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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Pathways for Tamil Nadu’s Electric Power Sector: 2020 - 2030

This report is part one of a two-part series that represents a year-long collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) and Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Limited (TANTRANSCO) on power sector planning. This Pathways for Tamil Nadu’s Electric Power Sector 2020-2030 report outlines NREL’s work with TANGEDCO's electricity sector planning department to develop a model of the State power system and evaluate multiple scenarios of system evolution given resource constraints, costs of technologies, and power sector policies. A broad stakeholder group comprised of TANGEDCO leadership, developers, regulators, and researchers from within the power sector community in Tamil Nadu helped to guide the main objectives of the study and provided technical feedback to the research team. The outcomes of this effort include multiple pathways for power sector growth to 2030 and a robust model of Tamil Nadu's power system that can be used to continually analyze the impact of new policies, regulations, or system changes. The second report in this series will build on the bulk system analysis by focusing on the rapidly transforming distribution network in the State. The report will outline a framework developed by NREL and TANGEDCO's distribution utility to quickly and accurately analyze the impacts of integrating renewable energy onto Tamil Nadu's distribution system. Together these studies help to prepare Tamil Nadu for a rapidly transforming power system.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Advanced Energy Approaches for Mixed-Use Developments in the Front Range Urban Corridor

The primary objective of the document is to present example technical approaches and strategies that planners and developers can reference for all-electric mixed-use developments in the Rocky Mountain Front Range urban corridor that are considering advanced energy performance goals such as high levels of energy efficiency and renewable integration. The strategies are tailored toward the vision for a zero energy, all-electric, district thermal system-connected starter district. In this example, on-site solar generation is emphasized as a strategy that can be combined with electrical and thermal energy storage for enhanced community resilience and demand flexibility. Opportunities for utilizing or adapting these strategies include: sharing with vertical developers for potential integration of strategies into vertical design guidelines; incorporation into Owner Project Requirements (OPRs); providing example strategies to design teams as a starting point for design; informing structure of agenda for a building design charrette; comparing building designs to example strategies at various points in the design process to evaluate design progression. While the technical strategies outlined in this document can help inform the development of guidelines for projects in the Front Range urban corridor, this document does not set requirements for any rating, certification, program, or policy.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Open Building Control

Best practice control sequences are often not implemented correctly, or are not implemented at all, in large commercial buildings. This typically leads to 10-30 percent energy waste, along with reduced occupant productivity and unnecessary equipment wear. The current process of designing and implementing such control sequences is a manual process that starts with designers who often don’t have adequate training, then requires controls programmers to interpret and program a verbose written sequence. This process has been shown to fail to deliver high performance control sequences at scale. The Open Building Control project digitizes the current control delivery process. The project is developing tools for system designers to select control sequences, assess their energy performance and load flexibility potential using whole building simulation, specify the sequence for implementation using machine-to-machine translation by a control provider and formally testing the as-installed sequences by a commissioning agent. The project developed tools for each stage of this delivery process. The key innovation of the project is the development of the Control Description Language, a language that allows such a digitized control delivery process with end-to-end verification. Libraries of control sequences have been implemented using the Control Description Language, and their performance has been demonstrated using whole building energy simulation. An automated translation of such sequences to a commercial control product line has been conducted using a prototype translator. Tools for formal verification of as-installed control sequences relative to their specification have been developed and demonstrated. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) started the process of forming a committee to make this language an ASHRAE/ANSI Standard. This new standard will complement existing and emerging ASHRAE standards for building communication and semantic modeling by providing a standard for expressing the control logic - the actual brain of the building. We expect this language and the process it enables to be an important contribution to the deployment of high performance building control sequences at scale because it allows taming the complexity of the control delivery process, which is continually increasing due to the need for higher performance and increased load flexibility to meet goals for net zero energy and increased renewable integration.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Clean Energy Integration in Natural Gas Compressor Station Operations

