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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Brine Extraction and Treatment Strategies to Enhance Pressure Management and Control of CO 2 Plumes in Deep Geologic Formations

The overall goal of the this project is to develop and validate pressure management and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) plume control strategies that can address technical and economic barriers to commercial deployment of CO 2 storage technologies, based on computational and field demonstration work at the Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) facility where the Illinois Basin–Decatur Project (IBDP) and the Illinois-Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (IL-ICCS) projects are located. To accomplish the overall goal, the ISGS designed a brine extraction storage test (BEST) that could be completed in two phases. The goal of BEST Phase I was to evaluate the feasibilities of extraction well(s) placement, the brine extraction to CO 2 injection rate ratio, extraction well completion, and brine treatment and handling. The goal of BEST Phase II would be to validate the brine extraction and treatment options deemed feasible in Phase I by (1) demonstrating the efficacy of brine extraction (BE) in managing pressure (i.e., formation) and the CO 2 plume, and (2) demonstrating treatment of extracted brine with high total dissolved solids (TDS; >200,000 mg/L) using multiple advanced treatment technologies. This report details work done in Phase I. Several brine extraction and treatment scenarios were tested, simulated, and analyzed for their effectiveness in extracting brine. Initially a vertical well was studied; however, geologic modeling, reservoir modeling, and the existing facility and wellbore infrastructure dictated that the location of a vertical brine extraction well was limited to an area with no existing monitoring wells and where the well would be in relative proximity to an existing CO 2 plume. Consequently, a vertical well was excluded, and a horizontal brine extraction well placed above the existing CO 2 plume near two existing wells was studied. The horizontal well option allows the project to leverage the availability of cased-hole logs and cross-well tomography to monitor CO 2 saturation and plume distribution, respectively. Because of the proximity of the horizontal well option to two existing wells, no additional monitoring well (or caprock penetration) is required. The recommended brine extraction pilot design options are (1) a horizontal extraction well at the base of the Middle Mt. Simon, which is 350–520 ft (107–158 m) above the CO 2 plume at CCS#1 and VW#1; or (2) a vertical extraction well 0.5 mi (0.8 km) from CCS#2 in a direction approximately southeast of CCS#2, perpendicular to the direction of high hydraulic connectivity. A horizontal extraction well has advantages over a vertical extraction well, including less risk of drilling into an existing CO 2 plume and it can be located between two other wells that can be used for monitoring. Thus, because the two existing wells can serve as monitoring wells, it eliminates the need for a third verification well and allows for a lower extraction rate to control the CO 2 plume and pressure. Managing pressure and the CO 2 plume distribution via brine extraction creates the obvious and important challenge of handling and treating the extracted brine. There were three options for brine disposal: (1) underground injection control (UIC) disposal well, (2) brine treatment and industrial use, and (3) brine pretreatment and discharge into municipal wastewater system. The primary design elements were budget and permitting requirements. The disposal well would be a vertical well drilled and completed into the Potosi Dolomite. For the range of extraction rates anticipated, the cost of this well is relatively constant. The cost of brine treatment is highly depends on the extraction rate, which depends on the well orientation. If relatively high rates are required, the vertical disposal well option is more favorable; for relatively lower rates, the two brine treatment options have lower costs. Life-cycle-analysis studies on extracted brine handling options suggest that a UIC well has a lower environmental impact than brine treatment. Both brine disposal options using brine treatment require removal of suspended solids from the extracted brine. The most suitable commercially available technology and the most promising emerging and innovative technology are recommended for implementation in Phase II. Though the challenges of this project are written specific to Decatur, every CO 2 storage site considering the use of brine extraction integrated with CO 2 storage will have similar, if not identical, technical and logistical challenges.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Transportation Electrification Education Partnership for Green Jobs and Sustainable Mobility

This collaborative educational project between the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, University of Michigan—Dearborn and the Kettering University successfully executed almost all the elements we proposed to do. In the original proposal, we proposed to develop four graduate courses, six undergraduate courses, four professional short courses, a K-12 electric vehicle education kit, a Saturday morning seminar series, and a set of consumer education material to support the advancement of transportation electrification. The first four deliverables were all successfully developed and offered. When we held the kick-off meeting in NETL in Morgantown back in early 2010 with all the ten ARRA education teams, however, it quickly became clear that among the ten ARRA education grantee teams, our proposed “consume education” activities are not better or with the potential to create bigger impact than some of activities proposed in other teams. For example, the Odyssey 2010 event held by the West Virginia University team had planned and successfully reached to more than 230,000 attendees, which is way more than what our proposed 100k event could ever reach. It was under the suggestion of Joseph Quaranta, the ARRA education Program Director at that time, that we should coordinate and eliminate redundancy. The resources should then be focused on activities that have less overlap. Therefore, the originally proposed activities: Saturday morning seminar series, and a set of consumer education material were dropped from our scope. We expanded the scope of our “education kit” activity to include some educational materials, mainly in the form of videos. The target audience also changed from general public to K-12 students. The majority of the project cost (~70%) goes toward the establishment of three undergraduate laboratories, which provides critically needed hands-on learning experience for next-generation green mobility engineers. We are very proud that the ARRA money, which was distributed as part of the economy stimulus package back in 2009, was used to invest in laboratories which are already impacting the learning experience of our undergraduate and graduate students, and will continue to do so in the coming decades. The offering and enrollments of the ten undergraduate and graduate courses developed under the support of this educational grant is summarized in the table below. The grant was finalized in September 2009, and four new courses were developed and offered soon after in Winter 2010. The other six courses were developed thereafter. The total number of students who took these new courses over the duration of this grant is just over 1,000. In the first 2 years, under the DOE funding, the courses are offered more regularly. After that, the courses were considered together with other existing courses in the planning of teaching schedule and may not be offered each year. Almost all of the 10 courses have healthy enrollments and we do expect them to be offered continuously in the future. The graduate courses perhaps will be offered every 2-3 years, and the undergraduate courses most likely on a yearly basis.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Science Uses Deployment Operations-Advanced Wireless: Exploring Open Radio Access Network Technologies for Energy Science

