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At least 487 records · Page 27

Interoperability Strategic Vision

The Interoperability Strategic Vision whitepaper aims to promote a common understanding of the meaning and characteristics of interoperability and to provide a strategy to advance the state of interoperability as applied to integration challenges facing grid modernization. This includes addressing the quality of integrating devices and systems and the discipline to improve the process of successfully integrating these components as business models and information technology improve over time. The strategic vision for interoperability described in this document applies throughout the electric energy generation, delivery, and end-use supply chain. Its scope includes interactive technologies and business processes from bulk energy levels to lower voltage level equipment and the millions of appliances that are becoming equipped with processing power and communication interfaces. A transformational aspect of a vision for interoperability in the future electric system is the coordinated operation of intelligent devices and systems at the edges of grid infrastructure. This challenge offers an example for addressing interoperability concerns throughout the electric system.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Productive Use of Energy in African Micro-Grids: Technical and Business Considerations

Demand for electricity from small industry and businesses, which is defined as the productive use of energy (PUE), is a key success factor for micro-grids. Because of the typically low energy usage of residential customers, without linkage to and support for these energy users, micro-grids are likely to struggle to reach the critical revenue needed for financial viability. This report is a resource entrepreneurs and developers can use to understand the technical and business model challenges related to PUE in smaller micro-grids. It focuses on small agricultural processing, and small industrial and commercial loads. This report examines best practices for promoting PUE and the business models used by developers. It starts with background information and a literature review followed by a discussion of key enterprise considerations for productive use (PU) including: value chain and business case analysis, enterprise development and training, appliance financing, and developers running PU businesses. Unlike many other reports on PUE, this report is based on application specific data. The report is also unique in that it provides actual customer demographics and load profiles. This report considers PUE from both business and technical perspectives, and it considers the interests of both the micro-grid operators and the microenterprises and entrepreneurs they serve. It looks at the service levels required by different PUs and the technical characteristics and challenges of different types of PU equipment. The report also includes examples of business cases for some of the most important PU opportunities, including milling, ice making, carpentry, egg incubation, and water treatment. This report is a resource that entrepreneurs, governments, and non-governmental organizations can use to help design programs to meet their individual goals of PUE in micro-grids and economic development in rural Africa. It can also be used by developers, engineers, and other organizations designing micro-grids to inform their technical and business decisions and to improve system design, reduce risk, and increase success with adding PU loads to both new and existing micro-grids.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Transactive System Program Communication System Cost Model

Transactive energy is an economics and controls technique that aims to dynamically manage the generation and consumption of electricity within the power system. Much research has been done in the area of demonstrating the capability and performance of transactive systems, as well as valuing the benefits a transactive system can provide. Significantly less research has been done in the area of estimating the costs of a transactive system. This work aimed to build a model that would estimate the costs of the communications system that would be necessary to support a transactive system and be realized by a local utility. Dynamic pricing, and a customer’s response to this pricing, is a key aspect of a transactive system; this would require a two-way communication system between utilities and customers. Since the system will vary based on many factors, the cost model was consequently designed for use in a wide variety of applications. The cost model requires some basic user inputs regarding the system being analyzed, such as location and size. The user also identifies one or more generic circuit models that best represent the system. Additionally, a user can, but is not required to, change assumed equipment and installation costs and equipment lifetime within the model. These inputs will result in 20 year cost estimates for three different communication technologies that are capable of supporting the bandwidth needs of a transactive energy system. The three communication systems included in the model are cellular, fiber optic and wireless mesh. Each vary significantly from one another and offer unique advantages and barriers. A cellular network avoids high upfront costs, but is limited to areas where there is coverage by the service provider and subject to the ongoing rate established with the service provider. A fiber optic system requires a large up-front cost, but it will provide a reliable system to areas where cellular and mesh may be unable to do so. Additionally, fiber provides more bandwidth than necessary for transactive systems and can offer additional business opportunities. A mesh system can be installed for less upfront costs than fiber and offers enough bandwidth to support a transactive system, but the ability to model this technology is done with less certainty than the other two options. The estimated costs include the communication system that connects the customers to their nearest substation, in addition to the smart meter and radio that would be required for each customer. The communications from the substation to the utility are not included in estimates, as the need for upgrading that system would be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Although the cost of the smart meter and radio is included, no other appliance specific cost is included in the estimate provided by the model. The communication system is a key aspect of the development of a transactive system. This work resulted in easily being able to estimate the costs of a communication system specific to the system being studied. This cost model will aid ongoing valuation and simulation work in the field of transactive energy.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Pascua Yaqui Tribe Energy Audit (Final Report)

