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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

An Assessment of the Potential for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development on the Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation covers about 27,000 square miles in the Southwestern United States with approximately 270 sunny days a year. Therefore, the Navajo Nation has the potential to develop utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) energy for the Navajo people and export electricity to major cities to generate revenues. In April 2019, the Navajo Nation issued a proclamation to increase residential and utility-scale renewable energy development on the Navajo Nation. In response, this research assesses the potential for utility-scale solar energy development on the Navajo Nation using criteria such as access to roads, transmission lines, slope/terrain data, aspect/direction, and culturally sensitive sites. These datasets are applied as layers using ArcGIS to identify regions that have good potential for utility-scale solar PV installations. Land availability on the Navajo Nation has been an issue for developing utility-scale solar PV, so this study proposes potential locations for solar PV and how much energy these potential sites could generate. Furthermore, two coal-fired power plants, the Navajo Generating Station and the San Juan Generating Station, will close soon and impact the Navajo Nation's energy supply and economy. This study seeks to answer two main questions: whether utility- scale solar energy could be used to replace the energy generated by both coal-fired powerplants, and what percentage of the Navajo Nation's energy demands can be met by utility-scale solar energy development? Economic development is a major concern; therefore, this study also examines what utility-scale solar development will mean for the Navajo Nation economy. The results of this study show that the Navajo Nation has a potential PV capacity of 45,729 MW to 91,459 MW. Even with the lowest calculated capacity, utility-scale solar PV has the potential to generate more than 11 times the power of the NGS and SJGS combined.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Making Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings a “Win” for Both Customers and Utilities

Buildings account for more than 70% of U.S. electricity use and at least one-third of U.S. economy-wide CO2 emissions. Changing the timing and overall amount of electricity consumption in buildings would significantly reduce energy costs to consumers and facilitate the transition to a decarbonized economy. Grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) incorporate energy efficiency, smart technologies, and active use of distributed energy resources (DERs) to provide these benefits. As the link between the customer and the power system, utilities are central to widespread deployment of GEBs. Yet, despite the significant cost savings and operational benefits of GEBs for utilities, deployment has remained limited. This paper explores emerging models for enabling utilities to facilitate GEB adoption. Building off foundational research conducted to develop the U.S. DOE’s A National Roadmap for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings, we describe the most novel recent examples of ways in which utilities and regulators have made demand-side innovation a win for both the customer and the utility. Emerging concepts include: (1) performance incentive mechanisms to align GEB deployment with utility financial motivations, (2) the use of subscription pricing (i.e., fixed monthly bills) to promote load flexibility and energy efficiency, (3) rate-basing utility-controlled behind-the-meter assets, and (4) coupling energy efficiency and load flexibility with electrification proposals to ensure that customer benefits are maximized. The paper concludes with a discussion about prospects for widespread GEB deployment and utilization by utilities, and how to scale efforts.

Satchwell, Andrew↗
DOE OSTI2018

Fuel utilization effects on system efficiency in solid oxide fuel cell gas turbine hybrid systems

Here, a computational analysis was conducted to optimize the design of a solid oxide fuel cell - gas turbine hybrid power generator, focusing on the impact that fuel utilization within the fuel cell has on system efficiency and installed costs. This is the first ever design-study considering the effect of fuel utilization on performance, as well as on the optimum power split. This hybrid system attained high electric generation efficiencies (>70%) over a wide range of operating conditions (60% < fuel utilization < 90%) while the fuel cell stack size decreased in proportion to decreasing the fuel utilization. A one-dimensional fuel cell model was used to simulate the fuel cell while GateCycle® was used to simulate the performance of the associated recuperated turbine and various subsystems necessary for thermal management. For each test case, the size of the solid oxide fuel cell, gas turbine, and recuperator, as well as the fuel and air flow rates, hot-air bypass set point, and heat exchange effectiveness in the solid oxide fuel cell manifold were varied to obtain 550 MWe output. In addition, anode recycle, turbomachinery efficiency, and various thermal management options were tested. The maximum system efficiency (75.6%) was attained for the single-pass solid oxide fuel cell with highly efficient turbomachinery when the solid oxide fuel cell used 80% of the incoming fuel. Efficiency was essentially flat from 75% fuel utilization through 85% fuel utilization. Employing anode recycle starting at 65% resulted in roughly 1 percentage point efficiency decrease for each percent increase in fuel utilization. For minimized solid oxide fuel cell degradation, a near 50:50 power split case was studied resulting in 68.6% efficiency and the solid oxide fuel cell using 55% of the incoming fuel. Because of shifting half of the power generation to the gas turbine, the size of the fuel cell stack was reduced by 25% as compared to that at maximum efficiency (80% fuel utilization).