Open Radio Access Network is emerging as a solution to the increasing demand for more flexible, cost-effective, and advanced mobile network infrastructures. This evolution is driven by advancements in wireless technologies and the growing complexity of deploying and managing these networks. O-RAN represents a significant shift in wireless technology, building upon the 3rd Generation Partnership Project framework to foster openness, flexibility, and interoperability. By decoupling hardware and software components, Open Radio Access Network enables a multi-vendor ecosystem that encourages innovation and diverse solutions. Open Radio Access Network's potential extends beyond traditional wireless applications, with growing interest in its role in advancing energy systems, particularly in the context of smart grids, microgrids, and the integration of renewable energy sources. While the role of open-wireless technologies in driving energy transformation is increasingly recognized, further exploration is needed. Vendors and utilities are investigating how Open Radio Access Network technologies can optimize energy use cases and improve the performance of 5G and beyond applications. This report outlines efforts under the Science Uses Deployment Operations Advance Wireless project, a collaboration between the National Laboratory of the Rockies' Cybersecurity Research Center, Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Department of Energy's Energy Science Network research and operations staff. The focus of this project is on due diligence, through testing and evaluation, preparing for the deployment of advanced wireless infrastructure for scientific use cases, with an emphasis on Open Radio Access Network technology, its components, integrations, and its ability to support vertical stack application across the energy sector. Additionally, the report highlights the value cases for utilities, underscoring how adopting open wireless standards can accelerate the evolution of energy systems, foster innovation, and improve the integration of critical energy technologies.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Potential Impacts of Dynamic Electricity Pricing in California: Load Shape and Customer Bill Impacts Under Elastic Customer Response

The increasing penetration of renewable energy in California has intensified grid management challenges, exemplified by the “duck curve” and the resulting need for steep ramping and curtailment of renewables. To address these issues, dynamic electricity tariffs that vary in near-real time are being considered to incentivize customers to shift demand and support the grid. This study extends previous work on the bill impacts of such tariffs in the absence of load response by quantifying the system-level and customer impacts of load response based on customer price elasticity. Customer-level load response modeling was conducted using meter data from 411,000 customers across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Customer demand elasticity was estimated using literature-based values, with scenarios ranging from low to high elasticity, including an automation-enhanced scenario. Results indicate that universal adoption of, and response to, dynamic tariffs can significantly reduce peak net load (by 15%) and maximum ramping requirements (by 20%) with moderate elasticity, delivering demand response resources comparable to or exceeding current programs at all elasticity levels. Bill analysis shows that, when responding elastically to dynamic prices, most non-PV customers experience modest savings, while PV customers may see higher effective rates due to lower compensation for exports during low-price periods. Emissions analysis reveals a reduction in per-kWh emissions system-wide, with a total absolute load increase of 2% accompanied by a negligible absolute emissions increase. The study concludes that while dynamic tariffs offer substantial grid benefits, customer bill savings under modeled response behaviors may be too modest to drive widespread adoption without additional incentives or enabling technologies. Future research should model flexible loads and advanced control technologies with greater fidelity to better represent the potential opportunities of dynamic tariffs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2014

Centralized Cryptographic Key Management and Critical Risk Assessment - (CRADA Final Report)

The Department of Energy Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE-OE) Cyber Security for Energy Delivery Systems (CSEDS) industry led program (DE-FOA-0000359) entitled "Innovation for Increasing Cyber Security for Energy Delivery Systems (12CSEDS)," awarded a contract to Sypris Electronics LLC to develop a Cryptographic Key Management System for the smart grid (Scalable Key Management Solutions for Critical Infrastructure Protection). Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Sypris Electronics, LLC as a result of that award entered into a CRADA (NFE-11-03562) between ORNL and Sypris Electronics, LLC. ORNL provided its Cyber Security Econometrics System (CSES) as a tool to be modified and used as a metric to address risks and vulnerabilities in the management of cryptographic keys within the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) domain of the electric sector. ORNL concentrated our analysis on the AMI domain of which the National Electric Sector Cyber security Organization Resource (NESCOR) Working Group 1 (WG1) has documented 29 failure scenarios. The computational infrastructure of this metric involves system stakeholders, security requirements, system components and security threats. To compute this metric, we estimated the stakes that each stakeholder associates with each security requirement, as well as stochastic matrices that represent the probability of a threat to cause a component failure and the probability of a component failure to cause a security requirement violation. We applied this model to estimate the security of the AMI, by leveraging the recently established National Institute of Standards and Technology Interagency Report (NISTIR) 7628 guidelines for smart grid security and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 63351, Part 9 to identify the life cycle for cryptographic key management, resulting in a vector that assigned to each stakeholder an estimate of their average loss in terms of dollars per day of system operation. To further address probabilities of threats, information security analysis can be performed using game theory implemented in dynamic Agent Based Game Theoretic (ABGT) simulations. Such simulations can be verified with the results from game theory analysis and further used to explore larger scale, real world scenarios involving multiple attackers, defenders, and information assets. The strategy for the game was developed by analyzing five electric sector representative failure scenarios contained in the AMI functional domain from NESCOR WG1. From these five selected scenarios, we characterized them into three specific threat categories affecting confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA). The analysis using our ABGT simulation demonstrated how to model the AMI functional domain using a set of rationalized game theoretic rules decomposed from the failure scenarios in terms of how those scenarios might impact the AMI network with respect to CIA.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2018