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe has the goal of reducing energy use and costs in its government facilities and housing. In a proactive effort to meet the Tribe's needs an energy audit was performed to accomplish the following goals: Develop an energy efficiency implementation strategy. Prepare an energy audit to identify cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities. Plan and conduct a level II energy audit in tribal government buildings and tribal housing. The audit encompassed four tribal government buildings and a group of residential structures. The purpose of this project was to assess the various facilities energy use in order to inform a means to lower annual consumption. An evaluation of each facility's historical energy and major energy-consuming equipment was performed, and energy conservation measures (ECM's) were identified. An average of 4 ECM's where recommended for each facility. If each facility's recommended ECM's are implemented, the average calculated yearly benefits to the government and residential buildings would result in a 48.3% reduction in electrical energy/costs savings and a 14.4% reduction in natural gas energy/costs savings. Recommended projects for implementation include: Interior Lighting Upgrade, Exterior Lighting Upgrade, Solar Pool Covers, Retro-Commissioning, Low Volt Fixtures, Plug Load Management System, Occupancy Sensor Control, and Solar PV for government/casino buildings and appliance, window, HVAC, Weather Stripping, and water heaters replacement in residences.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Smart Vacuum Cleaner Concept of Operations [Slides]

Modern living brings with it the need to use time as efficiently as possible, one of the key objectives being to create as much free-time for ourselves as we possibly can. In an ideal world, the domestic appliances of today would be replaced by new gadgets with the ability to perform tasks in a completely independent way. This document presents the application of Systems Engineering tools for the concept of operations for a smart vacuum cleaner, a device that replaces the use of hand-held vacuums, and provides a completely automated remote-operated option for keeping floors of all types clean.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Optimizing and commercializing the LBNL Grid Burner for AO Smith Storage Water Heater

The purpose of this project was to demonstrate that the LBNL Ring Burner technology can meet the operating, performance, and emission requirements while operating in a residential appliance. This project successfully met all performance targets and enhanced flame stability of the Ring Burner technology.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Analysis of Space-Conditioning Loads in Commercial Buildings

Space conditioning end-uses, which include heating, cooling, and ventilation, represent a significant fraction of commercial building energy use, with a wide variety of heating and cooling technology options available in the market. In the interest of improving the overall efficiency of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) technologies, governments, utilities and private sector entities have implemented a variety of market transformation policies that aim to influence consumer purchase decisions. To evaluate the costs and benefits of such programs, analysts typically postulate a hypothetical default equipment choice, and compare it to one that provides comparable service with lower energy and/or power use. The corresponding reduced operating cost provides a benefit that offsets the potential higher cost of improved efficiency. Typically, life-cycle cost or cash-flow analyses are used to quantify the net economic benefit. These analyses require the capability to assess how a given equipment design would perform across a broad range of characteristics, both of the building and of the local weather. While these assessments can be performed using customized building simulations, it is generally not practical to develop and validate detailed building simulation code to cover all the potential variations of equipment design and installation. An alternative, and somewhat simpler, approach is to solely use detailed building simulations to generate time series of heating and cooling loads in commercial buildings. These loads can then be used as input to more detailed, stand-alone engineering models that simulate HVAC system performance under different equipment designs. This approach was used to evaluate a range of high-efficiency commercial packaged air conditioner design options for the Department of Energy’s Appliance and Equipment Standards Program (DOE-EERE 2015). While there may be some loss of precision relative to full simulation, the accuracy of this approach is sufficient for practical applications of cost-benefit analysis. This report describes the development of a database of commercial building heating and cooling loads, generated using the EnergyPlus software package, a whole building energy use model supported by the Department of Energy (DOE-EERE 2020a). EnergyPlus takes as input a set of configuration files that describe the building itself (size, zoning, envelope characteristics, etc.) and the various systems within it (HVAC, lighting, water heating, etc.). This analysis uses a publicly available collection of commercial reference buildings (CRB), comprised of sixteen building types and three vintages (DOE-EERE 2020b; Deru et al 2011). Each building is simulated in eighteen different locations, covering a wide range of climatic conditions. The prototype building description files assign the type of HVAC equipment used, and capacities across climate zones.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Measured Performance of Over the Range Microwave Range Hoods

