Smart Sampling for Reduced and Representative Power System Scenario Selection
Not Available
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
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Results for “Power distribution systems”
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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Calibration of urban building energy model using smart meter data for district peak load prediction
Urban building energy modeling (UBEM) is a powerful approach to assessing baseline building energy performance and retrofits with new technologies across building stocks in cities. However, the accuracy of UBEM is often constrained by the limited availability of reliable data about building characteristics and operations, such as envelope efficiency levels, HVAC system performance, and end-use load patterns. Existing research has performed UBEM calibration using annual or monthly energy consumption data, which falls short when higher-resolution time series applications are needed, such as peak load prediction for utility operation planning. This study presents a new framework for calibrating building energy models at urban scale using smart meter data, targeting the accurate prediction of summer peak electricity loads to support robust grid planning. The framework first integrates various data sources to enhance baseline input assumptions for building models, and then calibrates the baseline models through a pattern-matching approach. A case study using CityBES and two years of AMI data from over 9000 residential customers in Portland, Oregon, demonstrated the workflow and its effectiveness. The calibrated models achieved a daily peak load mean absolute percentage error of 2.6 % during the heatwave in the calibration year, and 2.0 % in the validation year using another year of AMI data. Using the calibrated models, we analyzed the demand flexibility potential of the district building stock as an application of UBEM calibration. The findings affirm the appropriate use of UBEM for peak electric load forecasting and demand side management at the utility distribution system level.
AMI data↗
Effectively Considering the Distribution System in Integrated Resource Plans
While electricity planning practices vary by state and utility based on utility type and market structure, integrated resource planning (IRP) remains a prominent vehicle — even in states with centrally-organized wholesale electricity markets. IRP focuses on meeting forecasted long-term electricity needs. Typically, utilities have not considered impacts of design and operation of the low-voltage distribution network in IRP. With advanced capabilities of grid-edge technologies to generate and store electricity and provide load flexibility, and large utility investments in distribution systems, it's increasingly important to consider at least some distribution planning elements in IRP. This report considers the value proposition for doing so, such as reducing utility costs through resource co-optimization and strategic siting of grid-edge resources, and idenfities the most important touchpoints between planning for bulk power and distribution systems and provide a range of tactics for integrating these two processes.
Relf, Grace [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory↗
Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS) 2007 Field Campaign Objectives and Results
Desert "RATS" (Research and Technology Studies) is a combined, multi-discipline group of inter-NASA center scientists and engineers, net-working and collaborating with representatives of industry and academia, for the purpose of conducting planetary surface exploration-focused remote field exercises. These integrated testing exercises conducted under representative analog Lunar and Mars surface terrain conditions, provide NASA the capability to validate experimental prototype hardware and software systems as well as to evaluate and develop mission operational techniques in order to identify and establish technical requirements and identify potential technology "gaps" applicable for future planetary human exploration. The 2007 D-RATS field campaign test activities were initiated based on the major themes and objectives of a notional 5-year plan developed for conducting relative analog test activities in support of the engineering evaluation and assessment of various system architectural requirements, conceptual prototype support equipment and selected technologies necessary for the establishment of a lunar outpost. Specifically, the major objectives included measuring task efficiency during robot, human, and human-robot interactive tasks associated with lunar outpost site surveying and reconnaissance activities and deployment of a representative solar panel power and distribution system. In addition, technology demonstrations were conducted with a new Lithium-ion battery and autonomous software to coordinate multiple robot activities. Secondary objectives were evaluating airlock concept mockups and prototype removable space suit over-garment elements for dust mitigation, and upgrades to the prototype extravehicular activities (EVA) communication and information system. Dry run test activities, prior to testing at a designated remote field site location, were initially conducted at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Remote Field Demonstration Test Site. This is a multi-acre external test site located at JSC and has detailed representative terrain features simulating both Lunar and Mars surface characteristics. Both the local JSC and remote field test sites have terrain conditions that are representative and characteristic of both the Moon and Mars, such as strewn rock and volcanic ash fields, craters, rolling plains, hills, gullies, slopes, and outcrops. The D-RATS 2007 field campaign, representing the completion of its tenth year of analog testing, was conducted at the large Cinder Lake volcanic ash bed area adjacent to Flagstaff, Arizona.
