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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 325 records · Page 18

Optimizing Price-Informed Operation of a Battery Storage System in an Office Building

New prescriptive efficiency requirements amended to US model energy codes historically have been evaluated using an average, blended electricity rate, which obscures demand charges. Post 2019, new measures can be evaluated using a representative time-of-use (TOU) tariff yet more sophisticated analysis methods are needed to consider a variety of TOU tariffs and assess price-informed control. To address these needs, this study couples building prototype simulation model with varying-in-sophistication battery storage operating strategies for different electricity TOU tariffs. The analysis compares the impact of operating a battery storage system following simpler rule-of-thumb methods versus a semi-optimized priced-informed heuristic approach. The investigation demonstrates that the heuristic approach results in greater electricity cost savings and is practical to implement.

Lei, Xuechen↗

Determination of Fares: Pricing Theory and Economic Efficiency

The concept of economic efficiency is described, its application to the pricing of air transport services, and its relevance as a policy objective are outlined. The first two sections discuss economic efficiency in general terms, whereas the third applies this norm to several airline pricing problems. The final section emphasizes the importance of industry behavior as a parameter in policy analysis.

Miller, J. C., III↗

NASA policy on pricing shuttle launch services

The paper explains the rationale behind key elements of the pricing policy for STS, the major features of the non-government user policy, and some of the stimulating features of the policy which will open space to a wide range of new users. Attention is given to such major policy features as payment schedule, cost and standard services, the two phase pricing structure, optional services, shared flights, cancellation and postponement, and earnest money.

Smith, J. M.↗

Some tradeoffs in ingot shaping and price of solar photovoltaic modules

Growth of round ingots is cost-effective for sheets but leaves unused space when round cells are packed into a module. This reduces the packing efficiency, which approaches 95% for square cells, to about 78% and reduces the conversion efficiency of the module by the same ratio. Shaping these ingots into squares with regrowth of cut silicon improves the packing factor, but increases growth cost. The cost impact on solar cell modules was determined by considering shaping ingots in stages from full round to complete square. The sequence of module production with relevant price allocation guidelines is outlined. The severe penalties in add-on price due to increasing slice thickness and kerf are presented. Trade-offs between advantages of recycling silicon and shaping costs are developed for different slicing scenarios. It is shown that shaping results in cost saving of up to 21% for a 15 cm dia. ingot.

Daud, T.↗

Polycrystalline silicon material availability and market pricing outlook study for 1980 to 88: January 1983 update

Photovoltaic solar cell arrays which convert solar energy into electrical energy can become a cost effective, alternative energy source provided that an adequate supply of low priced materials and automated fabrication techniques are available. Presently, silicon is the most promising cell material for achieving the near term cost goals of the Photovoltaics Program. Electronic grade silicon is produced primarily for the semiconductor industry with the photovoltaic industry using, in most cases, the production rejects of slightly lower grade material. Therefore, the future availability of adequate supplies of low cost silicon is one of the major concerns of the Photovoltaic Program. The supply outlook for silicon with emphasis on pricing is updated and is based primarily on an industry survey conducted by a JPL consultant. This survey included interviews with polycrystalline silicon manufacturers, a large cross section of silicon users and silicon solar cell manufacturers.

Costogue, E.↗

Giving you the business - Competitive pricing of selected Predicasts' databases

The pricing policies of different data-base services offering Predicast data bases are examined from a user perspective. The services carrying these data bases are listed; the problems introduced by varying exchange rates and seemingly idiosyncratic price structures are discussed; and numerous specific examples are given.

Jack, Robert F.↗

Provisioning in Agricultural Communities: Local, Regional and Global Cereal Prices and Local Production on Three Continents

Monitoring and incorporating diverse market and staple food information into food price indices is critical for food price analyses. Satellite remote sensing data and earth science models have an important role to play in improving humanitarian aid timing, delivery and distribution. Incorporating environmental observations into econometric models will improve food security analysis and understanding of market functioning.