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Public electric vehicle charging station utilization in the United States

The utilization of electric vehicle (EV) charging equipment is a key driver of charging station economics, but current trends and factors related to the utilization of public charging infrastructure in the United States are not well understood. This study analyzes EV charging data from 3,705 nationwide public Level 2 (L2) and direct current fast charging (DCFC) stations over 2.5 years (2019-2022), observing utilization patterns over time. Regression analysis is used to assess the relationships between station utilization and several contextual and environmental factors. We conclude that local EV adoption is a strong indicator of utilization; L2 station utilization decreases with the size of the local charging network, while DCFC stations are less affected; and increased charging power has a greater effect on utilization for DCFC stations than L2. This study fills a critical research gap by reporting updated public charging station utilization statistics and analysis for the U.S. market.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Beyond Widgets: Validated Systems Energy Savings and Utility Custom Incentive Program Systems Trends

Energy efficiency upgrades to buildings to date through avenues such as utility incentive programs have been largely limited to component-based products (e.g., lamps, RTUs). While some utilities do provide ‘custom’ incentive programs with whole building and system level technical assistance, these programs require deeper levels of analysis, resulting in higher program costs. This results in custom programs being restricted to utilities with greater resources, and are typically applied mainly to large or energy-intensive facilities, leaving much of the market without cost effective access and incentives for these solutions. In addition, with increasingly stringent energy codes, cost effective component-based solutions that achieve significant savings are dwindling. Integrated building systems (e.g., integrated façade, HVAC and/or lighting solutions) can deliver higher savings (Regnier et al. 2017) that translate into large sector-wide savings if deployed at the scale of these programs. However, systems application poses a number of challenges – energy savings assessments are inherently more complex and are not easily suited to the deemed measure model, and implementation of systems can be more disruptive. This paper presents the outcomes of a project to develop validated utility incentive program packages for three specific integrated building systems, in collaboration with ComEd, a consortium of California Public Owned Utilities (CA POUs) (Northern California Power Agency(NCPA) and the Southern California Public Power Authority(SCPPA)), and Xcel Energy (CO, MN). Previous work described the potential for energy savings of these systems at the individual and market level, early test findings for the task-ambient lighting system, and described the work products to develop utility incentive programs (Regnier et al. 2016). This paper presents validated end use energy savings of all three systems showing energy savings of ~20% for automated shading combined with daylight dimming (does not include light fixture retrofit savings); 30-46% for task-ambient lighting systems combined with plug load occupancy controls, depending on technology package and office building size (no daylight dimming impacts); and ~94% in the south-façade daylit zone for workstation specific lighting systems with daylight dimming (including lighting retrofit and task tuning). Using a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reference building model (DOE 2018), this translates to whole building savings of 2-5% (large-medium commercial), 12-23% (large-small commercial), and 13-15% (medium-large commercial) for these systems respectively. Early findings from the utilities in deploying these systems through their incentive programs indicate that deployment methods such as direct install programs might be best suited for these integrated systems. Further, early findings from a scoping study across custom utility programs and federal retrofit programs indicate that component level retrofits are still prevalent even in these programs, pointing towards an opportunity for deeper energy savings deployment. High performance retrofit case studies demonstrate that deeper energy savings is possible through integrated approaches. Market stakeholder interviews indicate however that there is generally a low level of awareness of the potential for energy savings of these three integrated systems.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

