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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,063 records · Page 59
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Cybersecurity Standards for Photovoltaic Operations

Solar energy plays an important role in securing a more resilient, cyber-secure electrical grid in Pennsylvania. Solar's ability to be widely "distributed" on residential and large roofs, marginal lands, and many other locations across Pennsylvania - as opposed to being centralized - offers a strong option for addressing the myriad of potential disruptions that can occur to the grid's infrastructure. And when combined with energy storage, local energy needs can be met immediately without having to wait on the delivery of an off-site fuel source. As more and more distributed solar electricity generation is brought online, researchers, technology developers, solar developers and grid operators are paying close attention to the potential for solar to enhance grid cybersecurity. Although nobody may know when, where, or how the next cyberattack will take place, there are security measures, technical solutions, and management practices that are being implemented across the industry to protect against network control issues and grid operations. Everyone participating in the solar value chain stands to gain from a coordinated, iterative approach to protect against cyber vulnerabilities and build deeper resilience into the architecture of our grid.

cybersecurity↗
DOE OSTI2022

Physics-Informed Gaussian Process Regression for States Estimation and Forecasting in Power Grids

Real-time state estimation and forecasting are critical for the efficient operation of power grids. In this paper, a physics-informed Gaussian process regression (PhI-GPR) method is presented and used for forecasting and estimating the phase angle, angular speed, and wind mechanical power of a three-generator power grid system using sparse measurements. In standard data-driven Gaussian process regression (GPR), parameterized models for the prior statistics are fit by maximizing the marginal likelihood of observed data. In the PhI-GPR method, we propose to compute the prior statistics offline by solving stochastic differential equations (SDEs) governing the power grid dynamics. The short-term forecast of a power grid system dominated by wind generation is complicated by the stochastic nature of the wind and the resulting uncertainty in wind mechanical power. Here, we assume that the power grid dynamics are governed by swing equations, with the wind mechanical power fluctuating randomly in time. We solve these equations for the mean and covariances of the power grid states using the Monte Carlo simulation method. We demonstrate that the proposed PhI-GPR method can accurately forecast and estimate observed and unobserved states. For the considered problem, PhI-GPR has computational advantages over the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) method: In PhI-GPR, ensembles are computed offline and independently of the data acquisition process, whereas for EnFK, ensembles are computed online with data acquisition, rendering real-time forecast more challenging. We also demonstrate that the PhI-GPR forecast is more accurate than the EnKF forecast when the random mechanical wind power is non-Markovian. In contrast, the two methods produce similar forecasts for the Markovian mechanical wind power. For observed states, we show that PhI-GPR provides a forecast comparable to the standard data-driven GPR; both forecasts are significantly more accurate than the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) forecast. We also show that the ARIMA forecast is more sensitive to observation frequency and measurement errors than the PhI-GPR forecast.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Development of Real-Time High-Density Pulsar Data Transmission and Processing for Grid Synchronization

Taking advantage of the extreme stability of the pulsar period, it can serve as the timing source for grid synchronization to compensate for the timing drift instigated by the loss of GPS signal. Nevertheless, the real-time transmission and processing of the pulsar data suffer from its high-frequency data rate, varying from megahertz to gigahertz, resulting in reduced computing speed and increased time delay. To mitigate this issue, the hardware and software frameworks are implemented for the high-density pulsar data transmission and processing for grid synchronization in this research. Initially, the high-density pulsar data is transferred using open-source software. The complementary duty cycle timing module is designed to coordinate the operation of the dual-channel high-speed interface and software. Subsequently, the multiple-threading is applied to the receiving, parsing, and splicing pulsar data. Next, the pulsar signal extraction method is implemented based on the polyphase filterbank and time of arrival estimation. Ultimately, real-time performance verification experiments are carried out for different components under two hardware platforms. Finally, the results demonstrate that only 0.482 s is required for processing 4 Gigabyte data through multiple-threading, which is 3.8 times faster than the single thread. The pulsar signal extraction can also be executed within 707 ms for 4.8 seconds of data, thereby indicating that real-time requirements can be met.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Direct Phase-Angle Detection for Three-Phase Inverters in Asymmetrical Power Grids