Brown, Molly E.↗

FUEL ECONOMY AND CO2 EMISSIONS STANDARDS, MANUFACTURER PRICING STRATEGIES, AND FEEBATES

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and CO2 emissions standards for 2012 to 2016 have significantly increased the stringency of requirements for new light-duty vehicle fuel efficiency. This study investigates the role of technology adoption and pricing strategies in meeting new standards, as well as the impact of feebate policies. The analysis is carried out by means of a dynamic optimization model that simulates manufacturer decisions with the objective of maximizing social surplus while simultaneously considering consumer response and meeting CAFE and emissions standards. The results indicate that technology adoption plays the major role and that the provision of compliance flexibility and the availability of cost-effective advanced technologies help manufacturers reduce the need for pricing to induce changes in the mix of vehicles sold. Feebates, when implemented along with fuel economy and emissions standards, can bring additional fuel economy improvement and emissions reduction, but the benefit diminishes with the increasing stringency of the standards.

Liu, Changzheng↗

Residential Photovoltaic Energy Systems in California: The Effect on Home Sales Prices

Relatively little research exists estimating the marginal impacts of photovoltaic (PV) energy systems on home sale prices. Using a large dataset of California homes that sold from 2000 through mid-2009, we find strong evidence, despite a variety of robustness checks, that existing homes with PV systems sold for a premium over comparable homes without PV systems, implying a near full return on investment. Premiums for new homes are found to be considerably lower than those for existing homes, implying, potentially, a tradeoff between price and sales velocity. The results have significant implications for homeowners, builders, appraisers, lenders, and policymakers.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Heuristic Dispatch Based on Price Signals for Behind-the-Meter PV-Battery Systems in the System Advisor Model

The economic potential of a behind-the-meter (BTM) PV-battery system depends greatly on how the battery is dispatched. Different utility rates, system sizes, generation and load profiles can all require different dispatch strategies. This paper presents price signals dispatch, a new algorithm for automated economic dispatch of BTM PV-battery systems, which utilizes 24-hour PV and load forecasts, degradation data, and utility rates. The algorithm is integrated with the System Advisor Model (SAM) tool and is tested with a nonlinear generic electrochemical battery model. Price signals dispatch outperforms SAM’s existing algorithms in cases requiring a balance between demand charge management and energy arbitrage, and in cases where battery degradation imposes a significant cost.

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

Heuristic Dispatch Based on Price Signals for Behind-the-Meter PV-Battery Systems in the System Advisor Model: Preprint

The economic potential of a behind-the-meter (BTM) PV-battery system depends greatly on how the battery is dispatched. Different utility rates, system sizes, generation and load profiles can all require different dispatch strategies. This paper presents price signals dispatch, a new algorithm for automated economic dispatch of BTM PV-battery systems, which utilizes 24-hour PV and load forecasts, degradation data, and utility rates. The algorithm is integrated with the System Advisor Model (SAM) tool and is tested with a nonlinear generic electrochemical battery model. Price signals dispatch outperforms SAM’s existing algorithms in cases requiring a balance between demand charge management and energy arbitrage, and in cases where battery degradation imposes a significant cost.

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

Marine Alternative Fuel Pricing, Supply, and Demand

The International Maritime Organization low sulfur fuel rules and greenhouse gas-reduction strategy may create a significant perturbation to global refinery operations, impacting volumes and prices of marine fuel globally and within the United States and incentivizing the transition to alternative fuel use. The goals of this project are to (1) enhance understanding of how very low-sulfur fuel-primarily fuel oil and diesel-and low carbon fuel requirements and promising biofuel processes will affect the marine fuel supply chain; and (2) explore how these perturbations interact with and impact indicators such as pricing, number of trips, and demand behavior, along with the potential to meet low sulfur and carbon fuel demand with biofuel supply chains, (3) merge innovative thinking in the area of marine fuels within research centers of DOE (NREL) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (Volpe). These goals will be accomplished through the combination of detailed refinery, marine fuel burn, system dynamics, and geospatially explicit linear programming models.

biofuel↗

GHPsRUS: Geothermal Heat Pump Employment and Installation Price Data

The GHPsRUS Project's full name is "Measuring the Costs and Benefits of Nationwide Geothermal Heat Pump Deployment." The dataset contains employment and installation price data collected by four economic surveys: (1)GHPsRUS Project Manufacturer & OEM Survey, (2) GHPsRUS Project Geothermal Loop Survey, (3) GHPsRUS Project Mechanical Equipment Installation Survey, and (4) GHPsRUS Geothermal Heat Pump Industry Survey