RNAseq analysis of Cellvibrio japonicus during starch utilization differentiates between genes encoding carbohydrate active enzymes controlled by substrate detection or growth rate

ABSTRACT Bacterial utilization of starch is increasingly of interest as the importance and contributions of animal gut microbiomes become more defined. Consequently, identifying and characterizing the bacterial enzymes responsible for the degradation, transport, and metabolism of starch will enable developments in pharmaceutical, biotechnological, and culinary industries searching for novel prebiotics, carrier molecules, and low glycemic index sweeteners. The current challenge is that bacteria proficient at starch utilization often have hundreds of carbohydrate active enzymes, and it is unclear which are essential for starch utilization using only homology-based bioinformatics or computational methods. Complementary experimental data are also needed, especially to understand the regulation of bacterial starch utilization. We have completed an RNAseq analysis of the Gram-negative bacterium Cellvibrio japonicus and found that it has sophisticated regulation that includes substrate sensing and growth rate components for genes that encode starch-degrading enzymes. Among the 22 genes predicted to encode starch-active enzymes, C. japonicus has 10 alpha-amylases, 4 alpha-glucosidases, 2 pullulnases, and 2 cyclomaltodextrin glucanotransferases, 15 of which were up-regulated during exponential growth on starch and 8 up-regulated in stationary phase. Growth analyses with an enzyme secretion deficient mutant of C. japonicus suggested that secreted amylases are essential for this bacterium to degrade starch. Our approach of coupling a physiological growth assay with transcriptomic data provides a platform to identify targets for further genetic or biochemical analysis that can be broadly applied to other starch-utilizing bacteria. IMPORTANCE Understanding the bacterial metabolism of starch is important as this polysaccharide is a ubiquitous ingredient in foods, supplements, and medicines, all of which influence gut microbiome composition and health. Our RNAseq and growth data set provides a valuable resource to those who want to better understand the regulation of starch utilization in Gram-negative bacteria. These data are also useful as they provide an example of how to approach studying a starch-utilizing bacterium that has many putative amylases by coupling transcriptomic data with growth assays to overcome the potential challenges of functional redundancy. The RNAseq data can also be used as a part of larger meta-analyses to compare how C. japonicus regulates carbohydrate active enzymes, or how this bacterium compares to gut microbiome constituents in terms of starch utilization potential.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Regulatory Incentives and Disincentives for Utility Investments in Grid Modernization

Electric power is America's most capital-intensive industry, with more than $100 billion invested each year in energy infrastructure. Investment needs are likely to grow as electric utilities make power systems more reliable and resilient, deploy advanced digital technologies, and facilitate new services to meet some consumers' expectations for greater choice and control. But do current regulatory approaches provide the appropriate incentives for grid modernization investments? This report presents three perspectives: -Financial analyst Steve Kihm begins by explaining that any major investor-owned electric utility that wants to raise capital today can do so at a reasonable cost. The question is whether utility managers want to raise capital for grid modernization. Specifically, they look for investments that create the most value for their existing shareholders. In cases where grid modernization investments are not the best choice in terms of shareholder value, Kihm describes shareholder incentive mechanisms that regulators could consider to encourage such investments when they are in the public interest. -From an institutional perspective, Dr. Janice Beecher finds that the traditional rate-base/rate of return regulatory model provides powerful incentives for utilities to pursue investments, cost control, efficiency and even innovation, and it is well suited to the policy objectives of grid modernization. Prudence of grid modernization investments (fair returns) depends on careful evaluation of the specific asset, and any special incentives (bonus returns) should be used only if they promote economic efficiency consistent with the core goals of economic regulation. According to Beecher, realizing the promises of grid modernization depends on effective implementation of the traditional regulatory model and ratemaking tools to serve the public interest. -Conversely, former commissioner and clean energy consultant Ron Lehr says that rapid electric industry changes require a better alignment of utility investment incentives with changes challenging the electricity sector, emerging grid modernization options and benefits, and public policies. For example, investor-owned utilities typically have an incentive to make capital investments, but rarely to employ expense-based solutions, since utilities do not earn profits on expenses. Further, Lehr cites a variety of factors that stand in the way of creating well targeted and well aligned utility incentives, including litigated regulatory processes. These may be a poor choice for finding the right balance among competing interests, establishing rules of prospective application, justifying demonstrations of new technologies and approaches to meeting emerging consumer demands, and keeping pace with rapid change.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Utility-Scale Solar: Empirical Trends in Project Technology, Cost, Performance, and PPA Pricing in the United States – 2018 Edition