Kosmo, Joseph↗
Critical zone identification framework for bulk electric system security assessment
Not Available
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Technical Characterization and Benefit Evaluation of 5G-Enabled Grid Data Transport and Applications
This report summarizes the Year 1 work of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL’s) 5G Fabricated Resource and Asset Management Encompassment for energy infrastructure (Energy FRAME) project funded by the Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program. 5G is a breakthrough technology that enables a fully mobile and connected society, and a 5G-enabled digital continuum will be one of the critical foundations for a clean energy economy and grid modernization. In collaboration with PNNL’s Advanced Wireless Communication team and Center for Advanced Technology Evaluation team, the project team has been evaluating the system performance of 5G testbeds in the PNNL 5G Innovation Studio, and has formulated a co-simulation test case of power system transmission, distribution, and communication (T&D&C) networks considering 5G technology and high penetration of distributed energy resources. The methodology developed in the 5G Energy FRAME project can be customized to fit different future grid scenarios to evaluate multiple (dynamic) configurations (computing, sensing, communication, environment) for different stakeholders. In summary, our main technical highlights in project Year 1 are as follows: 1) Technical characterization of 5G standalone architectures, 2) Formulation of co-simulation test case of T&D&C networks embedded with 5G, 3) Initial benefit evaluation of 5G communication platform for grid use cases, and 4) Additional extended discussions on edge computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and high-performance computing and cloud computing adoptions. In addition, a collection of system performance data is shared through the publicly available weblink, https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/5g-energy-frame/publications
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Circuit for Communication Over Power Lines
Many distributed systems share common sensors and instruments along with a common power line supplying current to the system. A communication technique and circuit has been developed that allows for the simple inclusion of an instrument, sensor, or actuator node within any system containing a common power bus. Wherever power is available, a node can be added, which can then draw power for itself, its associated sensors, and actuators from the power bus all while communicating with other nodes on the power bus. The technique modulates a DC power bus through capacitive coupling using on-off keying (OOK), and receives and demodulates the signal from the DC power bus through the same capacitive coupling. The circuit acts as serial modem for the physical power line communication. The circuit and technique can be made of commercially available components or included in an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design, which allows for the circuit to be included in current designs with additional circuitry or embedded into new designs. This device and technique moves computational, sensing, and actuation abilities closer to the source, and allows for the networking of multiple similar nodes to each other and to a central processor. This technique also allows for reconfigurable systems by adding or removing nodes at any time. It can do so using nothing more than the in situ power wiring of the system.
Krasowski, Michael J.↗
Status of a Power Processor for the Prometheus-1 Electric Propulsion System
NASA is developing technologies for nuclear electric propulsion for proposed deep space missions in support of the Exploration initiative under Project Prometheus. Electrical power produced by the combination of a fission-based power source and a Brayton power conversion and distribution system is used by a high specific impulse ion propulsion system to propel the spaceship. The ion propulsion system include the thruster, power processor and propellant feed system. A power processor technology development effort was initiated under Project Prometheus to develop high performance and lightweight power-processing technologies suitable for the application. This effort faces multiple challenges including developing radiation hardened power modules and converters with very high power capability and efficiency to minimize the impact on the power conversion and distribution system as well as the heat rejection system. This paper documents the design and test results of the first version of the beam supply, the design of a second version of the beam supply and the design and test results of the ancillary supplies.
Pinero, Luis R.↗
A Smart and Flexible Microgrid with a Low-cost Scalable Open-source Controller (Final Report)
This report contains information regarding the activities carried out in the project "A Smart and Flexible Microgrid with a Low-cost Scalable Open-source Controller. The project aims at developing a community-based flexible microgrid (FMG) with smart grid features, including multiple utility feeders and dynamic boundaries that utilize intelligent switches and ultra-high-speed communication links already in a smart grid. The project also aims at developing a corresponding controller for such an FMG with low cost and high scalability. With distributed renewable energy resources (DERs) and the intelligent microgrid controller, the FMG will achieve aggressive emission reduction, increased energy use efficiency, and reliability improvement goals. The FMG and its controller design will be scalable for different geographic areas, load sizes, distributed generation source number and types, and even multiple MGs within a distribution electric power system. In order to achieve these project objectives, three main development tasks were carried out: FMG design, FMG controller development, and FMG controller testing. The fourth task was technology to market.