The MidAmerica Regional Microgrid Education and Training (MARMET) Consortium

The primary goal of this project was to integrate cutting-edge research and advanced instructional methods to create a flexible, evolving approach to microgrid and distributed energy resources training for all levels of student. This goal entailed the rapid development of modular material to capture and reflect the newest trends in electric power microgrid engineering and to make it available in traditional and non-traditional settings. It was our goal to develop course material that can be readily integrated into either existing courses or organized into new courses. The target audiences include technicians, contractors and consultants, inspectors, policy makers, supervisors, and engineers and undergraduate and graduate students. The main project objectives were to: 1) Perform a gap analysis to identify the research/educational/training needs and define specific implementation plans for these activities in distributed technology and Smart Grid power engineering by working with Department of Energy, the National Network Administrator (NNA) and other Distributed Technology Training Consortia (DTTC). 2) Develop learning content related to, and driven by, microgrid research, consisting of one or more multimedia-based modules. Over the life of the project MARMET provided training to 11,012 students and developed 154,432 contact hours of material (see the IREC NNA, DE-EE0006342, final project report for added details on MARMET evaluation and assessment metrics, as well as an overview of the entire GEARED network. 3) Provide a variety of delivery mechanisms and venues for face-to-face and on-line instruction in power system engineering and related smart grid operations, including university-based courses, short courses, and workshops. 4) Assemble and engage highly-qualified advisory and steering committees of experts from utilities, universities, national laboratories, and product suppliers for this DTTC, to guide and advise the activities of the DTTC, and to assist in creating student internships, coops, research projects and academic competitions for GEARED students within the DTTC and nationally. 5) Convene regular meetings of Consortia partners to disseminate research results among the participants (universities, utilities, and industry). 6) Develop recruitment mechanisms to publicize GEARED student opportunities and highlight the educational benefits of GEARED participation to assure long-term sustainability of student recruitment and retention. 7) Participate in GEARED National Network activities to identify and adopt best practices across all GEARED consortia. 8) Organize, host and manage at least one annual Student-Centered Research Conference on behalf of the GEARED Network during the period of performance; participate in each annual national Student-Centered Research Conference.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Blockchain Research and Development Activities Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and Utility Sector

This article provides an in-depth analysis of blockchain research in the energy sector, focusing on projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and comparing them with industry-funded initiatives. A total of 110 funded activities within the U.S. power industry were successfully tracked and mapped into a newly developed categorization framework. This framework is designed to help research agencies to systematically understand their funded portfolio. Such characterization is expected to help them make effective investments, identify research gaps, measure impact, and advance technological progress to meet national goals. In line with this need, the proposed framework proposes a 2-D categorization matrix to systematically classify blockchain efforts within the energy sector.Under the proposed framework, the Energy System Domain serves as the primary classification dimension, categorizing use cases into 30 distinct applications. The second dimension, Blockchain Properties, captures the specific needs and functionalities provided by Blockchain technology. The aim was to capture blockchain’s applicability and functionality: where and why blockchain? Principles behind the selection of the viewpoint dimensions were carefully defined based on consensus obtained through the Blockchain for Optimized Security and Energy Management (BLOSEM) project. The mapped results show that activities within the Grid Automation, Coordination, and Control (31.8%), Marketplaces and Trading (25.5%), Foundational Blockchain Research (19.1%), and Supply Chain Management (17.3%) domains have been actively pursued to date. The three leading specific use case applications were identified as Transactive Energy Management for Marketplaces and Trading, Asset Management for Supply Chain Management, and Fundamental Blockchain for Foundational Blockchain Research. The Marketplaces and Trading and Retail Services Enablement domains stood out as being favored by industry by a factor greater than 2 (2.3 and 2.6, respectively), yet there seemed to be little to zero investment from DOE. Approximately 76% of the total projects prioritized Immutability, Identity Management, and Decentralization and/or Disintermediation compared to Asset Digitization and/or Tokenization, Automation, and Privacy and/or Anonymity. The greatest discrepancies between DOE and industry were in Asset Digitization and/or Tokenization and Automation. The industry efforts (36% in Asset Digitization/Tokenization and 22% in Automation) was 14 times and 2.4 times, respectively, more intensive than the DOE-sponsored efforts, indicating a significant discrepancy in industry versus government priorities. Overall, quantifying DOE-sponsored projects and industry activities through mapping provides clarity on portfolio investments and opportunities for future research.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Foundation Models for the Electric Power Grid

Foundation models (FMs) currently dominate news headlines. They employ advanced deep learning architectures to extract structural information autonomously from vast datasets through self-supervision. The resulting rich representations of complex systems and dynamics can be applied to many downstream applications. Therefore, advances in FMs can find uses in electric power grids, challenged by the energy transition and climate change. This paper calls for the development of FMs for electric grids. We highlight their strengths and weaknesses amidst the challenges of a changing grid. It is argued that FMs learning from diverse grid data and topologies, which we call grid foundation models (GridFMs), could unlock transformative capabilities, pioneering a new approach to leveraging AI to redefine how we manage complexity and uncertainty in the electric grid. Finally, we discuss a practical implementation pathway and road map of a GridFM-v0, a first GridFM for power flow applications based on graph neural networks, and explore how various downstream use cases will benefit from this model and future GridFMs.