The California residential building code requires kitchen exhaust ventilation to protect indoor air quality. The requirement can be met with a kitchen exhaust fan or a range hood that conforms to airflow and sound specifications based on certified, standard test results. Appliances that integrate an exhaust fan with an over the range microwave (OTRs) are popular for their space saving utility; but for years there were none with the certified performance data required for building code compliance. This project, initiated during that period, aimed to evaluate OTR models found in new California homes and compare their performance to range hoods that minimally met code requirements. The study aimed to expand on limited information available about OTR performance with a particular focus on measuring the fraction of cooktop-generated air pollutants that are captured and removed by the exhaust devices, a parameter called “capture efficiency”. Airflow and capture efficiency (CE) were measured in a simulated kitchen in Berkeley Lab’s FLEXLAB facility. Airflows were measured using several variations of a balanced-pressure flow method (Walker et al. 2001) including a protocol that had been used in the California Healthy Efficient New Gas Homes (HENGH) field study. Measurements were made for six OTRs observed in the field study, including three with certified test results (published after the start of this project) for airflow and sound. Measurements were also made on two standard range hoods with comparable airflows and costs to the OTRs, when accounting for the microwave functionality. CE was measured using the CO 2 emitted from burners while heating pots of water (POW) as a tracer and calculating the ratio of added CO 2 in the exhaust flow over the total CO 2 generated from burning fuel. Results show that OTRs generally met the California code requirements for airflow, which are the same as those of the residential ventilation standard of ASHRAE. It was determined that the field protocol used in HENGH study homes was biased low by ~14% on average. The CE performance of OTRs tested in this study were consistent with those tested under controlled conditions in prior studies, showing CE increasing with airflow and being higher for emissions occurring at the back cooktop burner(s) compared with front burner emissions. The measured CE covered a range of 40% to 85% for the front burners and 60% to 100% for the back burners. The relationship of CE to airflow for OTRs was within the range of those found for standard range hoods in this study and prior studies, with the key caveat that OTRs appear to have more consistent CE performance for emissions on the front burner.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Ibis Networks/WattIQ (IN2 Final Report)

Ibis Networks is a full-stack cleantech company that provides plug-level energy monitoring and control to solve energy and asset management problems for the enterprise. During DATES – DATES, an NREL research team worked with the Ibis team to validate their product, the InteliSocket. The Ibis InteliSocket is a pass-through plug-load energy monitor and controller that is designed to reduce energy wasted by common 120 V plug-in devices in commercial office buildings, such as computer peripherals, conference room AV equipment, and break-room appliances. The system can shut off supply power to these end uses via remote control, manual switches, pre-set schedules, or automated control algorithms. The scope of this IN2 project was the development and refinement of “smart” learning behavior algorithms (LBAs), which could help installation processes and dramatically expand the sockets’ capabilities and energy-saving potential by suggesting suitable control schedules that are based on monitored use patterns. While Ibis has the analytical and software expertise for algorithm development, the lack of test data, both in a controlled laboratory setting and in real-life deployment scenarios, represented a key barrier toward commercialization of the product. Assistance through the IN2 program provided an opportunity to conduct the needed “trial and error” algorithm development. The project included baseline field-data collection, laboratory testing, and field validation components, all of which were conducted at the NREL campus between April 2017 and July 2019.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