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Synthetic, Realistic Transmission and Distribution Co-Simulation for Voltage Control Benchmarking
As distributed energy resources (DERs) play an increasing role in generation and grid services, control and market paradigms will need to be tested with models that incorporate transmission and distribution systems. The test systems will need to be realistic and accessible for researchers to form conclusions about realistic behaviors and maintain comparability and repeatability of results. These test systems also must have high resolution models of sufficient size for realistic distribution and transmission interaction. This paper demonstrates the tightly coupled HELICS-based co-simulation of realistic synthetic distribution and transmission models for the Austin metropolitan area and how this framework can be used to analyze resultant behaviors from distributed resources and their controls. These results are compared to the same distribution system run without co-simulation using a fixed feed-in voltage. Results show that even without advanced voltage controls, the feed-in voltage response when coupled to the transmission system results a lower level of voltage excursions, suggesting the importance of using this type of realistic, tightly coupled, transmission and distribution cosimulation when assessing DERs.
27 ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy↗
Synthetic, Realistic Transmission and Distribution Co-Simulation for Voltage Control Benchmarking
As distributed energy resources (DERs) play an increasing role in generation and grid services, control and market paradigms will need to be tested with models that incorporate transmission and distribution systems. The test systems will need to be realistic and accessible for researchers to form conclusions about realistic behaviors and maintain comparability and repeatability of results. These test systems also must have high resolution models of sufficient size for realistic distribution and transmission interaction. This paper demonstrates the tightly coupled HELICS-based co-simulation of realistic synthetic distribution and transmission models for the Austin metropolitan area and how this framework can be used to analyze resultant behaviors from distributed resources and their controls. These results are compared to the same distribution system run without co-simulation using a fixed feed-in voltage. Results show that even without advanced voltage controls, the feed-in voltage response when coupled to the transmission system results a lower level of voltage excursions, suggesting the importance of using this type of realistic, tightly coupled, transmission and distribution co-simulation when assessing DERs.
27 ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy↗
Synthetic, Realistic Transmission and Distribution Co-Simulation for Voltage Control Benchmarking: Preprint
As distributed energy resources play an increasing role in generation and grid services, control and market paradigms will need to be tested with models that incorporate transmission and distribution systems. The test systems will need to be realistic and accessible for researchers to form conclusions about realistic behaviors and maintain comparability and repeatability of results. These test systems also must have high resolution models of sufficient size for realistic distribution and transmission interaction. This paper demonstrates the tightly coupled co-simulation of realistic synthetic distribution and transmission models for the Austin metropolitan area and how this framework can be used to analyze resultant behaviors from distributed resources and their controls. The comparison of a distribution system run with fixed feed-in voltage is compared to the closely tied distribution-transmission co-simulation. It is determined that even without advanced voltage controls, the feed-in voltage response of the transmission system shows a lower level of voltage excursions. Therefore, control methods for voltage stability should be benchmarked on realistic transmission and distribution co-simulations for more accurate assessment of voltage profiles.
27 ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy↗
A Model Predictive Control to Improve Grid Resilience
The following article details a model predictive control (MPC) to improve grid resilience when faced with variable generation resources. This topic is of significant interest to utility power systems where distributed intermittent energy sources will increase significantly and be relied on for electric grid ancillary services. Previous work on MPCs has focused on narrowly targeted control applications such as improving electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure or reducing the cost of integrating Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) into the grid. In contrast, this article develops a comprehensive treatment of the construction of an MPC tailored to electric grids and then applies it integration of intermittent energy resources. To accomplish this, the following article includes a description of a reduced order model (ROM) of an electric power grid based on a circuit model, an optimization formulation that describes the MPC, a collocation method for solving linear time-dependent differential algebraic equations (DAEs) that result from the ROM, and an overall strategy for iteratively refining the behavior of the MPC. Next, the algorithm is validated using two separate numerical experiments. First, the algorithm is compared to an existing MPC code and the results are verified by a numerically precise simulation. It is shown that this algorithm produces a control comparable to existing algorithms and the behavior of the control carefully respects the bounds specified. Second, the MPC is applied to a small nine bus system that contains a mix of turbine-spinning-machine-based and intermittent generation in order to demonstrate the algorithm’s utility for resource planning and control of intermittent resources. This study demonstrates how the MPC can be tuned to change the behavior of the control, which can then assist with the integration of intermittent resources into the grid. The emphasis throughout the paper is to provide systematic treatment of the topic and produce a novel nonlinear control compatible design framework applicable to electric grids and the control of variable resources. This differs from the more targeted application-based focus in most presentations.