AI-based power flow simulation↗
DOE OSTI2015

Technology solutions for wind integration in ERCOT

Texas has for more than a decade led all other states in the U.S. with the most wind generation capacity on the U.S. electric grid. The State recognized the value that wind energy could provide, and committed early on to build out the transmission system necessary to move power from the windy regions in West Texas to the major population centers across the state. It also signaled support for renewables on the grid by adopting an aggressive renewable portfolio standard (RPS). The joining of these conditions with favorable Federal tax credits has driven the rapid growth in Texas wind capacity since its small beginning in 2000. In addition to the major transmission grid upgrades, there have been a number of technology and policy improvements that have kept the grid reliable while adding more and more intermittent wind generation. Technology advancements such as better wind forecasting and deployment of a nodal market system have improved the grid efficiency of wind. Successful large scale wind integration into the electric grid, however, continues to pose challenges. The continuing rapid growth in wind energy calls for a number of technology additions that will be needed to reliably accommodate an expected 65% increase in future wind resources. The Center for the Commercialization of Electric Technologies (CCET) recognized this technology challenge in 2009 when it submitted an application for funding of a regional demonstration project under the Recovery Act program administered by the U.S. Department of Energy1. Under that program the administration announced the largest energy grid modernization investment in U.S. history, making available some $3.4 billion in grants to fund development of a broad range of technologies for a more efficient and reliable electric system, including the growth of renewable energy sources like wind and solar. At that time, Texas was (and still is) the nation’s leader in the integration of wind into the grid, and was investing heavily in the infrastructure needed to increase the viability of this important resource. To help Texas and the rest of the nation address the challenges associated with the integration of large amounts of renewables, CCET seized on the federal opportunity to undertake a multi-faceted project aimed at demonstrating the viability of new “smart grid” technologies to facilitate larger amounts of wind energy through better system monitoring capabilities, enhanced operator visualization, and improved load management. In early 2010, CCET was awarded a $27 million grant, half funded by the Department of Energy and half-funded by project participants. With this funding, CCET undertook the project named Discovery Across Texas which has demonstrated how existing and new technologies can better integrate wind power into the state’s grid. The following pages summarize the results of seven technology demonstrations that will help Texas and the nation meet this wind integration challenge.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Sensitivity and Uncertainty Workflow of Full System SIERRA Models Supporting High Consequence Applications

Credibility of end-to-end CompSim (Computational Simulation) models and their agile execution requires an expressive framework to describe, communicate and execute complex computational tool chains representing the model. All stakeholders from system engineering and customers through model developers and V&V partners need views and functionalities of the workflow representing the model in a manner that is natural to their discipline. In the milestone and in this report we define workflow as a network of computation simulation activities executed autonomously on a distributed set of computational platforms. The FY19 ASC L2 Milestone (6802) for the Integrated Workflow (IWF) project was designed to integrate and improve existing capabilities or develop new functionalities to provide a wide range of stakeholders a coherent and intuitive platform capable of defining and executing CompSim modeling from analysis workflow definition to complex ensemble calculations. The main goal of the milestone was to advance the integrated workflow capabilities to support the weapon system analysts with a production deployment in FY20. Ensemble calculations supporting program decisions include sensitivity analysis, optimization and uncertainty quantification. The goal of the L2 milestone aligned with the ultimate goal of the IWF project is to foster cultural and technical shift toward and integrated CompSim capability based on automated workflows. Specific deliverables were defined in five broad categories: 1) Infrastructure, including development of distributed-computing workflow capability, 2) integration of Dakota (Sandia's sensitivity, optimization and UQ engine) with SAW (Sandia Analysis Workbench), 3) ARG (Automatic Report Generator introspecting analysis artifacts and generating human-readable extensible and archivable reports), 4) Libraries and Repositories aiding capability reuse, and 5) Exemplars to support training, capturing best practices and stress testing of the platform. A set of exemplars was defined to represent typical weapon system qualification CompSim projects. Analyzing the required capabilities and using the findings to plan implementation of required capabilities ensured optimal allocation of development resources focused on production deployment after the L2 is completed. It was recognized early that the end-to-end modeling applications pose a considerable number of diverse risks, and a formal risk tracking process was implemented. The project leveraged products, capabilities and development tasks of IWF partners. SAW, Dakota, Cubit, Sierra, Slycat, and NGA (NexGen Analytics, a small business) contributed to the integrated platform developed during this milestone effort. New products delivered include: a) NGW (Next Generation Workflow) for robust workflow definition and execution, b) Dakota wizards, editor and results visualization, and c) the automatic report generator ARG. User engagement was initiated early in the development process eliciting concrete requirements and actionable feedback to assure that the integrated CompSim capability will have high user acceptance and impact. The current integrated capabilities have been demonstrated and are continually being tested by a set of exemplars ranging from training scenarios to computationally demanding uncertainty analyses. The integrated workflow platform has been deployed on both SRN (Sandia Restricted Network) and SCN (Sandia Classified Network). Computational platforms where the system has been demonstrated span from Windows (Creo the CAD platform chosen by Sandia) to Trinity HPC (Sierra and CTH solvers). Follow up work will focus on deployment at SNL and other sites in the nuclear enterprise (LLNL, KCNSC), training and consulting support to democratize the analysis agility, process health and knowledge management benefits the NGW platform provides.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2012