This paper introduces a signal reformation based direct phase-angle detection (DPD-SR) technique for three-phase inverters supporting asymmetrical grids. Asymmetries in three-phase systems may happen because of unbalanced three-phase loads, which can lead to the voltage asymmetry at the terminals of grid-tied inverters. The proposed DPD-SR technique can detect the voltage phase-angle under asymmetrical conditions. The DPD-SR technique also offers precise and rapid phase-angle detection via signal reformation and trigonometric functions. In essence, the phase-angle detection is directly derived from the trigonometric properties of the line-line voltages, while signal reformation is implemented to handle asymmetrical voltages. The proposed method measures two line-line voltages and detects the phase-angle of a three-phase system under both symmetrical and asymmetrical conditions. Unlike classical phase-locked loop (PLL) techniques, DPD-SR does not need any closed-loop PI controller, which significantly reduces the complexity and the delay in detecting the phase-angle. In this paper, the efficacy of the proposed technique is examined in comparison with the state-of-the-art PLLs under asymmetrical conditions via a set of laboratory experiments. Here, the performance of the phase-angle detection is also tested as part of an inverter feeding an asymmetrical grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Scalable Truck Charging Demand Simulation for Cost-Optimized Infrastructure Planning

This project developed a scalable, high-resolution model to simulate medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) electric truck charging demand and assess its impact on grid infrastructure. Using generative modeling, simulation, and cost optimization, the project delivered an end-to-end software pipeline and a library of 96 real-world scenarios for the Dallas–Houston megaregion. We demonstrated a modular architecture for transportation and grid modeling, implemented cost-optimized infrastructure planning methods, and quantified grid capital, operational, and environmental costs across a wide range of truck electrification scenarios. The results have been adopted by major utility stakeholders and contributed to regional planning efforts.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Frequency Control and Disturbance Containment Using Grid-Forming Embedded Storage Networks

The paper presents a distributed approach for operating a network of inverter-based energy storage resources embedded in a bulk power system. Departing from their traditional role of steady-state reserves, the storage assets in the network are utilized as frequency-responsive resources shaping system dynamics. The power electronics converter systems interfacing the storage resources are equipped with local controllers designed to respond under transient disturbances. To this end, a safety-constrained distributed control strategy is explored. The paper compares the performance of converter-interfaced grid-forming and grid-following storage networks for fast frequency control and disturbance containment/localization. Sensitivity studies are performed to study the impact of storage size, steady-state dispatch, and controller design on dynamic performance. The findings are presented through case studies with results from the IEEE test systems.

Chatterjee, Kaustav (ORCID:0000000153273860)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Reinforcement Learning for Intentional Islanding in Resilient Power Transmission Systems

Intentional islanding is the process of identifying and deliberately decomposing the transmission network to form self-sustained islands from an endangered network during disruptions to improve resilience and security. Most existing intentional islanding models are offline resilience decision tools and hence do not provide outage responses in a timely manner. In this paper, a reinforcement learning (RL) based model for intentional islanding is developed, which offers real-time switching control, online deployability, and adaptability to varying system conditions. The intentional islanding process is formulated as a Markov decision process, where the optimal transmission switching policy is learned using the RL approach. The control policy is learned over an environment that encompasses a Power System Simulator for Engineering (PSS/E) model of the transmission network, facilitated by an interface to the standard openAI Gym framework. The proposed RL-based methodology aims to form stable and self-sustainable islands by ensuring voltage stability while reducing the power mismatch in the formed islands. A proximal policy optimization algorithm is designed, which is suitable for controlling the on/off status of the switches with multi-layer perceptron as value and actor networks. The effectiveness of the proposed framework in the self-recovery of the grid by island formation is applied on the modified IEEE 39-bus test network and validated by dynamic simulations.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Maintaining Grid Reliability: Lessons From Renewable Integration Studies

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and other organizations have sponsored numerous research studies over the last two decades to examine the effect of increased wind and solar deployment on grid reliability, including a number of studies that examine grids deriving more than 50% of annual energy from wind and solar. In this report, we discuss key findings from both the research body of knowledge and real-world practice related to grid reliability, and we demonstrate how to plan for and achieve continued reliability in the future as wind and solar deployment increase.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

