thermal energy storage within System Advisor Model

A stand-alone electric thermal energy storage (ETES) system converts low-value electricity into heat using resistance heating elements. During periods of high-value electricity, an ETES system uses a thermodynamic power cycle to convert stored thermal energy back to electricity. These dispatchable systems derive value from their ability to store energy when prices are low and generate electricity when prices are favorable, i.e., energy arbitrage. Consequently, dispatch optimization of system operations, through maximizing revenue subject to system constraints, is essential to evaluate the economic value of a particular system design. While stand-alone ETES systems offer potential advantages as dispatchable grid storage technologies, there is a lack of a neutral third-party, publicly available, open-source model to evaluate the performance, dispatch, and financial viability of these systems. To address this problem, we have developed a techno-economic model for stand-alone ETES systems, within National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) System Advisor Model (SAM). We implement a mixed-integer linear program to determine an ETES optimal operating schedule that maximizes electricity sales less maintenance costs caused by operation and cycling given temporal-varying grid electricity prices. Our contributions include a mixed-integer linear program for energy arbitrage of an ETES system, an ETES performance model through a publicly-available software (i.e., SAM), and an exercise of our model through case studies that compare ETES operational strategies and annual financial metrics. With our dispatch optimization model, we were able to improve revenue by 20% compared to a myopic heuristic while reducing the operational cost of the ETES system through decreases in cycle starts, cycles per day, and heater starts.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

OptiBench: An Optimization Benchmark Tool for Renewable Energy Problems

We propose a benchmark framework and visualization tool, OptiBench, for analyzing the performance of state-of-the-art optimization solvers across a variety of optimization problems in renewable energy research. Our framework is designed from the ground up in the Julia programming language and enables analysis at scale on high performance computing (HPC) systems. Our visualization tool allows effortless evaluation of optimization solver performance, robustness, and accuracy through intuitive plots, e.g., performance profiles, heat maps, and distribution plots. We have tested three benchmark suites relevant to the modeling of renewable energy systems, viz., CUTEst, PGLib-OPF, and WaterTAP water treatment optimization problems. We illustrate benchmarking of CUTEst using OptiBench on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) HPC Kestrel. Our findings indicate that MA57 HSL linear solver demonstrated the best overall performance for an experimental IPOPT implementation. Our work is ongoing and we intend to add support for more optimization solvers and benchmark test suites in the future.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

OptiBench: An Optimization Benchmark Tool for Renewable Energy Problems

We propose a benchmark framework and visualization tool, OptiBench, for analyzing the performance of state-of-the-art optimization solvers across a variety of optimization problems in renewable energy research. Our framework is designed from the ground up in the Julia programming language and enables analysis at scale on high performance computing (HPC) systems. Our visualization tool allows effortless evaluation of optimization solver performance, robustness, and accuracy through intuitive plots, e.g., performance profiles, heat maps, and distribution plots. We have tested three benchmark suites relevant to the modeling of renewable energy systems, viz., CUTEst, PGLib-OPF, and WaterTAP water treatment optimization problems. We illustrate benchmarking of CUTEst using OptiBench on the National Laboratory of the Rockies's (NLR) HPC Kestrel. Our findings indicate that MA57 HSL linear solver demonstrated the best overall performance for an experimental IPOPT implementation. Our work is ongoing and we intend to add support for more optimization solvers and benchmark test suites in the future.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

An Edge-Cloud Integrated Solution for Buildings Demand Response Using Reinforcement Learning

Buildings, as major energy consumers, can provide great untapped demand response (DR) resources for grid services. However, their participation remains low in real-life. One major impediment for popularizing DR in buildings is the lack of cost-effective automation systems that can be widely adopted. Existing optimization-based smart building control algorithms suffer from high costs on both building-specific modeling and on-demand computing resources. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a cost-effective edge-cloud integrated solution using reinforcement learning (RL). Beside RL’s ability to solve sequential optimal decision-making problems, its adaptability to easy-to-obtain building models and the off-line learning feature are likely to reduce the controller’s implementation cost. Using a surrogate building model learned automatically from building operation data, an RL agent learns an optimal control policy on cloud infrastructure, and the policy is then distributed to edge devices for execution. Simulation results demonstrate the control efficacy and the learning efficiency in buildings of different sizes. A preliminary cost analysis on a 4-zone commercial building shows the annual cost for optimal policy training is only 2.25% of the DR incentive received. Results of this study show a possible approach with higher return on investment for buildings to participate in DR programs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Flexible Operation of Microgrids Through Operator-Configurable Microgrid Controllers

Microgrids are becoming critical assets in power distribution systems. This is partly due to the resiliency and reliability challenges faced by power distribution systems in the last decade and partly due to the increased integration of distributed energy resource assets, such as solar photovoltaic. This increased need for microgrids has created a multitude of needs for microgrid controllers. Most microgrid controllers in the past decade have been uniquely programmed or custom programmed to meet the needs of a specific microgrid. Currently, IEEE standards aim to integrate the needs and capabilities of microgrid controllers under a unified umbrella. But the standards do not recommend necessary or appropriate software development practices for microgrid controllers. In addition, the programmable nature and maintenance of controllers are also key characteristics that fall outside the coverage of the standards. In this paper, we present the best software practices that utility engineers and microgrid operators should consider in the microgrid software platform. This paper can be used as an information document for developing documentation of controller requirements and assessing microgrid controller requirements.