AVESTAR Center for Operational Excellence of Electricity Generation Plants

To address industry challenges in attaining operational excellence for electricity generation plants, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has launched a world-class facility for Advanced Virtual Energy Simulation Training and Research (AVESTARTM). This presentation will highlight the AVESTARTM Center simulators, facilities, and comprehensive training, education, and research programs focused on the operation and control of high-efficiency, near-zero-emission electricity generation plants. The AVESTAR Center brings together state-of-the-art, real-time, high-fidelity dynamic simulators with full-scope operator training systems (OTSs) and 3D virtual immersive training systems (ITSs) into an integrated energy plant and control room environment. AVESTAR’s initial offering combines--for the first time--a “gasification with CO2 capture” process simulator with a “combined-cycle” power simulator together in a single OTS/ITS solution for an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant with carbon dioxide (CO2) capture. IGCC systems are an attractive technology option for power generation, especially when capturing and storing CO2 is necessary to satisfy emission targets. The AVESTAR training program offers a variety of courses that merge classroom learning, simulator-based OTS learning in a control-room operations environment, and immersive learning in the interactive 3D virtual plant environment or ITS. All of the courses introduce trainees to base-load plant operation, control, startups, and shutdowns. Advanced courses require participants to become familiar with coordinated control, fuel switching, power-demand load shedding, and load following, as well as to problem solve equipment and process malfunctions. Designed to ensure work force development, training is offered for control room and plant field operators, as well as engineers and managers. Such comprehensive simulator-based instruction allows for realistic training without compromising worker, equipment, and environmental safety. It also better prepares operators and engineers to manage the plant closer to economic constraints while minimizing or avoiding the impact of any potentially harmful, wasteful, or inefficient events. The AVESTAR Center is also used to augment graduate and undergraduate engineering education in the areas of process simulation, dynamics, control, and safety. Students and researchers gain hands-on simulator-based training experience and learn how the commercial-scale power plants respond dynamically to changes in manipulated inputs, such as coal feed flow rate and power demand. Students also analyze how the regulatory control system impacts power plant performance and stability. In addition, students practice start-up, shutdown, and malfunction scenarios. The 3D virtual ITSs are used for plant familiarization, walk-through, equipment animations, and safety scenarios. To further leverage the AVESTAR facilities and simulators, NETL and its university partners are pursuing an innovative and collaborative R&D program. In the area of process control, AVESTAR researchers are developing enhanced strategies for regulatory control and coordinated plant-wide control, including gasifier and gas turbine lead, as well as advanced process control using model predictive control (MPC) techniques. Other AVESTAR R&D focus areas include high-fidelity equipment modeling using partial differential equations, dynamic reduced order modeling, optimal sensor placement, 3D virtual plant simulation, and modern grid. NETL and its partners plan to continue building the AVESTAR portfolio of dynamic simulators, immersive training systems, and advanced research capabilities to satisfy industry’s growing need for training and experience with the operation and control of clean energy plants. Future dynamic simulators under development include natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) and supercritical pulverized coal (SCPC) plants with post-combustion CO2 capture. These dynamic simulators are targeted for use in establishing a Virtual Carbon Capture Center (VCCC), similar in concept to the DOE’s National Carbon Capture Center for slipstream testing. The VCCC will enable developers of CO2 capture technologies to integrate, test, and optimize the operation of their dynamic capture models within the context of baseline power plant dynamic models. The objective is to provide hands-on, simulator-based “learn-by-operating” test platforms to accelerate the scale-up and deployment of CO2 capture technologies. Future AVESTAR plans also include pursuing R&D on the dynamics, operation, and control of integrated electricity generation and storage systems for the modern grid era. Special emphasis will be given to combining load-following energy plants with renewable and distributed generating supplies and fast-ramping energy storage systems to provide near constant baseload power.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

U.S. Offshore Wind Energy Noise Reduction Associated with Installation of Fixed-Bottom Foundations: Workshop Report