The utility-scale solar sector has led the overall U.S. solar market in terms of installed capacity since 2012. In 2017, the utility-scale sector accounted for nearly 60% of all new solar capacity, and is expected to maintain its market-leading position for at least another six years. Two-thirds of all states, representing all regions of the country, are now home to one or more utility-scale solar projects. This report—the sixth in an ongoing annual series—provides in-depth data-driven analysis of the utility-scale solar project fleet in the United States. Drawing on empirical project-level data from a wide range of sources, this report analyzes technology trends, installed project prices, operating costs, capacity factors, power purchase agreement ("PPA") prices, the levelized cost of solar energy (LCOE), and the market value of solar. Given its current preeminence in the market, utility-scale PV also dominates much of this report, though data from CPV and CSP projects are also presented where appropriate. Highlights from this year's edition include: -Installation and Technology Trends: The use of solar trackers dominated 2017 installations with nearly 80% of all new capacity. In a reflection of the ongoing geographic expansion of the market beyond California and the high-insolation Southwest, the median insolation level at newly built project sites declined again in 2017. While new fixed-tilt projects are now seen predominantly in less-sunny regions, tracking projects are increasingly pushing into these same regions. The median inverter loading ratio grew to 1.32 in 2017, allowing the inverters to operate closer to full capacity for a greater percentage of the day. -Installed Prices: Median installed PV project prices have steadily fallen by two-thirds since the 2007-2009 period, to $2.0/WAC (or $1.6/WDC) for projects completed in 2017. The lowest 20th percentile of projects within our 2017 sample were priced at or below $1.8/WAC, with the lowest-priced projects around $0.9/WAC. Overall price dispersion across the entire sample has decreased steadily every year since 2013; similarly, price variation across regions decreased in 2017. -Operation and Maintenance ("O&M") Costs: PV O&M costs were in the neighborhood of $16/kWAC-year, or $8/MWh, in 2017. These numbers include only those costs incurred to directly operate and maintain the generating plant. -Capacity Factors: The cumulative net AC capacity factors of individual projects vary widely, from 14.3% to 35.2%, with a sample median of 26.3%. This project-level variation is based on a number of factors, including the strength of the solar resource at the project site, whether the array is mounted at a fixed tilt or on a tracking mechanism, the inverter loading ratio, degradation, and curtailment. Changes in at least the first three of these factors drove mean capacity factors higher from 2010-vintage to 2013-vintage projects, where they've remained fairly steady among more-recent project vintages as an ongoing increase in the prevalence of tracking has been offset by a build-out of lower resource sites. -PPA Prices and LCOE: Driven by lower installed project prices and improving capacity factors, levelized PPA prices for utility-scale PV have fallen dramatically over time, by $20-$30/MWh per year on average from 2006 through 2012, with a smaller price decline of ~$10/MWh per year evident from 2013 through 2016. Most recent PPAs in our sample—including many outside of California and the Southwest—are priced at or below $40/MWh levelized (in real 2017 dollars), with a few priced as aggressively as ~$20/MWh. The median LCOE among operational PV projects in our sample has followed PPA prices lower, suggesting a relatively competitive market for PPAs. -Solar's Wholesale Energy Market Value: Falling PPA prices have been offset to some degree by a decline in the wholesale energy market value of solar within higher-penetration markets like California, where solar earned just 79% of the average price across all hours within CAISO's real-time wholesale energy market in 2017 (down from 125% back in 2012). In other markets with less solar penetration, however, solar's hourly generation profile still earns more than the average wholesale price (e.g., 127% in ERCOT, 112% in PJM). -Solar+Storage: Adding battery storage is one way to at least partially restore the value of solar, and three recent PV+storage PPAs in Nevada (each using 4-hour batteries sized at 25% of PV nameplate capacity) suggest that the incremental PPA price adder for storage has fallen to ~$5/MWh, down from ~$15/MWh just a year ago for a similarly configured project. As PV plus battery storage becomes more cost-effective, a number of developers are regularly offering it as a viable upgrade to standalone PV. At the end of 2017, there were at least 188.5 GW of utility-scale solar power capacity within the interconnection queues across the nation. The 2017 growth within these queues is widely distributed across all regions of the country, but is most pronounced in the up-and-coming Midwest region, which accounts for 27% of the 99.2 GW of new queue capacity. The widening geographic distribution is as clear of a sign as any that the utility-scale market is maturing and expanding outside of its traditional high-insolation comfort zones.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Handbook for Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Successful Electric Utility Pilots