RAMSeS: Rapid Analysis of Mission Software Systems

Over the past few decades, software has become ubiquitous as it has been integrated into nearly every aspect of society, including household appliances, consumer electronics, industrial control systems, public utilities, government operations, and military systems. Consequently, many critical national security questions can no longer be answered convincingly without understanding software, including its purpose, its capabilities, its flaws, its communication, or how it processes and stores data. As software continues to become larger, more complex, and more widespread, our ability to answer important mission questions and reason about software in a timely way is falling behind. Today, to achieve such understanding of third-party software, we rely predominantly on the ability of reverse engineering experts to manually answer each particular mission question for every software system of interest. This approach often requires heroic human effort that nevertheless fails to meet current mission needs and will never scale to meet future needs. The result is an emerging crisis: a massive and expanding gap between the national security need to answer mission questions about software and our ability to do so. Sandia National Laboratories has established the Rapid Analysis of Mission Software Systems (RAMSeS) effort, a collaborative long-term effort aimed at dramatically improving our nation’s ability to answer mission questions about third-party software by growing an ecosystem of tools that augment the human reverse engineer through automation, interoperability, and reuse. Focusing on static analysis of binary programs, we are attempting to identify reusable software analysis components that advance our ability to reason about software, to automate useful aspects of the software analysis process, and to integrate new methodologies and capabilities into a working ecosystem of tools and experts. We aim to integrate existing tools where possible, adapt tools when modest modifications will enable them to interoperate, and implement missing capability when necessary. Although we do hope to automate a growing set of analysis tasks, we will approach this goal incrementally by assisting the human in an ever-widening range of tasks.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

American-Made Challenges Round 2 Voucher: Orison Enables Solar

This report documents the technical assistance provided to Orison as part of the American-Made Challenges Round 2 Voucher: Orison Enables Solar project. A testbed was developed and used to demonstrate, using modeling and simulation, the capability of controlled behind-the-meter energy storage to (1) reduce net load variability caused by appliances and distributed generation and (2) enable customers to respond to the time-of-use pricing. We demonstrate that load leveling can shave peak loads or limit solar photovoltaic export and that load shifting enables customers to reduce load during “peak” pricing intervals. In the scenarios that we simulated, load leveling was effective up to the charging and discharging limits of the storage systems and the effectiveness of load shifting was a function of the energy capacity of the storage systems. This report describes the co-simulation testbed and the scenarios simulated, including controller setup and simulation results. Considerations for a multi-objective controller are also discussed.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Efficient and Zero Net Energy-Ready Plug Loads

Plug loads are the devices plugged into common electrical outlets. Modern buildings contain hundreds of these devices which, together, are responsible for at least 25 percent of the energy use in California buildings. Energy consumed by plug loads is increasing because the “Internet of Things” is, to a great extent, the “Internet of Plug Loads.” This project developed technologies that will reduce the energy use of plug loads. Two crosscutting strategies were investigated in detail: (1) technologies to reduce standby power use to near zero, and (2) methods to increase the use of direct current (DC) as a power source. Two new approaches to reduce standby to near zero were developed and have potential applicability to a wide range of devices. Prototype DC appliances were developed to demonstrate energy savings by bypassing power supplies and avoiding other losses. Networks of DC-powered devices can save even more energy and provide other benefits, such as resiliency during power outages. A unique category of energy-using devices was identified that provide life safety, health, and security to building occupants. Their installation or use is dictated by building codes, health providers, insurance companies, and other entities—none of whom would ordinarily prioritize energy efficiency. In the case of ground fault circuit interrupts (GFCIs), savings of 80 percent appear possible, simply by adopting the most efficient designs. Home medical equipment, particularly oxygen concentrators, are a rising category of energy use where significant savings are possible. This report also reviews the codes, standards, and other policies that affect energy use of plug loads.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