As offshore wind energy development grows in the United States, solutions are needed to reduce the underwater noise and substrate vibration generated during fixed-bottom turbine installation to help protect marine life. Monopiles are currently the main turbine foundation type installed globally and impact pile driving, the primary installation method, can be a major source of noise and vibration generation during wind farm construction. Opportunities exist to reduce the amount of noise and vibration produced during future offshore wind farm development. The use of alternative foundation types and installation methods, as well as innovative noise abatement technologies, would help reduce the potential detrimental effects on sensitive marine species. To explore these opportunities, the Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office, in collaboration with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, funded the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to organize, host, and facilitate a virtual workshop in December 2022. The goal of the workshop was to gather input from the offshore wind energy community on noise reduction strategies for the installation of fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines in U.S. waters across multiple regions, including the U.S. Atlantic Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and Great Lakes to inform recommendations on future research. The joint lab team convened industry representatives, subject matter experts, and regulators to discuss potential pathways to reduce noise and vibration associated with fixed-bottom turbine installation, including the practicality of using alternative foundations and installation methods, the effectiveness of noise abatement technologies, as well as research and monitoring needs. In preparation for the workshop, the team invited experts to be part of a steering committee and worked with its members to help focus activities to meet the workshop goals. Additional pre-workshop activities included developing the invitee list and workshop agenda, reviewing existing Construction and Operations Plans (COP) for proposed offshore wind projects, distributing a brief questionnaire to industry representatives, and drafting the workshop discussion questions and Mural boards. In total, 128 workshop participants provided over 600 comments in response to the 17 group discussion questions used over two workshop sessions. Overarching recommendations highlighted across themes included future investments to provide data sharing, consistency, transparency, and opportunities for sharing best available science, knowledge, and expertise. The joint lab team synthesized the comments and identified four key research and development themes that could help advance the successful implementation of noise and vibration reduction strategies (see report). This report provides an overview of the workshop goals and scope, reviews the pre-workshop activities, presents brief summaries of participant feedback, and concludes with detailed research themes and recommendations for future investments. Appendix A includes the group discussion questions, Appendix B includes the results of the COP review, and Appendix C includes the results of the industry questionnaire. Overall, there was a high level of interest and engagement in the workshop. The sessions provided an opportunity for significant exchange of information between workshop participants from across sectors. Participants identified a variety of opportunities for next steps towards the noise reduction of offshore wind turbine installation in U.S. waters, including recommendations for future investments to provide certainty in the use of new technologies associated with alternative foundation types, noise abatement systems, and efficacy monitoring.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Aerosol indirect effect on the grid-scale clouds in the two-way coupled WRF–CMAQ: model description, development, evaluation and regional analysis

This study implemented first, second and glaciation aerosol indirect effects (AIE) on resolved clouds in the two-way coupled Weather Research and Forecasting Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF–CMAQ) modeling system by including parameterizations for both cloud drop and ice number concentrations on the basis of CMAQ-predicted aerosol distributions and WRF meteorological conditions. The performance of the newly developed WRF–CMAQ model, with alternate Community Atmospheric Model (CAM) and Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for GCMs (RRTMG) radiation schemes, was evaluated with observations from the Clouds and the See http://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/ . Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite and surface monitoring networks (AQS, IMPROVE, CASTNET, STN, and PRISM) over the continental US (CONUS) (12 km resolution) and eastern Texas (4 km resolution) during August and September of 2006. The results at the Air Quality System (AQS) surface sites show that in August, the normalized mean bias (NMB) values for PM 2.5 over the eastern US (EUS) and the western US (WUS) are 5.3% (-0.1%) and 0.4% (-5.2%) for WRF–CMAQ/CAM (WRF–CMAQ/RRTMG), respectively. The evaluation of PM 2.5 chemical composition reveals that in August, WRF–CMAQ/CAM (WRF–CMAQ/RRTMG) consistently underestimated the observed SO 4 2- by -23.0% (-27.7%), -12.5% (-18.9%) and -7.9% (-14.8%) over the EUS at the Clean Air Status Trends Network (CASTNET), Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) and Speciated Trends Network (STN) sites, respectively. Both configurations (WRF–CMAQ/CAM, WRF–CMAQ/RRTMG) overestimated the observed mean organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and and total carbon (TC) concentrations over the EUS in August at the IMPROVE sites. Both configurations generally underestimated the cloud field (shortwave cloud forcing, SWCF) over the CONUS in August due to the fact that the AIE on the subgrid convective clouds was not considered when the model simulations were run at the 12 km resolution. This is in agreement with the fact that both configurations captured SWCF and longwave cloud forcing (LWCF) very well for the 4 km simulation over eastern Texas, when all clouds were resolved by the finer resolution domain. The simulations of WRF–CMAQ/CAM and WRF–CMAQ/RRTMG show dramatic improvements for SWCF, LWCF, cloud optical depth (COD), cloud fractions and precipitation over the ocean relative to those of WRF default cases in August. The model performance in September is similar to that in August, except for a greater overestimation of PM 2.5 due to the overestimations of SO 4 2- , NH 4 + , NO 3 - , and TC over the EUS, less underestimation of clouds (SWCF) over the land areas due to the lower SWCF values, and fewer convective clouds in September. Finally, this work shows that inclusion of indirect aerosol effect treatments in WRF–CMAQ represents a significant advancement and milestone in air quality modeling and the development of integrated emissions control strategies for air quality management and climate change mitigation.