Since at least the late 1970s, electric utilities and their regulators have recognized the value of experimentation to motivate innovation. The industry has a long history of using pilots to help inform future decision making about electric utility rates, customer technology adoption and integration, and even changes to the utility’s regulatory or business model. Although utility pilots have become almost ubiquitous proving grounds for new rates, technologies, and alterations to the traditional utility regulatory and business model, some regulators are beginning to raise questions about what constitutes a “good” pilot. Much has been written about utility pilots over the years; however, what is missing from the literature is the identification of a comprehensive process for not only designing and evaluating a pilot, but also implementing, successful utility pilots that provide actionable outcomes upon which more informed decisions can be made. This report provides a step-by-step process that regulators, policymakers, and utilities can follow to help promote a more successful pilot, even if whatever is being tested fails to produce the intended or expected result(s). It is worth noting that this report is not intended to serve as a technical resource for those designing, implementing, and evaluating pilots. However, there are myriad references provided for those wishing to delve deeper into the technical details.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Regulatory Mechanisms to Enable Investments in Electric Utility Resilience

In 2019, Sandia National Laboratories contracted Synapse Energy Economics (Synapse) to research the integration of community and electric utility resilience investment planning as part of the Designing Resilient Communities: A Consequence-Based Approach for Grid Investment (DRC) project. Synapse produced a series of reports to explore the challenges and opportunities in several key areas, including benefit-cost analysis, performance metrics, microgrids, and regulatory mechanisms to promote investments in electric system resilience. This report focuses on regulatory mechanisms to improve resilience. Regulatory mechanisms that improve resilience are approaches that electric utility regulators can use to align utility, customer, and third-party investments with regulatory, ratepayer, community, and other important stakeholder interests and priorities for resilience. Cost-of-service regulation may fail to provide utilities with adequate guidance or incentives regarding community priorities for infrastructure hardening and disaster recovery. The application of other types of regulatory mechanisms to resilience investments can help. This report: characterizes regulatory objective as they apply to resilience; identifies several regulatory mechanisms that are used or can be adapted to improve the resilience of the electric system--including performance-based regulation, integrated planning, tariffs and programs to leverage private investment, alternative lines of business for utilities, enhanced cost recovery, and securitization; provides a case study of each regulatory mechanism; summarizes findings across the case studies; and suggests how these regulatory mechanisms might be improved and applied to resilience moving forward. In this report, we assess the effectiveness of a range of utility regulatory mechanisms at evaluating and prioritizing utility investments in grid resilience. First, we characterize regulatory objectives which underly all regulatory mechanisms. We then describe seven types of regulatory mechanisms that can be used to improve resilience--including performance-based regulation, integrated planning, tariffs and programs to leverage private investment, alternative lines of business for utilities, enhanced cost recovery, and securitization--and provide a case study for each one. We summarize our findings on the extent to which these regulatory mechanisms have supported resilience to date. We conclude with suggestions on how these regulatory mechanisms might be improved and applied to resilience moving forward.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantifying the Financial Impacts of Electric Vehicles on Utility Ratepayers and Shareholders [Slides]