EVs@Scale Deep Dive - SCM/VGI (Day 2: SCM/VGI Demonstration)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Electric Vehicles at Scale Laboratory Consortium (EVs@Scale Lab Consortium) is accelerating research to support the establishment of a secure and scalable national network of charging infrastructure. Critical to this effort is an understanding of the potential grid impacts of EV charging and possible smart charge management (SCM) or vehicle-grid integration (VGI) capabilities that could mitigate these impacts. The EVs@Scale SCM/VGI Pillar is analyzing the impacts of EV charging and developing and demonstrating the capabilities of both SCM and VGI with many different vehicle use cases and grid scenarios. This Deep Dive Discussion from year 1 of the project encompasses the progress and future plans for the demonstration components of the FUSE (Flexible charging to Unify the grid and transportation Sectors for Evs at scale) project.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,POWER TRANSMISSION AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Evaluation of Adaptive Volt-VAR to Mitigate PV Impacts [Slides]

Distributed generation (DG) sources like photovoltaic (PV) systems with advanced inverters are able to perform grid-support functions, like autonomous Volt-VAR that attempts to mitigate voltage issues by injecting or consuming reactive power. However, the Volt-VAR function operates with VAR priority, meaning real power may be curtailed to provide additional reactive power support. Since some locations on the grid may be more prone to higher voltages than others, PV systems installed at those locations may be forced to curtail more power, adversely impacting the value of that PV system. Adaptive Volt-VAR (AVV) could be implemented as an alternative, whereby the Volt-VAR reference voltage changes over time, but this functionality has not been well-explored in the literature. In this work, the potential benefits and grid impacts of AVV were investigated using yearlong quasi-static time-series (QSTS) simulations. After testing a variety of allowable AVV settings, we found that even with aggressive settings AVV resulted in <0.01% real power curtailment and significantly reduced the reactive power support required from the PV inverter compared to conventional Volt-VAR but did not provide much mitigation for extreme voltage conditions. The reactive power support provided by AVV was injected to oppose large deviations in voltage (in either direction), indicating that it could be useful for other applications like reducing voltage flicker or minimizing interactions with other voltage regulating devices.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Identifying DQ-Domain Admittance Models of a 2.3-MVA Commercial Grid-Following Inverter Via Frequency-Domain and Time-Domain Data

Here, we present two methods to identify the admittance of a 2.3-MVA commercial grid-following inverter through frequency-domain data and time-domain data. In addition to the well-known harmonic injection method to obtain the admittance at frequency points followed by vector fitting, we adopt a step response-based method where the step response data of the converter are collected and their s-domain expressions are obtained. In turn, the s-domain admittance model of the converter is found. The two methods can be used for cross validation. Step responses and frequency-domain responses obtained from the two methods are compared. Results show that the time- domain data-based method leads to an admittance comparable with that from the frequency-domain measurement in the range less than 60 Hz. In addition, two insights are obtained from the frequency-domain admittance measurements. First, when the dq- frame is aligned to the point of common coupling (PCC) voltage, the per unit DQ-domain admittance directly reflects operating conditions. Second, existence of negative-sequence control can be detected via sequence-domain admittances.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

DER as a service-ecoLong and VOLTTRON (Abstract)

The project goal is to commercialize the VOLTTRON-hosted “DER as a Service” (DaaS) application and make it an “out-of-the-box” solution for ecoLong to use as a secure residential energy management system that allows 1.) distributed energy resources (DERs) to participate in wholesale markets and provide services to the grid and 2.) intelligently control the energy in the residential buildings to the desired level while maintaining occupancy comfort. The product will be field deployed onto multiple Solar Liberty sites in New York state to demonstrate wide-scale participation of DERs in wholesale markets to provide services to the grid and validate the effectiveness of the solution. The integrated management of DERs and buildings increases the penetration of solar resources by managing its variability, providing grid services, and solving the evening ramping challenges. Ultimately, the DaaS platform will make buildings and DERs smarter by unlocking grid-interactive efficient buildings.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Virtual Power Plants and Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are aggregations of DERs that can balance electrical loads and provide utility-scale and utility-grade grid services like a traditional power plant. This presentation covers VPP definition, State-of-the-Art, Grid Architectures, Example VPP studies, VPP Standards, and VPP Roadmap.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Field Verification of Grid-Forming Inverter-Based Power Plant Performance for Transmission System Reliability

