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At least 379 records · Page 21

Artificial Intelligence for Natural Gas Utilities: A Primer

Modern natural gas utilities face numerous challenges and competing priorities from various stakeholders. Policymakers, customers, and advocacy groups want to see gas utilities improve performance on safety, reliability, resilience, affordability, and environmental stewardship. State utility regulators — public utility commissions — are responsible for overseeing utility performance, ensuring that ratepayer funds are being spent in the public interest, and aligning utility goals with public goals. The use of new technologies is critical to enabling cost-effective performance on these attributes. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a widely used term among utilities and regulators, but the term means different things to different stakeholders, and it is often used to describe data analytics approaches that fall short of the formal definition of AI, which is: “…the ability of a machine to receive inputs and produce a behavior or reaction similar to that of an intelligent human being.” AI (and related tools, techniques, and technologies) can help utilities solve current and emerging challenges. By combining customer and system data with analytical tools and technologies, AI can augment human decision-makers by assisting in identifying problems and events before they occur, enabling resources to be more efficiently directed across utility infrastructure. The intended primary audience for this primer is state regulators, although utilities and other stakeholders might also find it useful and relevant to improve their awareness of AI. The objectives of this primer are to: (a) offer a set of broadly applicable definitions for AI and related terms, allowing regulators, utilities, and other stakeholders to speak the same language; (b) discuss how AI is currently being implemented in the gas utility sector; and (c) understand the challenges affecting AI solutions and how tools might be implemented in the future. This primer fits within NARUC’s goals of providing impartial information to improve the ability of public utility commissions to regulate in the public interest. As such, this primer does not seek to recommend AI over any other investment, nor does it endorse any particular vendor, product, or approach. It does seek to prepare state regulators to oversee AI investments by sharing information about the current landscape of commercially available tools. To these ends, the primer is organized as follows: Section I discusses the current environment in which natural gas utilities operate and how AI, when thoughtfully designed and implemented, can enable utilities to achieve performance goals; Section II offers definitions of AI and related terms within the data analytics discipline; Section III provides three current opportunities for which AI can offer solutions: replacing aging gas distribution infrastructure, preventing excavator damage to gas distribution infrastructure, and improving energy efficiency programs. This section discusses each problem statement in detail. Second, Section III includes a discussion of how costs and benefits of investments to solve each problem are measured. And third, this section offers real-world examples of utility implementation of AI solutions; Section IV discusses challenges with implementing AI, both from the perspective of utilities and regulators; Section V suggests areas in which AI could feasibly be implemented in the near future; Finally, Section VI offers concluding thoughts and areas for further research.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Throughput Analytics of Data Transfer Infrastructures

To support increasingly distributed scientific and big-data applications, powerful data transfer infrastructures are being built with dedicated networks and software frameworks customized to distributed file systems and data transfer nodes. The data transfer performance of such infrastructures critically depends on the combined choices of file, disk, and host systems as well as network protocols and file transfer software, all of which may vary across sites. The randomness of throughput measurements makes it challenging to assess the impact of these choices on the performance of infrastructure or its parts. We propose regression-based throughput profiles by aggregating measurements from sites of the infrastructure, with RTT as the independent variable. The peak values and convex-concave shape of a profile together determine the overall throughput performance of memory and file transfers, and its variations show the performance differences among the sites. We then present projection and difference operators, and coefficients of throughput profiles to characterize the performance of infrastructure and its parts, including sites and file transfer tools. In particular, the utilization-concavity coefficient provides a value in the range [0, 1] that reflects overall transfer effectiveness. We present results of measurements collected using (i) testbed experiments over dedicated 0–366 ms 10 Gbps connections with combinations of TCP versions, file systems, host systems and transfer tools, and (ii) Globus GridFTP transfers over production infrastructure with varying site configurations.