Widespread electric vehicle (EV) adoption is critical for meeting economy-wide decarbonization goals and, as a result, states are considering enabling policies and rate designs to accelerate EV deployment. EVs can provide possible financial upside to electric utilities and ratepayers in several ways. For example, from the utility perspective, EVs could drive increased electricity sales and new earnings opportunities through increased capital investments. From the ratepayer perspective, increased electric loads from EVs could reduce average all-in retail rates. The degree to which there are net benefits or costs to shareholders and/or ratepayers depends on how EVs are integrated and managed through enabling grid investments and charging strategies. Using Berkeley Lab’s Financial Impacts of Distributed Energy Resources (FINDER) model that mimics the electric utility investment planning and ratemaking processes, we estimate the utility earnings and customer rate impacts of EVs using a bookend approach of “managed” (i.e., best case) and “mismanaged” (i.e., worst case) charging strategies for a generic summer-peaking, investor-owned, and vertically integrated utility. The analysis also examines the sensitivity of results to different assumptions of EV deployment characteristics, EV impacts on retail electricity sales, incremental distribution system costs, EV charging location, and utility EV enablement costs (i.e., utility costs to invest in EV charging, controls, and communication to deliver and administer EV programs). The results are intended to inform EV policies and deployment strategies that maximize utility system benefits and minimize ratepayer costs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Accuracy Enhancement of Nuclear Power Plant Simulators Utilizing High Accuracy Simulation Predictions

More recently, reactor core simulators for core designs associated with commercial nuclear power plants that utilize what is believed to be higher fidelity models have been developed. Features such as neutronics models that utilize transport equation solvers with fine spatial meshes and many energy-groups, thermal-hydraulic models that utilize sub-channel solvers with fine spatial mesh and capable of treating a wide range of fluid conditions, and fuel-coolant chemistry interaction models capable of treating CRUD deposition are to be found in these higher fidelity core simulators. These reactor core simulators require access to higher performance computers, characterized by many processors, cores and large memory. So associated with utilization of these simulators is access to high performance computers and ability to accommodate in one’s workflow longer execution times. By contrast, currently used core simulators by the nuclear industry can execute on engineering workstations and have execution times of seconds to minutes. The desirability for having short execution times is not only desired for support of time critical tasks but supports the mental process of decision making by engineers. The goal of the work reported upon here has the objective of retaining the fidelity of higher fidelity models while retaining the ability to utilize engineering workstations. Beyond the core simulator goal, additional goals of this work include incorporating the just described core simulator capability into a Nuclear Steam Supply System (NSSS) simulator, and to incorporate the resulting capability into an environment supportive of design and operational decision making associated with nuclear power stations. The model selected for the core neutronics model is the NESTLE code, for the core thermal-hydraulic model is the CTF code utilizing coarse mesh, and for the NSSS model is the RELAP5-3D code. WSC’s proprietary 3KEYMASTERTM platform is being used to provide software coupling, user interface, visualization, and reporting. The NESTLE core neutronics simulator was first integrated with the CTF core thermal-hydraulic simulator using CTF developed communication commands which are also used for CTF to communicate with RELAP5-3D under WSC’s proprietary 3KEYMASTERTM platform. To assure NESTLE prediction consistency with higher fidelity core neutronic simulators, buffer codes have been created to automatically generate from output files written by the VERA core simulator the NESTLE nodal neutronic parameter’ library, geometry, and pin-power reconstruction input files, thereby avoiding a number of challenges associated with utilizing lattice physics codes and providing consistency with VERA predictions. To treat absorber rod effects a multi-set library is utilized, where a set refers to a specific absorber rod fully inserted pattern. A coarse spatial mesh CTF model was developed with features added that support using CTF as envisioned in the engineering quality simulator. A hybrid meshing approach was implemented to allow for automated construction of models with mixed levels of refinement. Specifically, a core model could resolve some assemblies at a nodal level (4 subchannels per assembly) and others at a pin-resolution (one subchannel per coolant subchannel in the assembly). The intention is that this will allow for better resolution of limiting conditions such as DNBR and PCT, which are based on local rod and subchannel conditions. Further development was done of features that enhance the capabilities for the envisioned engineering quality simulator that has been developed, but now for RELAP-3D. The RELAP5-3D code development includes ability to model more than 999 components and the addition of the cross-channels turbulence mixing model and the void drift model that are implemented in CTF, aiming to achieve closer prediction agreement of the two codes for transient simulations, specifically, more accurate matches of the overall mass, momentum, and energy exchanges of both the liquid and gas phases between the neighboring core assemblies. Graphics were also developed for the Instructor Station for this project under WSC’s proprietary 3KEYMASTERTM platform to facilitate design and operational decision making.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bridging the Gap on Data, Metrics, and Analyses for Grid Resilience to Weather Events: Information that utilities can provide regulators, state energy offices, and other stakeholders