This report describes some examples of the operation of two grid-forming (GFM) inverter-based photovoltaic-battery hybrid power plants connected to the electric system of the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Both plants are photovoltaic power plants with battery energy storage and are connected to the networked transmission system operated by Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC), along with several other power plants including an oil-fired plant, diesel generators, small hydroelectric plants, a biofuel plant, and several other photovoltaic plants.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

VSC-HVDC Interties for Urban Power Grid Enhancement

Urban power grids are facing many operational and expansion challenges to meet further demand growth and increased reliability requirements. Advanced transmission technologies have been considered by the electric utilities to effectively increase the utilization of existing infrastructure and operational flexibility. The focus of this paper is on VSC-HVDC technologies for urban power grid enhancement and modernization. First, a potential technical scheme is proposed for converting an existing AC circuit to DC operation, which could boost the power transfer capability of the critical transmission corridor and increase network operational flexibility. Second, this paper proposes three operation modes for the VSC-HVDC interties in urban power grids corresponding to normal, emergency and island operating conditions, respectively. An integrated, adaptive emergency control strategy (AEC) is proposed that can enable adaptive power flow responses of the VSC-HVDC intertie under varying system operating conditions and critical contingencies. The flexibility and effectiveness of the proposed operational principles of urban VSC-HVDC intertie and the corresponding control strategies are verified in PSCAD/EMTDC using a realistic urban power grid in China.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cybersecurity Considerations for Emerging Energy Technologies

AI, cloud computing, post-quantum cryptography, zero-trust architectures, microgrids, and virtual power plants. What do these things have in common? They are all emerging technologies in the clean energy space that will be a critical part of grid modernization efforts. As we work towards clean energy and decarbonization targets, these technologies, developed to solve real-world problems, will help us reach goals and achieve new efficiencies as the paradigm of grid operation shifts. However, there are growing concerns about the cybersecurity risks associated with these trending topics as they are used in critical infrastructure applications. This talk will cover gaps, challenges, and opportunities for the secure implementation of grid modernization solutions and novel energy applications of state-of-the-art networking and communications. Proactive risk mitigation strategies, including the application of cyber-informed engineering, will be discussed. Practical applications of these techniques will help provide countermeasures to the impact of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure technologies in a new, digitized grid landscape.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

A New Type of Weak Grid IBR Oscillations

This letter presents the discovery of a new type oscillations associated with inverter-based resources (IBRs) in weak grids. While typical weak grid oscillations become worse when the grid strength decreases and the power exporting level increases, this new type of oscillations appear when the grid becomes weaker and the power exporting level decreases. Electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation results are presented, along with eigenvalue loci for a varying power. The notable signatures of such oscillations are also remarked. In further analysis, a feedback system consisting of two blocks is derived with one block associated with the phase-locked-loop (PLL) and the other associated with the rest of the system. Here, this feedback system quantitatively demonstrates why insufficient damping in the PLL may be an issue for stability. Open-loop analysis shows that a larger phase lag in angle tracking in the low-frequency range due to high power exporting level at the weak grid condition is beneficial to the open-loop poles introduced by the PLL. And this is the reason why such oscillations may appear when power is ramping down.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Joint optimal scheduling for electric vehicle battery swapping-charging system based on wind farms

Insufficiencies in charging facilities limit the broad application of electric vehicles (EVs). In addition, EV can hardly represent a green option if its electricity primarily depends on fossil energy. Considering these two problems, this paper studies a battery swapping-charging system based on wind farms (hereinafter referred to as W-BSCS). In a W-BSCS, the wind farms not only supply electricity to the power grid but also cooperate with a centralized charge station (CCS), which can centrally charge EV batteries and then distribute them to multiple battery swapping stations (BSSs). The operational framework of the W-BSCS is analyzed, and some preprocessing technologies are developed to reduce complexity in modeling. Then, a joint optimal scheduling model involving a wind power generation plan, battery swapping demand, battery charging and discharging, and a vehicle routing problem (VRP) is established. Then a heuristic method based on the exhaustive search and the Genetic Algorithm is employed to solve the formulated NP-hard problem. Numerical results verify the effectiveness of the joint optimal scheduling model, and they also show that the W-BSCS has great potential to promote EVs and wind power.

17 WIND ENERGY↗