Banshee microgrid↗
DOE OSTI2024

Assessment and Coordination of DER Cybersecurity Standards

Distributed energy resources (DERs) are becoming increasingly important to the electric grid, including solar energy systems. However, DERs also introduce new cybersecurity risks, including those posed by cloud computing. Standards harmonization is essential for ensuring that DERs are secure and can be safely integrated into the grid. This panel will discuss cyber standards harmonization for solar security. The panel will feature experts from the S2G Program, National Labs and Industry.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Distributed Wind Resilience Metrics for Electric Energy Delivery Systems: Comprehensive Literature Review

While most people have a general concept of what it means to be “resilient,” an examination of definitions from different sources reveals that there are key commonalities but key differences as well. The lack of a generally accepted definition and application of resilience extends to electric energy delivery systems. Without an accepted definition, it is difficult to implement programs or processes to improve resiliency. In this paper, existing work from industry, regulatory bodies, and national laboratories to define and apply resilience to electric energy delivery systems is studied to understand the key components to define resilience and better understand associated metrics. This understanding is then applied to distributed wind for a specific example of how resilience of a system is affected by the technologies and generation sources used to support it. A key finding is that there is no “one size fits all” process for resilience. Each system has a “distinctiveness” characteristic, which qualifies the possibility of differences in resilience due to different threats, geography, stakeholders, risk tolerance, and mitigations. The distinctiveness characteristic extends to distributed wind, where different configurations may lend the distributed wind to contribute to the resilience of systems in a variety of ways. The findings of this research demonstrate the need for a resilience framework that can be readily applied by stakeholders to improve resilience based on the specific system, threat, risk tolerance and stakeholders.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Extended convex hull-based distributed optimal energy flow of integrated electricity-gas systems

Integrated electricity and gas systems are constructed to facilitate the gas-fired generation, and the distributed operation of these integrated systems have received much attention due to the increased emphasis on data security and privacy between different agencies. This paper proposes an extended convex hull based method to address optimal energy flow problems for the integrated electricity and gas systems in a distributed manner. First, a multi-block electricity-gas system model is constructed by dividing the whole system into N blocks considering both physical and regional differences. This multi-block model is then convexified by replacing the nonconvex gas transmission equation with the extended convex hull-based constraints. The Jacobi-Proximal alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm is adopted to solve the convexified model and minimize its operation cost. Finally, the feasibility of the optimal solution for the convexified model is checked, and a sufficient condition is developed. If the sufficient condition is satisfied, the optimal solution for the original nonconvex problem can be recovered from that for the convexified problem. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method is tractable and effective in obtaining feasible optimal solutions for multi-block optimal energy flow problems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

High-Frequency Signature-Based Fault Detection for Future MV Distribution Grids

Increasing penetration levels of inverter based distributed energy resources (DERs) impact the legacy distribution system protection. Inverter based DERs provide approximately 1.2-2 pu fault current. In systems with high penetration of inverter based DERs, it is difficult for over-current based protection schemes to differentiate between normal loading conditions and a fault. Directional, distance, and adaptive forms of protection schemes are also affected by low fault currents. This paper analyzes fault generated traveling wave (TW) based high-frequency signatures in the distribution system. In order to simulate such signatures, frequency-dependent distributed parameter line modeling approach is used in this research work to represent distribution lines and underground cables. Modified IEEE 13-bus medium voltage test system is modeled in electromagnetic transient simulation tool and multiple transient scenarios are simulated in this test system. The results are analyzed to understand the high-frequency signatures that can be used to detect and locate faults under high penetration of DERs.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Comparison of Real-Time Pressure Rail Selection Algorithms for the Hybrid Hydraulic Electric Architecture: Case Study on a Track Loader

Abstract The hybrid hydraulic electric architecture (HHEA) seeks to combine the high power/torque/force density of hydraulics with the efficiency of electric machines. A set of common pressure rails is used to provide a majority of the power and this power is modulated by small electric machines to provide precise control for the operator. The HHEA has been studied in previous work using off-line dynamic programming optimization to determine energy efficient pressure rail selections, but this approach requires drive cycle information apriori. A Lagrange multiplier method has also been investigated where a set of gains (Lagrange multipliers) are optimized off-line with the idea the these gains, once determined, could be used for real-time operation. In this work, three new real-time pressure rail selection algorithms that do not require future drive cycle information are investigated; greedy, torque minimizing, and thresholding. The greedy control is found to only use 1% more energy than the globally optimal dynamic programming solution; but a model of energy loss is required.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