Rao, Nageswara S.↗

NuGrid stellar data set – III. Updated low-mass AGB models and s-process nucleosynthesis with metallicities Z= 0.01, Z = 0.02, and Z = 0.03

ABSTRACT The production of the neutron-capture isotopes beyond iron that we observe today in the Solar system is the result of the combined contribution of the r-process, the s-process, and possibly the i-process. Low-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) (1.5 < M/M⊙ < 3) and massive (M > 10 M⊙) stars have been identified as the main site of the s-process. In this work we consider the evolution and nucleosynthesis of low-mass AGB stars. We provide an update of the NuGrid Set models, adopting the same general physics assumptions but using an updated convective-boundary-mixing model accounting for the contribution from internal gravity waves. The combined data set includes the initial masses MZAMS/M⊙ = 2, 3 for Z = 0.03, 0.02, 0.01. These new models are computed with the mesa stellar code and the evolution is followed up to the end of the AGB phase. The nucleosynthesis was calculated for all isotopes in post-processing with the NuGrid mppnp code. The convective-boundary-mixing model leads to the formation of a 13C-pocket three times wider compared to the one obtained in the previous set of models, bringing the simulation results now in closer agreement with observations. Using these new models, we discuss the potential impact of other processes inducing mixing, like rotation, adopting parametric models compatible with theory and observations. Complete yield data tables, derived data products, and online analytic data access are provided.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DuoModel: Leveraging Reduced Model for Data Reduction and Re-Computation on HPC Storage

High-performance computing (HPC) applications generate large amounts of floating-point data that need to be stored and analyzed efficiently to extract the insights and advance knowledge discovery. With the growing disparities between compute and I/O, optimizing the storage stack alone may not suffice to cure the I/O problem. There has been a strong push in the HPC communities to perform data reduction before data is transmitted to storage in order to lower the I/O cost. However, as of now, neither lossless nor lossy compressors can achieve the adequate reduction ratio that is desired by applications. This paper proposes DuoModel, a new approach that leverages the similarity between the full and reduced application models, and further improve the data reduction ratio. DouModel further improves the compression ratio of state-of-the-art compressors via compressing the differences (termed as delta) between the data products of the two models. For data analytics, the high fidelity data can be re-computed by launching the reduced model and applying the compressed delta. Our evaluations confirm that DuoModel can further push the limit of data reduction while the high fidelity of data is maintained.

Luo, Huizhang (ORCID:0000000323920267)↗

UrbanScaping: Community Spatial Data Visualization & Analytics

Evaluating the electrification potential of buildings through retrofitting is crucial for reducing carbon emissions and the carbon footprint of built environments. This study leverages the Automatic Building Energy Modeling (AutoBEM) software, integrating the Model America database to create an urban context-based spatial analysis platform for community engagement and development. We selected Camp Hill Borough, PA, as a case study to analyze building-specific energy performance and evaluate the electrification potential of each building by switching to different Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems and measurement components. The simulation results generated by the workflow provide retrofitting suggestions to help mitigate the carbon footprint as well as energy saving statistics of buildings. Additionally, the developed web-based interface serves as a community engagement platform, allowing residents to provide feedback and further develop interactive communication protocols. The outcomes of this project offer a baseline for community electrification planning and contribute to the design of low-carbon communities.

Chowdhury, Shovan [ORNL]↗

Modeling Complex Relationships in Large-Scale Data using Hypergraphs (LDRD Final Report)

This SAND report documents the findings of the LDRD project, "Modeling Complex Relationships in Large-Scale Data using Hypergraphs". The project ran from October 2017 through September 2019. The focus of the project was the development and application of hypergraph data analytics to Sandia relational data applications. In this project, we attempted to apply a hypergraph data analysis method—specifically, hypergraph eigenvector centrality—to Sandia mission problems to identify influential entities (people, location, times, etc.) in the data. Unfortunately, the application data led to graph and hypergraph representations containing disconnected components. To date, there are no well-established techniques for applying eigenvector centrality to such graphs and hypergraphs. In this report, we present several heuristics for computing eigenvector centrality for disconnected graphs. We believe this is an important start to understanding how to approach the similar problem for hypergraphs, but this project concluded before we made progress on that problem. The ideas, methods, and suggestions presented here can be used for further research into this challenging problem. We also present our ideas for generating graphs with known degree and centrality distributions. The goal in presenting this work is to identify a procedure for analyzing such graphs once the problem of addressing disconnected components has been addressed. When working with a single data set, this generator can be used to create many instances of graphs that can be used to analyze the robustness of the centrality computations for the original data set. Although the results did not match perfectly in the case of the Facebook Ego dataset used in the experiments presented here, this again represents a good start in the direction of a graph generator for such problems. We note that there are potential trade-offs between how the degree and centrality distributions are fit to the original data and suggested several possible avenues for follow-on research efforts.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