A growing number of states require regulated utilities to file resilience plans to improve the electric grid’s ability to anticipate, withstand, adapt to and recover from increasingly severe weather events. This report aims to help state regulators identify and request data, metrics, and analyses from utilities and use it in decisions on utility resilience plans and investments. The report reviews state requirements and utility plans focused on overall grid resilience, climate change resilience and vulnerabilities, infrastructure modernization, storm protection, and wildfire mitigation. It details types of data, metrics, and analyses across five categories--and provides examples of each from the utility plans. The first category is vulnerability assessments, or evaluations of the susceptibility of systems, communities, or assets to potential harm from identified hazards. The second is data on hazards and the exposure of utility assets and customers to these hazards. The third is attribute metrics, or system characteristics that contribute to or describe the resilience of a system. The fourth is performance metrics, which are impacts of resilience investments on system performance--typically a reduction of negative impacts from hazard events. Finally, evaluation and prioritization are analyses that utilities conduct to estimate impacts from resilience measures (evaluation) and prioritize measures based on costs and estimated impacts (prioritization). The report concludes with examples of key trends and emerging best practices for states and utilities, and identifies areas for further research.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2000

Optimal Wonderful Life Utility Functions in Multi-Agent Systems

The mathematics of Collective Intelligence (COINs) is concerned with the design of multi-agent systems so as to optimize an overall global utility function when those systems lack centralized communication and control. Typically in COINs each agent runs a distinct Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithm, so that much of the design problem reduces to how best to initialize/update each agent's private utility function, as far as the ensuing value of the global utility is concerned. Traditional team game solutions to this problem assign to each agent the global utility as its private utility function. In previous work we used the COIN framework to derive the alternative Wonderful Life Utility (WLU), and experimentally established that having the agents use it induces global utility performance up to orders of magnitude superior to that induced by use of the team game utility. The WLU has a free parameter (the clamping parameter) which we simply set to zero in that previous work. Here we derive the optimal value of the clamping parameter, and demonstrate experimentally that using that optimal value can result in significantly improved performance over that of clamping to zero, over and above the improvement beyond traditional approaches.

Wolpert, David H.↗
DOE OSTI2018

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit”: Creating Alignment between Cities and Utility Energy Efficiency Programs

Cities are significantly acting as market catalysts to encourage and require building owners to improve energy performance. Yet, cities implementing building performance policies that require actions like audits or re-tuning may experience conflicts with their regulated utilities’ efficiency programs, which depend on energy savings being additional—not attributable to market adoption or preexisting laws. These utility programs preclude free ridership, meaning that the energy savings should be achieved by someone who otherwise would not have acted in the absence of the incentive or rebate. Utilities may decline to offer incentives where cities require particular actions, in turn dissuading cities from enacting ordinances that would lead to further efficiency improvements. This regulatory challenge impedes what could otherwise be a shared goal of improving energy efficiency. Finding solutions that allow city ordinances and utility programs to coexist is vital as cities are taking climate and energy matters into their own hands. Cities and utilities have so far navigated this problem informally. One potential approach is to apply established models from the world of energy codes, where some state regulators have permitted utilities to earn energy savings credit from supporting adoption of energy codes, or from improving code compliance. We consider how this approach and other frameworks could be applied to building performance policies. More specifically, this paper lays out a theory for how utilities can collaborate with local partners to drive deeper energy savings, with oversight from regulators, and examines the question of attributing the savings between the city and utility.