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Optimal scheduling of isolated microgrid with an electric vehicle battery swapping station in multi-stakeholder scenarios: A bi-level programming approach via real-time pricing

In order to coordinate the scheduling problem between an isolated microgrid (IMG) and electric vehicle battery swapping stations (BSSs) in multi-stakeholder scenarios, a new bi-level optimal scheduling model is proposed for promoting the participation of BSSs in regulating the IMG economic operation. In this model, the upper-level sub-problem is formulated to minimize the IMG net costs, while the lower-level aims to maximize the profits of the BSS under real-time pricing environments determined by demand responses in the upper-level decision. To solve the model, a hybrid algorithm, called JAYA-BBA, is put forward by combining a real/integer-coded JAYA algorithm and the branch and bound algorithm (BBA), in which the JAYA and BBA are respectively employed to address the upper- and lower- level sub-problems, and the bi-level model is eventually solved through alternate iterations between the two levels. The simulation results on a microgrid test system verify the effectiveness and superiority of the presented approach.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Techno-economic analysis of the impact of dynamic electricity prices on solar penetration in a smart grid environment with distributed energy storage

This study investigates the technical and economic feasibility of using high levels of solar energy penetration up to 400 MW into a smart grid system of 60,000 smart houses. A novel non-cooperative Stackelberg game is introduced that incorporates the profitability of the supply-side and helps in solving problems related to overgeneration and photovoltaic curtailment. The non-cooperative game is intended to find the optimal dynamic prices that would leverage distributed storage through the demand-side to stabilize the power grid operation. Ten cases are studied with five photovoltaic plant sizes and two battery designs. Here, a novel quantitative analysis of high levels of solar penetration as a percentage of the total electricity demand is introduced to evaluate the technical feasibility of the studied cases. To evaluate the economic viability of the proposed smart grid system, four metrics were used: the levelized cost of energy, the levelized cost of storage, the payback period, and the net present value. Two out of ten studied cases were concluded to be the most promising cases, one with a solar photovoltaic plant size of 200 MW and the other with 300 MW. The case with 300 MW solar plant is preferred as it paves the way for more solar energy deployment with a solar penetration percentage up to 67.78%. This case had a payback period of 10.72 years and a net present value of $\$51.44$ M for the solar plant and a payback period of 12.06 years and a net present value of $\$40.75$ M for the demand-side.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Estimation of stochastic volatility with long memory for index prices of FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI

In recent years, modeling in long memory properties or fractionally integrated processes in stochastic volatility has been applied in the financial time series. A time series with structural breaks can generate a strong persistence in the autocorrelation function, which is an observed behaviour of a long memory process. This paper considers the structural break of data in order to determine true long memory time series data. Unlike usual short memory models for log volatility, the fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process is neither a Markovian process nor can it be easily transformed into a Markovian process. This makes the likelihood evaluation and parameter estimation for the long memory stochastic volatility (LMSV) model challenging tasks. The drift and volatility parameters of the fractional Ornstein-Unlenbeck model are estimated separately using the least square estimator (lse) and quadratic generalized variations (qgv) method respectively. Finally, the empirical distribution of unobserved volatility is estimated using the particle filtering with sequential important sampling-resampling (SIR) method. The mean square error (MSE) between the estimated and empirical volatility indicates that the performance of the model towards the index prices of FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI is fairly well.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Distribution Locational Real-Time Pricing Based Smart Building Control and Management

This paper proposes an real-virtual parallel computing scheme for smart building operations aiming at augmenting overall social welfare. The University of Denver's campus power grid and Ritchie fitness center is used for demonstrating the proposed approach. An artificial virtual system is built in parallel to the real physical system to evaluate the overall social cost of the building operation based on the social science based working productivity model, numerical experiment based building energy consumption model and the power system based real-time pricing mechanism. Through interactive feedback exchanged between the real and virtual system, enlarged social welfare, including monetary cost reduction and energy saving, as well as working productivity improvements, can be achieved.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Distribution Optimal Power Flow With Real-Time Price Elasticity

This letter investigates a new class of optimal power flow problem for distribution systems, where elastic loads respond to real-time nodal prices by adjusting their demands. A fixed point iteration algorithm is suggested to identify an equilibrium. A concise criterion is devised to judge convergence.

demand response↗