Integrating renewable energy into oil and gas operations could reduce emissions and maximize higher-value use of produced hydrocarbons. In this study, analysts from the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) evaluated clean power technologies for a natural gas compressor station in Texas, using NREL’s REopt tool. Different configurations of distributed energy resources were evaluated based on the technologies available and the load they can satisfy, available land, and hypothetical carbon pricing. The analysis is part of a collaborative program with industry to understand site-specific energy consumption and prices in the oil and gas supply chain and determine under what conditions clean energy options are economically attractive. This work was sponsored by a consortium including Kinder Morgan, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America Foundation, Extraction Oil & Gas, Baker Hughes, and ConocoPhillips.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Semiconductor: Supply Chain Deep Dive Assessment

In February 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order (EO) 14017, “America’s Supply Chains,” directing seven executive agencies to evaluate the resilience and security of the nation’s critical supply chains and to craft strategies for six industrial bases that underpin America’s economic and national security. See Sec. 3(b) of E.O. 14017. As part of the one-year response to EO 14017, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through the national laboratories, conducted evaluations of the supply chains that encompass the Energy Sector Industrial Base, with a particular focus on technologies required to decarbonize the U.S. by 2050. This report focuses on one of these technologies, semiconductors, both conventional and wide bandgap (WBG) power electronics (PE). As noted in the 100-Day report, conventional semiconductors are a keystone technology that are essential for the operation of nearly every electronic device, including those that are critical to decarbonization, such as electric vehicles (EVs), industrial and building applications, and electricity generation and end use. In addition, power electronics have been applied to industrial equipment to improve energy efficiency and enhance controllability. Power electronics have also been used to improve the reliability of data centers and critical infrastructure, including the stabilization of the electric grid while subjected to disturbances. Increasingly, power electronics are being used to integrate renewable energy and battery storage systems, enabling new grid services and the development of microgrids. It is estimated that 30% of the electricity used in the U.S. passes through power electronic devices, and studies suggest that this number could reach 80% as power electronics are deployed in more markets. Nearly all forms of electrified transportation will depend on power electronics. Power electronic systems utilize high-capacity semiconductor devices at their core. The continued growth in power electronics depends on sustained innovation in the semiconductor industry.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

LDRD 2022 Annual Report: Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program Activities

Each year, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is required to provide a report of its completed Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program (LDRD) projects to the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information in accordance with DOE Order 413.2C Chg1 (MinChg) dated August 2, 2018. This report provides a detailed look at the scientific and technical activities for each of the LDRD projects funded by BNL in FY 2022, in fulfillment of that requirement. In FY 2022, the BNL LDRD Program funded 70 projects, 30 of which were new starts, at a total cost of $17.2M. The investments that BNL makes in its LDRD program support the Laboratory’s strategic goals. BNL has identified seven scientific initiatives that define the Laboratory’s scientific future and that will enable it to realize its overall vision. This requires simultaneous excellence in all aspects of BNL’s work – from science and operations, to external partnerships with the local, state, and national communities, and beyond. This is enabled by safe, efficient, and secure operations; by an unwavering commitment to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment, including workforce development, both with staff and reaching out to the community; and by a strong focus on renewed infrastructure. The seven scientific initiatives are: 1) Nuclear Physics: uncover the structure of visible matter by constructing and operating the Electron-Ion Collider at BNL to maintain international leadership in nuclear physics for decades; 2) Clean Energy and Climate: support a net-zero U.S. economy through fundamental research in basic energy and climate sciences to revolutionize grid-scale storage, renewable integration, and the study of atmospheric processes with a new facility to improve climate predictability; 3) Quantum Information Science and Technology: discover new quantum materials to enhance quantum computers and develop an entanglement sharing quantum network as a prototype for the first quantum internet; 4) Discovery Science Driven by the Human-AI Facility Integration: revolutionize the operation of experiments across the sciences at user facilities and in core programs; 5) High Energy Physics: understand the origin of space and time with the ATLAS high luminosity upgrade at CERN and the future Long Baseline Neutrino Facility/Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment; 6) Isotope Production: accelerate and expand isotope production to ensure the security of the Nation’s supply; 7) Accelerator Science and Technology: harness the cross-cutting accelerator science expertise at BNL to develop new facilities, improve and expand its user facilities, and promote the use of accelerators in industry. The funded projects support BNL’s seven scientific initiatives and priority programs as well as new areas of research and competencies at the Laboratory that are consistent with the Laboratory’s vision and mission. In total, these LDRD investments supported 43 postdoctoral researchers in whole or in part and resulted in 138 publications and 7 awards. This Program Activities Report represents the future of BNL science; it is an impressive body of exploratory work that investigates many scientific and technical directions in support of the DOE and BNL missions.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Packetized Energy Management: Coordinating Transmission and Distribution (Final Report)