indirect aerosol forcing↗
DOE OSTI2023

PhytoOracle: Scalable, modular phenomics data processing pipelines

As phenomics data volume and dimensionality increase due to advancements in sensor technology, there is an urgent need to develop and implement scalable data processing pipelines. Current phenomics data processing pipelines lack modularity, extensibility, and processing distribution across sensor modalities and phenotyping platforms. To address these challenges, we developed PhytoOracle (PO), a suite of modular, scalable pipelines for processing large volumes of field phenomics RGB, thermal, PSII chlorophyll fluorescence 2D images, and 3D point clouds. PhytoOracle aims to ( i ) improve data processing efficiency; ( ii ) provide an extensible, reproducible computing framework; and ( iii ) enable data fusion of multi-modal phenomics data. PhytoOracle integrates open-source distributed computing frameworks for parallel processing on high-performance computing, cloud, and local computing environments. Each pipeline component is available as a standalone container, providing transferability, extensibility, and reproducibility. The PO pipeline extracts and associates individual plant traits across sensor modalities and collection time points, representing a unique multi-system approach to addressing the genotype-phenotype gap. To date, PO supports lettuce and sorghum phenotypic trait extraction, with a goal of widening the range of supported species in the future. At the maximum number of cores tested in this study (1,024 cores), PO processing times were: 235 minutes for 9,270 RGB images (140.7 GB), 235 minutes for 9,270 thermal images (5.4 GB), and 13 minutes for 39,678 PSII images (86.2 GB). These processing times represent end-to-end processing, from raw data to fully processed numerical phenotypic trait data. Repeatability values of 0.39-0.95 (bounding area), 0.81-0.95 (axis-aligned bounding volume), 0.79-0.94 (oriented bounding volume), 0.83-0.95 (plant height), and 0.81-0.95 (number of points) were observed in Field Scanalyzer data. We also show the ability of PO to process drone data with a repeatability of 0.55-0.95 (bounding area).

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Test and Validate Distributed Coaxial Cable Sensors for in situ Condition Monitoring of Coal-Fired Boiler Tubes

This project aims to test, validate, and advance the technology readiness level (from TRL5 to TRL7) of a novel low-cost distributed stainless-steel/ceramic coaxial cable sensing (SSC-CCS) technology for in situ monitoring of the boiler tube temperature in existing coal-fired power plants. The novel SSC-CCS sensing technology and associated condition-based monitoring (CBM) software to be demonstrated in this project will lead to an improved understanding of the boiler tube failure mechanisms and a prognostic system to improve the overall performance, reliability, and flexibility of the nation’s coal-fired power plant fleet. A boiler tube monitoring system with distributed coaxial cable temperature sensors and a sensor acquisition system was constructed. The high-temperature coaxial cable sensor with a length of 1.3m was made by using a quartz tube (1mm inner diameter (ID) and 6mm outer diameter (OD)) to concentrically separate a 304 stainless-steel (SS) rod (1mm OD) and SS tube (7.94mm OD and 6.16mm ID). The sensor acquisition system includes a vector network analyzer (VNA), a radio frequency (RF) power amplifier, multiple switches and a USB hub. The distributed stainless-steel quartz coaxial cable sensor (SSQ-CCS) had a linear response to temperature with a resolution uncertainty of σ = 0.77℃. To withstand the harsh conditions of 3,300 steam pressures and 800℃ high temperatures, the sensor was shielded by a protective tube made of the same material as the boiler tube. The protection tube had an OD of 1.5 inches and a thickness of 0.25 inches. In the laboratory tests, the sensor showed good sensitivity and fast response. The drift was bounded between +0.33% and -0.67% during a test at 600℃ for 350 hours, indicating good stability of the sensor. A field test was conducted where four sensors were welded on four superheat tubes (SH-Ts) at a coal-fired power station over 400 days. Conventional thermocouples were welded to the superheater tubes alongside the coaxial cable sensors for the purpose of comparison. Two sensors were capable of distributed sensing, with three multiplexed sensing sections. The other two sensors were single section. During the 400-day test period, the power plant experienced startups and shutdowns. At the steady state operations, the temperature of the boiler tube is about 600℃ (1112°F). The sensors recorded the entire coal-firing processes (start-up, steady state, and shut-down) and the glitch event. A GSM modem and a Watchdog were added to the system to ensure reliable data recording. The GSM modem sent daily messages to plant managers and Clemson team to inform the status of the sensor system. If the system was not normally working, the Watchdog would reboot the system automatically. The new coaxial cable based distributed sensing technology has been proven to be successful in both laboratory and field tests. A comprehensive four-stage multi-physics computational framework has been developed to assist the design, optimization, installation, and operation of SSQ-CCS. With the consideration of various operation conditions, we predict the distributions of flue gas temperatures within coal-fired boilers, the temperature correlation between the boiler tube and SSQ-CCS, and the safety of SSQ-CCS. A conditional-based monitoring system is implemented as well. The computational framework developed in this work can guide the future operation of coal-fired plants and other power plants for the safety prediction of boiler operations.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2025

Optimized V1G and V2G Electric Vehicle Fleet Management and Grid Transaction at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, CA