Crandall, Kelly↗
DOE OSTI2022

Considerations for Resilience Guidelines for Clean Energy Plans: For the Oregon Public Utility Commission and Oregon Electricity Stakeholders

This document summarizes relevant approaches, research, models, and national examples for state utility regulators tasked with developing utility guidelines for risk-based resiliency planning. In 2021, the Oregon Legislature enacted a 100 percent clean electricity by 2040 standard that requires the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) to oversee utility planning for aggressive clean energy deployment through Clean Energy Plans (House Bill 2021, Sec. 4). In addition to meeting emissions reductions targets, Clean Energy Plans must also: "Include a risk-based examination of resiliency opportunities that includes costs, consequences, outcomes, and benefits based on reasonable and prudent industry resiliency standards and guidelines established by the Public Utility Commission." This report will support the Oregon Public Utility Commission in developing resilience guidelines. Other state public utility commissions may also benefit from this research.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2016

DOE Voluntary Partnership Program with Utilities and Local Governments Supports the Design of New Data Access Solutions

The Better Buildings Energy Data Accelerator (BBEDA) is a unique effort that has supported 22 pairs of local governments and their utility companies to help building owners gain access to their whole-building energy data. Municipal and Utility BBEDA Partners committed to develop streamlined and easy-to-use solutions to provide whole-building energy data, especially for multitenant commercial buildings, by the end of 2015. As a result, building owners would be able to make data-driven decisions about their buildings by utilizing readily available energy consumption data for entire buildings. Traditionally, data access was difficult to implement due to technical barriers and the lack of clear value propositions for the utilities. During the past two years, BBEDA has taken a hands-on approach to overcome these barriers by offering a platform for the partners to discuss their challenges and solutions. Customized support was also provided to Partners building their local strategies. Based on the lessons learned from the partners, BBEDA developed a final toolkit with guiding documents that addressed key barriers and served as a resource for the other cities and utilities attempting to establish whole-building data access, including an exploration of opportunities to apply the whole-building data to various aspects of utility demand-side management (DSM) programs. BBEDA has been a catalyst for market transformation by addressing the upstream (to efficiency implementation) barrier of data access, demonstrated through the success of the BBEDA partners to address policy, engagement, and technical hurdles and arrive at replicable solutions to make data access a standard practice nationwide. As a result of best practices identified by the BBEDA, 18 utilities serving more than 2.6 million commercial customers nationwide will provide whole-building energy data access to building owners by 2017. This historic expansion of data accessibility will increase building energy benchmarking, the first step many building owners take to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Cost of Saving Electricity Through Efficiency Programs Funded by Customers of Publicly Owned Utilities: 2012–2017

This report finds that energy efficiency programs for customers of publicly owned utilities saved electricity at an average cost of 2.4 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from 2012 to 2017. Utilities use such cost performance metrics to assess effectiveness of efficiency program portfolios, determine what programs to offer customers, and, more broadly, ensure electricity system reliability at the most affordable cost as part of electric utility resource adequacy planning and resource procurement processes. The study analyzed efficiency program data reported by 111 program administrators for 219 publicly owned utilities in 14 states — about 90 percent of the municipal utilities and public utility districts that report the data to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The data represent 88 percent of all spending and 75 percent of all savings that publicly owned utilities reported to EIA in those years. Berkeley Lab used data from several sources, including data provided directly by American Public Power Association members, publicly available annual reports and regional data collections.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