The project Packetized Energy Management (PEM): Coordinating Transmission and Distribution was part of the ARPA-E NODES program from 2015 to 2023. The high-level goal of the project was to develop and demonstrate novel, scalable, and impactful technologies related to the coordination of networked distributed energy resources (DERs). By demonstrating responsive means by which fleets of DERs could be coordinated to enhance grid operation and reliability, the U.S. could accelerate renewable integration and electrification efforts and meet decarbonization goals.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Discovery of False Data Injection Attacks on Power Grid Frequency Controllers with Reinforcement Learning [Poster]

While inverter-based DER (distributed energy resources) are instrumental to integrating renewable energy into the power grid, they reduce the grid's mechanical inertia, thereby increasing the risk of frequency instabilities. To compensate for frequency instability risks, the grid must also undergo a transformation to include digital technologies that allow for two-way communication between the utility and customers. The current and future state of the power grid allows for building a cleaner energy landscape. However, the grid may also become vulnerable to novel cyber threats. To preemptively protect the power grid against elaborate cyber-attacks, we propose to discover potential threats via reinforcement learning. In this work, the focus is on studying false data injection attacks that target the control logic of frequency controllers. We show that a reinforcement learning agent can successfully discover how to best inject false data into linear droop controllers.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

High Performance Adaptive Deep-Reinforcement-Learning-based Real-time Emergency Control (HADREC) to Enhance Power Grid Resilience in Stochastic Environment (Final Report)

The HADREC technology developed in this project features real-time, validated, and predictive emergency control capabilities needed to effectively safeguard the grid against costly disturbances from extreme weather and other disruptive events. It has the potential to revolutionize the emergency control by providing faster and more effective solution for power grid emergency control. The technology can reduce the grid emergency control action time from minutes to seconds and mitigate the impact of outages and reduce system recovery time. The evaluation results using the models and data from PacifiCorp system have shown ~20% improvement in responding time and 70% improved in tripped generator output, comparing against today’s industrial application. This performance can help reduce preventive measurements and improve network utilization and market efficiency, and help lead to a more reliable and resilient power grid with renewable integration. The project has generated significant interest from industry, academic and commercial companies.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Exploring Multidimensional Spatial-Temporal Hydropower Operational Flexibilities by Modeling and Optimizing Water-Constrained Cascading Hydroelectric Systems

Because of unique characteristics such as clean and cost-competitive electricity as well as fast-ramping and storage abilities, the power industry continues to evolve its operation strategies for cascading hydroelectric (CHE) systems for providing enhanced values to the grid, especially under the deeper renewable resource integration. However, existing operation practices of CHEs predate the integration of renewables, which could prohibit the effective utilization of their inherent flexibilities in delivering maximum financial benefits and providing valuable grid services to the power system and electricity market operations. Indeed, modeling and optimizing these resource-limited while flexible CHE assets with uncertainties and imperfect information across multiple spatial-temporal dimensions present significant challenges. To facilitate CHE facility operators in effectively coordinating water usage and hydropower plant operations across multiple timescales, this project aims to fill the existing gaps by developing a suite of accurate water inflow (WI) forecast models as well as enhanced CHE modeling and optimization approaches with proper consideration of their unique characteristics, which would help explore their multidimensional spatial-temporal operational flexibility potentials. The developed approaches could better align reservoir operation strategies with variability and uncertainty of future water availability. They can also promote more effective utilization of multidimensional spatial-temporal hydropower operational flexibility potentials by designing long-term evacuation plans of reservoirs and short-term operation of CHEs, along with their coordination with other types of renewables. The project leverages various resources to facilitate the research and development activities, including actual characteristics data of CHE systems and a library of current and future cases of Portland General Electric (PGE). These realistic data enable the project team to study how to maximize the value of CHEs under current and future portfolios and evaluate opportunities to improve operation practices.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Generative AI for Power Grid Operations