State Indicators for Advancing Demand Flexibility and Energy Efficiency in Buildings - Part I [Slides]

This slide deck report identifies objectives and key indicators for state activities that advance demand flexibility in buildings — legislation, utility regulatory proceedings, executive orders and programs. It also illustrates progress to date and identifies trends, gaps, and opportunities. Part I of the report focuses on (1) demand response and (2) energy efficiency targeted to reduce peak demand or integrate with demand response. This section covers building energy codes, appliance and equipment standards, resource standards, utility planning, utility programs, advanced metering infrastructure and meter data, rate design, state programs, state energy planning, and related state policies and regulations. Part II of the report addresses traditional energy efficiency indicators, including utility and state programs, codes, and standards that support annual energy savings. See the additional links for an infographic, library of cited state documents on demand flexibility, and presentation to the NASEO-NARUC Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Working Group.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Smart Ventilation Controls for Occupancy and Auxiliary Fan Use Across U.S. Climates

Smart Ventilation has been developed as a way to reduce the energy associated with ventilation by changing when ventilation happens and how much ventilation occurs at any given time. In high performance buildings with low envelope and appliance related loads, ventilation is becoming a bigger part of the total building energy use and needs to be addressed if performance targets are to be met. This work explores the development and performance of smart ventilation controls based on occupancy and auxiliary fan operation that provide annual dwelling unit ventilation equivalence to ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2016. A prototype high performance home compliant with U.S. DOE Building America Zero Energy Ready program requirements was simulated using the REGCAP tool with and without smart controls across 15 U.S. DOE climate zones. Balanced and unbalanced IAQ fans were independently simulated, and all smart controlled fans had airflows double the reference 62.2-2016 airflow. Three idealized occupancy patterns were examined: 1st shift (a typical daily work/school absence), an extended 1st shift with more time spent out of the home evenings and weekends and 3rd shift (night work). The Occupancy controller turns the IAQ fan off during unoccupied periods, and it resumes ventilation upon their return. While unoccupied, contaminants are allowed to accumulate in the space, because occupants are not exposed to these contaminants. When occupants return home, they are exposed to these higher contaminant concentrations, and the controller increases the ventilation rate sufficiently to ensure equivalence with a continuous IAQ fan. Accounting for pollutant emissions that occur during unoccupied periods (as required by ASHRAE 62.2-2016), sharply distinguishes our occupancy controls from past Demand Controlled Ventilation systems. This new accounting method results in equivalent contaminant exposure, as well as lower reductions in average ventilation rates and lower energy savings. Smart controls were demonstrated that saved HVAC energy (i.e., avoided heating/cooling load, as well as fan energy)—averaging between 6 and 46% of ventilation-related energy use depending on the control strategy and occupancy pattern assumptions. The greatest savings were in the combined Auxiliary Fan + Occupancy control. Energy savings increased with climate heating demand and longer unoccupied time periods. The 3rd shift occupancy pattern had better performance, due to the thermal benefit of reducing the ventilation rate during the cold nighttime hours. This same effect provided a cooling energy benefit in hotter locations for the 1st shift. Overall, savings from occupancy-based smart controls were low, because of the recovery period required after occupants return home, during which the airflow is double the 62.2 reference. This recovery is required to maintain equivalence with the ASHRAE standard. Occupancy-based control performance was improved when combined with sensing auxiliary fans and when providing a pre-occupancy flush out of one- or two-hours. Performance was similarly improved if the ASHRAE Standard were to recognize that pollutant emissions are lower during unoccupied periods, iii allowing a lower target ventilation rate during unoccupied periods (not currently in the standard) (see Full vs. Half AEQ in this report). Finally, over-sized unbalanced fans that are cycled on-and-off by a smart controller (or timer) were found to substantially increase annual average air exchange and energy use relative to a continuous unbalanced fan due to the effects of superposition with natural infiltration.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Electric Access System Enhancement (EASE): Assessment of a Distributed Energy Resource Management System for Enabling Dynamic Hosting Capacity