The overall technical goal of the project was to demonstrate an all-electric bi-directional non-tactical fleet at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar that was integrated and controlled with other distributed energy resources (DERs) (i.e., PV, stationary battery, and building loads) to provide resilience to critical electric loads in the event of grid outages, to minimize charging costs, and to provide economic energy resources to electricity markets. In this project, the specific, technical objectives were: 1. Demonstrate that bi-directional electric vehicles can provide critical complementary services to fixed storage batteries in microgrid applications while performing function as non-tactical vehicles. 2. Demonstrate participation of bi-directional (V2G) and unidirectional (V1G) PEVs for demand management and minimization of charging costs. 3. Demonstrate integration of multiple DERs for grid service participation. US Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar in San Diego was the site of this electric vehicle-to-microgrid-utility grid test and demonstration project. Existing microgrid assets in this study included (1) a public works building; (2) a 30-kW rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system and (3) a separate 250 kW carport PV system. In this project, six bi-directional V2G vans were located at the MCAS Miramar’s showcase building-scale microgrid to develop and test technical capabilities that V2G can provide in microgrid applications (e.g., cost reduction and resiliency). These resources provided aggregated demand management and simulated participation in current retail DR programs. The vehicles used in this demonstration were selected because they provided functionality that MCAS Miramar needed, 15 passenger transport and facilities work cargo carrying capacity, and bi-directional charging capability that the research project required. All vehicles in this study were manufactured and distributed by VIA Motors, Inc. There were six vehicles total and each was VIA’s VTRUX eREV V2G model, a modified General Motors Chevrolet 2500 2WD van. Three of the vans were configured as passenger vans and the other three were configured as cargo vans. Each van had an on-board bi-direcrtional inverter/charger, Bel Power Solutions model 350INVCHGT150-120-240-8G nominally rated at +/-15 kW. The VIA van’s charging connector follows the J1772 charging protocol. The bi-directional EVSEs demonstrated in this study were manufactured by Coritech, Inc. Each VGI-80-AC charging station enabled enhanced V2G charging capability to a Clipper Creek CS-100 charging module. The enhanced capabilities included ethernet communication following the SEP2.0 protocol with a distributed energy resource function set and an operator screen displaying real-time SOC, voltage, and current. The VGI-80-AC charging stations are classified as level 2 with a maximum current output of 80 A or effectively 19 kW. The VIA van’s onboard charger limited the charging and discharging power to 15 kW in each direction. A control computer was installed in the EWOC and connected to an existing monitor. The V2G control communication network was a completely stand-alone closed system that did not have any connection to any other networks on the base. A cybersecure remote communication connection was created with a cellular modem, firewall hardware, and a virtual private network configuration.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

A neural-network-enhanced parameter-varying framework for multi-objective model predictive control applied to buildings

Management of the electrical grid is becoming more complex due to the increased penetration of alternative energy generation technologies and a broadening diversity of electric loads. This complexity creates challenges in balancing demand and generation that can increase the potential for grid instabilities. One effective way to address this issue is to leverage previously unexploited demand flexibility through advanced control strategies. In this work, we propose an advanced control method, called adaptive neural parameter-varying model predictive control (ANPV-MPC), to control the temperature and energy consumption of a building via its Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning system. ANPV-MPC combines key ideas in parameter-varying control, adaptive control, and online learning strategies to bridge the gap between computationally efficient linear model predictive control and more accurate nonlinear model predictive control. The novelty in ANPV-MPC is the use of a physics-inspired Bayesian neural network to estimate the coefficients of the parameter-varying linear control model. The Bayesian neural network additionally provides uncertainty estimates, triggering online training to capture evolving building system conditions. We show that ANPV-MPC can approximate the building system dynamics with a 28.39% higher accuracy than traditional linear model predictive control, resulting in 36.23% better control performance without increasing complexity of the optimal control problem. ANPV-MPC also adapts in real time to previously unseen conditions using online learning, further improving its performance.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2014

Future projection of mean and variability of the Asian Summer Monsoon and Indian Ocean Climate systems

The overall goal of this project is to assess the ability of the CMIP3/5 models to simulate the Indian-Ocean monsoon systems. The PI along with post-docs investigated research issues ranging from synoptic systems to long-term trends over the Asian monsoon region. The PI applied diagnostic tools such as moist static energy (MSE) to isolate: the moist and radiative processes responsible for extended monsoon breaks over South Asia, precursors in the ENSO-monsoon association, reasons for the drying tendency over South Asia and the possible effect on tropical Indian Ocean climate anomalies influencing certain aspects of ENSO characteristics. By diagnosing various observations and coupled model simulations, we developed working hypothesis and tested them by carrying out sensitivity experiments with both linear and nonlinear models. Possible physical and dynamical reasons for model sensitivities were deduced. On the teleconnection front, the ability of CMIP5 models in representing the monsoon-desert mechanism was examined recently. Further more, we have applied a suite of diagnostics and have performed an in depth analysis on CMIP5 integrations to isolate the possible reasons for the ENSO-monsoon linkage or lack thereof. The PI has collaborated with Dr. K.R. Sperber of PCMDI and other CLIVAR Asian-Australian monsoon panel members in understanding the ability of CMIP3/5 models in capturing monsoon and its spectrum of variability. The objective and process-based diagnostics aided in selecting models that best represent the present-day monsoon and its variability that are then employed for future projections. Two major highlights were an invitation to write a review on present understanding monsoons in a changing climate in Nature Climate Change, and identification of an east-west shift in observed monsoon rainfall (more rainfall over tropical western Pacific and drying tendency over South Asia) in the last six decades and attributing that shift to SST rise over the tropical western Pacific. On the training of post-doctoral scientists: the PI spent considerable amount of time and efforts in introducing the post-docs into climate modeling and designing the numerical experiments. With training provided and knowledge gained, post-docs worked in the project obtained long term positions elsewhere. The PI also enjoyed the experience in managing the works and educating work ethics to the younger generation. Based on the research achievements and publications, the PI gave invited talks in major international monsoon conferences/workshops, and gave lectures in various research organizations in the last six years. Finally, during the project period, the PI attended all the DOE organized PIs meeting and presented the major results. Some of the major implications of the project include: (i) Sustained observational efforts are necessary to monitor the three-dimensional moisture distribution over the Asian monsoon region that would aid in better understanding, modeling and predicting severe monsoons well in advance and (ii) process-based diagnostics lead pathways for model improvements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