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has captured into the mainstream, demonstrating capabilities that once belonged solely to the realm of human cognition. From defeating world champions in complex games to generating human-quality text and images, Generative AI has proven its potential to revolutionize countless industries. The electric power grid is no exception. Generative AI's ability to process vast amounts of data rapidly, assist decision support and identify patterns could significantly enhance power grid operations. For example, Generative AI could improve state estimation where measurements are not available or integrate renewable energy sources more efficiently with probabilistic forecasting. The key contributions of this whitepaper are outlined below: (1) Comprehensive overview of Generative AI's applications in power grid operations: It highlights the opportunities in areas such as forecasting, state estimation, and demonstrating the potential for enhancing efficiency, reliability, and resilience. (2) Expanding Generative AI's impact through synergies with emerging technologies: The paper introduce NREL developed eGridGPT and explores how AI orchestration, multi-agent systems, and Digital Twins can collaborate to optimize grid operations, addressing the complexities of a decarbonized and electrified future. (3) In-depth analysis of challenges in implementing Generative AI: This includes considerations like data availability and quality, model validation, certification, and ethical concerns, ensuring responsible AI deployment. (4) Emphasizing human-AI collaboration: The whitepaper underscores the importance of trustworthy, transparency, and explainability in AI systems to promote seamless interaction between human operators and AI, ultimately improving decision-making. (5) Exploring future research and development: It identifies critical areas for further advancement to fully realize Generative AI's potential in power grid operations. This whitepaper serves as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers looking to harness Generative AI for a more reliable, stable, and cost-effective power grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

MLSPICE: Machine Learning based SPICE Modeling Platform for Power Magnetics

Electrical power converters are critical to a wide range of applications ranging from renewable integration to transportation electrification, and can be a key factor determining the size, weight, and efficiency of energy conversion systems. Magnetic components are typically the largest and least efficient components in power electronics. While there have been major strides in the modeling and analysis of power semiconductor devices and circuit simulations, the necessary advances in the design of power magnetics have lagged. In this project, we have transformed the modeling and design of power magnetics with machine learning enabled methods and catalyze simultaneous disruptive improvements for ML-based power electronics design tools. A fully automated open-source machine learning based magnetics modeling platform – the MagNet project - with innovations in full stack have been developed to greatly accelerate the design process and provide new insights to magnetic material and geometry design. The ARPA-E funded MagNet platform contains three major building blocks: 1) a ML-Integrated Data Acquisition System (MIDAS): a highly automated data acquisition testbed which is capable of measuring a large number of magnetic cores with a wide range of electrical circuit excitations; 2) a ML-integrated Core Loss Model (MICLM): a machine-learning trained modeling method for modeling the core loss and saturation effects of magnetic materials for arbitrary excitation waveforms; 3) ML-guided Magnetics SPICE Simulation Tool (PMSPICE): a fully integrated CAD tool which can simulate the magnetics in SPICE. It can help the designers to quickly model the linear and non-linear characteristics of magnetic components and evaluate their behavior in SPICE simulations. The developed MagNet system has fully demonstrated the proposed performance target and has been open sourced to the entire power electronics community to advance the modeling and design of power magnetics from many different angles.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Comparative Study and Validation of Photovoltaic Model Formulations for the IBPSA Modelica Library based on Rooftop Measurement Data

Domain-overarching system models are crucial to investigate sector coupling concepts. Specifically, the coupling of building and electrical energy systems becomes crucial to integrate renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic power systems (PV). For such interdisciplinary simulation models, Modelica is a suitable language. However, most open-source Modelica libraries are either domain-specific or lack simple-to-parameterize PV models. We close this gap by developing a PV model for the IBPSA Modelica library. The model comprises two I-V-characteristic models and three mounting-dependent approaches to calculate the cell temperature. The I-V-characteristic models follow a single- and two-diodes approach. This study uses measurement data from a rooftop PV system in Berlin, Germany, for validation. The focus lies on comparing the implemented single- and two-diodes approach. Results prove that both models accurately calculate the modules’ DC power output and cell temperature. The two-diodes approach slightly outperforms the single-diode one at the expense of a higher parameterization effort.