The Electric Access System Enhancement (EASE) project demonstrated a scalable, interoperable, and cost-effective means of integrating high penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs). The control architecture developed leveraged a Distributed Energy Resource Management System, Distribution System Operator for transacting energy, and 3rd Party DER Aggregator platform. The project identified ways to enhance the customer interconnection process to the grid and improve access to information from DERs and optimize the usage of DERs to provide energy services in a simulated day-ahead shadow market while maintain grid reliability. By integrating these capabilities into a scalable system of systems, the DSO can effectively balance DER generation and customer demand on the distribution network. This capability allows the grid to host more DER than traditionally possible on wires alone. Hosting more DER has the added benefit of supplying increased demand growth, sometimes beyond the capacity limits of the distribution network itself. This is known as a dynamic hosting capacity, which could help utilities manage the forecasted growth in electricity demand as California switch to electric vehicles and appliances. This could help to establish energy storage and PV generation as a “pseudo firm” generation resource mix if managed appropriately and provide sufficient resource adequacy for distribution capacity upgrade deferrals.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Cost-Benefit Analysis for Energy Efficient Refrigerators and Freezers in Uganda

Refrigeration appliances and equipment available on the market are manufactured with a wide range of energy performance. The goal of this report is to perform a cost-benefit analysis, providing policy recommendations to develop standards and labels for refrigerators in Uganda: in particular, an analysis of the cost-effectiveness of adopting the UNEP U4E MRG for refrigerators given the local context in Uganda.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Using Splunk® Enterprise Search Commands for Advanced Analysis of Ivanti Connect Secure© Logs

Analyzing the logs of even the smallest Information Technology (IT) system can be a challenge considering they can generate millions of lines of log data in a very short time. Splunk® Enterprise is an industry leading tool that allows analysis of log data, which can enhance troubleshooting capabilities, improve system performance, and improve the security posture of an IT system. Ivanti Connect Secure© (ICS) is a market-leading platform powered by the Ivanti Secure Socket Layer Virtual Private Network (SSL VPN) appliance, providing an architecture for secure access to and protection of network resources. This paper describes an approach for using Splunk Enterprise search capabilities to perform advanced data analysis of ICS logs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Review of Non-Regulatory Energy Efficiency Measures in the United States

Increasing energy efficiency is ubiquitous in many economies, and several mechanisms for achieving this increase, from mandatory policies to voluntary initiatives, have been proposed and implemented. In the United States, the Department of Energy, during the development of its energy conservation standard rules, evaluates the benefits from several of these mechanisms. In this report, we review how estimates of benefits from two types of voluntary energy efficiency initiatives – rebates and voluntary energy efficiency targets (VETs) – compare to the same benefits estimated for minimum energy efficiency standards (MEPS) established in the United States for residential appliances, commercial and industrial equipment, and lighting applications (referred to simply as “products” for the remainder of this report) between 2010 and 2020. Our results show that, overall, these two voluntary measures are estimated to provide, altogether, 36% of the total energy savings estimated to be provided by new efficiency standards, with a total net-present value that corresponds to 52% of the net-present value estimated for standards. When considering all energy conservation rules reviewed in this report, the energy savings a rebate program is estimated to achieve ranges from less than 1% to 86% of the savings from new standards set for the same type of product and at the same level of energy efficiency. As for VETs, the energy savings range from less than 1% to 78% of the savings from standards. Results vary widely across types of products due to (a) the relevance of the monetary incentive relative to incremental upfront costs considered for each type of product, and (b) the estimated level of market barriers associated with each type of product. While voluntary energy efficiency initiatives are not as effective as MEPS in transforming the market and raising the bar of energy efficiency for energy consuming goods in an economy, when applied in tandem with MEPS they can be powerful instruments for promoting and increasing energy efficiency in the economy.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