PNNL Superfund Research Program Analytics (srpAnalytics Data Release v.1.0)

The OSU/PNNL superfund Research Program represents a longstanding collaboration to quantify Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons at various superfund sites in the Pacific Northwest and assess their potential impact on human health. To link the chemical measurements to biological activity, we describe the use of the zebrafish as a high-throughput developmental model of human exposure that provides quantitative measurements of the biological ramifications of exposure to toxicants. The PNNL Superfund have implemented a dose-response modelling pipeline to calculate benchmark dose parameters that enable the comparison of potency across chemicals and phenotypes. Our portal provides public access to this dataset and an interactive web site designed to enable exploration and re-use of this data by the scientific community at http://srp.pnnl.gov.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

PNNL Superfund Research Program Analytics (srpAnalytics Data Release v.1.0)

The OSU/PNNL superfund Research Program represents a longstanding collaboration to quantify Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons at various superfund sites in the Pacific Northwest and assess their potential impact on human health. To link the chemical measurements to biological activity, we describe the use of the zebrafish as a high-throughput developmental model of human exposure that provides quantitative measurements of the biological ramifications of exposure to toxicants. The PNNL Superfund have implemented a dose-response modelling pipeline to calculate benchmark dose parameters that enable the comparison of potency across chemicals and phenotypes. Our portal provides public access to this dataset and an interactive web site designed to enable exploration and re-use of this data by the scientific community at http://srp.pnnl.gov.

OSU-PNNL Superfund Research Program Center SRP↗

A DATA-DRIVEN ANALYTIC MODEL FOR PROTON ACCELERATION BY LARGE-SCALE SOLAR CORONAL SHOCKS

We have recently studied the development of an eruptive filament-driven, large-scale off-limb coronal bright front (OCBF) in the low solar corona, using remote observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory ’s Advanced Imaging Assembly EUV telescopes. In that study, we obtained high-temporal resolution estimates of the OCBF parameters regulating the efficiency of charged particle acceleration within the theoretical framework of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA). These parameters include the time-dependent front size, speed, and strength, as well as the upstream coronal magnetic field orientations with respect to the front’s surface normal direction. Here we present an analytical particle acceleration model, specifically developed to incorporate the coronal shock/compressive front properties described above, derived from remote observations. We verify the model’s performance through a grid of idealized case runs using input parameters typical for large-scale coronal shocks, and demonstrate that the results approach the expected DSA steady-state behavior. We then apply the model to the event of 2011 May 11 using the OCBF time-dependent parameters derived by Kozarev et al. We find that the compressive front likely produced energetic particles as low as 1.3 solar radii in the corona. Comparing the modeled and observed fluences near Earth, we also find that the bulk of the acceleration during this event must have occurred above 1.5 solar radii. With this study we have taken a first step in using direct observations of shocks and compressions in the innermost corona to predict the onsets and intensities of solar energetic particle events.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Open Energy Data Initiative: Advancing Analytics and Research Innovation through Improved Data Access

The Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI) aims to improve and automate access of high-value energy data sets across the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) programs, offices, and national laboratories. Sponsored by DOE, this platform is being implemented by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to make data actionable and discoverable by researchers and industry to accelerate analysis and advance innovation. Partners at other national laboratories will help utilize the platform for analysis, can be directly involved in determining requirements, and will be resources for providing new datasets that can be shared with the public to expand innovation.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