Maier, Laura↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advances in Solutions to Improve the Energy Performance of Agricultural Greenhouses: A Comprehensive Review

The increasing global population and the challenges faced by the food production sector, including urbanization, reduction of arable land, and climatic extremes, necessitate innovative solutions for sustainable agriculture. This comprehensive review examines advancements in improving the energy performance of agricultural greenhouses, highlighting innovations in thermal and energy efficiency, particularly in heating and cooling systems. The methods include a systematic analysis of current technologies and their applications in optimizing greenhouse design and functionality. Key findings reveal significant progress in materials and techniques that enhance energy efficiency and operational sustainability. The review identifies gaps in the current knowledge, such as the need for more research on the economic viability of new materials and the development of predictive models for various climatic conditions. The conclusions emphasize the importance of integrating renewable energy technologies and advanced control systems to achieve energy-efficient and sustainable agricultural practices

Castro, Rodrigues Pascoal↗
DOE OSTI2021

Evaluating the Curtailment Risk of Non-Firm Utility-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Plants under a Novel Last-In First-Out Principle of Access Interconnection Agreement

With the increasing share of distributed energy resources on the electric grid, utility companies are facing significant decisions about infrastructure upgrades. An alternative to extensive and capital-intensive upgrades is to offer non-firm interconnection opportunities to distributed generators, via a coordinated operation of utility scale resources. This paper introduces a novel flexible interconnection option based on the last-in, first-out principles of access aimed at minimizing the unnecessary non-firm generation energy curtailment by balancing access rights and contribution to thermal overloads. Although we focus on solar photovoltaic (PV) plants in this work, the introduced flexible interconnection option applies to any distributed generation technology. The curtailment risk of individual non-firm PV units is evaluated across a range of PV penetration levels in a yearlong quasi-static time-series simulation on a real-world feeder. The results show the importance of the size of the curtailment zone in the curtailment risk distribution among flexible generation units as well as that of the “access right” defined by the order in which PV units connect to the grid. Case study results reveal that, with a proper selection of curtailment radius, utilities can reduce the total curtailment of flexible PV resources by up to more than 45%. Findings show that non-firm PV generators can effectively avoid all thermal limit-related upgrade costs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Innovating High Throughput Hydrogen Stations: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-18-00773

Hydrogen stations today serve the emerging market of light duty fuel cell vehicles, primarily in California with over 30 public retail locations. There has been a steady increase in the number of stations open and hydrogen dispensed, especially in the last two years. From 2015 to 2016, the annual amount of hydrogen dispensed increased from 27,400 kg to 109,200 kg, a nearly fourfold increase in just one year. One station dispensed nearly 12,000 kg in the second quarter of 2017. Despite the significant progress, gaps exist between current infrastructure capabilities and future requirements. For example, fuel cell vehicle applications such as buses, medium-duty, and heavy-duty trucks will gain market share and this must be considered as future customers at hydrogen stations. The expected number of light duty fuel cell vehicles in California alone are expected to grow from approximately 4,000 to over 13,000 by 2020, and 37,000 by 2023. To serve the multiple mobile fuel cell technologies and increased demand, hydrogen stations will have to increase output, decrease cost, and improve reliability. To address these challenges, the project team will demonstrate a hydrogen-focused integrated renewable energy production, storage, and transportation fuel distribution/retailing system. The proposed R&D tasks address key challenges related to light duty station/component reliability and development and validation of high flow rate system models for new applications like medium and heavy-duty truck fueling.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2022

Case Study: Hybridizing Nuclear Energy Systems in the U.S.

This case study was presented at the ICTP-IAEA VIRTUAL Course on Nuclear-Renewable Integrated Energy Systems: Phenomenology, Research and Development. It provides preliminary results on an analysis of hybridizing the two nuclear power plants owned by Xcel Energy and located in Minnesota. The analysis extends previous analyses that provided only price-taker results. Those assume adjusting the generation sold to the grid does not impact locational marginal electricity prices nor do they estimate impacts on the total net cost to serve the load. This presentation summarizes the new technique that was developed to both optimize the size and operations of the hybridized system and the resulting impacts on the grid when it is operated optimally.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Renewables, Resource Adequacy, and Reliability

Presentation to the Legislative Energy Horizons Institute on grid reliability and renewable integration, including resource adequacy, flexibility, and distributed energy resource considerations.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,POWER TRANSMI↗