microgrid↗
On the impact of tidal generation and energy storage integration in PV-rich electric distribution systems
Deep decarbonization of power system operations requires the maximal utilization of available renewable resources. At distribution-level operations, however, grid operators can face numerous challenges in integrating renewables at scale owing to the inherent intermittence of renewable energy resources. These include phenomena such as voltage fluctuations, which are typically mitigated through control actuators such as on-load tap changers (OLTC) as well as energy storage devices, such as battery energy storage systems (BESS). On the one hand, high intermittence of the available renewable portfolio may require increasingly aggressive control of actuators, thereby accelerating the probability of equipment failure. On the other hand, integrating BESS operations and having a diverse renewable generation portfolio can typically help stagger power/energy flow to mitigate the aforementioned adverse impacts. In this paper, we employ a Bayesian framework for equipment lifetime estimation to understand the impact of including tidal energy resources and BESS in distribution system operations for feeders having substantial distribution photovoltaic generation. Our results indicate that while tidal energy alone may slightly decrease equipment reliability, the adverse impact on reliability is significantly magnified by a generation portfolio consisting of tidal generation and photovoltaic generation. Here, we also study the tidal and photovoltaic hosting capacity problem with and without energy storage systems using equipment reliability as an added constraint. We conclude that energy storage increases the reliability-constrained hosting capacity of the distribution system.
14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
5G Energy FRAME: The Design and Implementation of Data, Model, and Use Case (Year 2 Report)
This report summarizes the Year 2 work of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL’s) 5G Fabricated Resource and Asset Management Encompassment for energy infrastructure (Energy FRAME) project funded by the Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) Program. In this report, newest 5G equipment testing results are presented, along with two 5G-enabled AI/ML examples for grid applications; in addition, the work flow of grid edge, cloud, and High Performance Computing (HPC) platform is introduced, to support and interface the cross-domain simulation for power system transmission, distribution, and communication networks. Last but not least, the outlook for Year 3 work and the overarching impact of 5G Energy FRAME work to a multitude of stakeholders are provided. Additional 5G performance data now is shared through the publicly available weblink, https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/5g-energy-frame/publications
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Blackstart Capability and Survivability of Wind Turbines with Fully Rated Converters
We report the blackstart capability of wind turbines is critical for the recovery of wind-dominant power systems from blackouts. If wind power plants are not able to restore a power system, the incorporation of wind resources into electric grids could be limited by blackstart capability. This paper tackles this problem by setting forth a grid-forming controller for Type 4 wind turbines which employ fully rated power converters. To this end, we engineer two-axis anti-windup proportional-integral regulators that serve to ride through restoration disturbances. We also design an active protection system to prevent wind turbines from stalling during recovery from blackouts. We demonstrate in a high-fidelity simulation environment that Type 4 wind turbines with the developed controllers and protection subsystem can: (i) re-energize a notional wind-dominant grid; (ii) ride through asymmetrical faults; and (iii) survive low wind speed events.
17 WIND ENERGY↗
Transient Simulations with a Large Penetration of Converter-Interfaced Generation: Scientific Computing Challenges and Opportunities
Current trends in energy systems point to renewable energy sources (RESs) and battery energy storage systems (BESSs) becoming prevalent in power system operations. As of writing this article, the United States has more than 37 GW of utility-scale solar capacity and an additional 112 GW under development. With the rapidly declining capital costs of many of these technologies, we can expect significant deployments in the coming years.
analytical models↗
A Barrier-Certificated Reinforcement Learning Approach for Enhancing Power System Transient Stability
Increasing integration of renewable resources brings more flexibility and poses new challenges to modern power systems, leading to highly nonlinear and complex dynamics. Here, this paper aims to provide a general solution framework to traditional control problems, such as frequency control and voltage control, which attempt to maintain the stability of either synchronous generators-governed or inverter-governed systems when subjected to a disturbance and simultaneously guarantee operational constraints, providing a complete complement to existing works on control design. Building on reinforcement learning (RL) and control barrier functions, the framework includes two subsystems, i.e., a model-free controller and a barrier-certification system, which discover RL-based control actions and sequentially filter them using a barrier certificate to satisfy operational constraints. Calculating a barrier function is generally challenging for a complex power system. This is addressed by representing the barrier function using neural networks (NNs) and data-based approaches. An adaptive method is introduced to certify the neural barrier function that perseveres barrier conditions, which is more compatible with online implementation. The proposed framework synthesizes a stabilizing controller that satisfies predefined safety regions. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated via several comparative case studies.
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