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DOE OSTI2025

Harnessing Virtual Power Plants Reliably: Enabling tools for increased observability, controllability, operation, and aggregation of distributed energy resources

Harnessing virtual power plants enhances the integration of distributed energy resources into utility grids for a sustainable energy future. Virtual power plants (VPPs) aggregate DERs to enhance resource adequacy and reduce emissions. U.S. utilities are exploring various technologies to manage DERs effectively. FERC Order 2222 allows DERs to participate in both wholesale and retail markets. Enhancing observability and controllability of behind-the-meter (BTM) DERs is essential for reliable grid operations. A hierarchical control architecture can improve coordination among residential energy resources. Field tests showed nearly 20% energy savings and 30% peak power reduction during grid events. Effective management of DERs requires enhanced situational awareness to prevent grid congestion. Integrating DER management systems (DERMS) with existing planning tools can improve operational security. Near-real-time grid models can validate optimal resource set points against resource uncertainty. Traditional uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) can be upgraded to support grid services and become part of VPPs. Upgrading UPS systems can reduce costs by 75% and unlock significant battery capacity. New battery management systems and grid-aware controllers are essential for optimizing UPS performance. Continued research and development are necessary to address challenges in integrating DERs into utility grids. Encouraging customer participation in pilot programs is vital for the evolution of VPPs. Here, the shift towards price-responsive DERs and VPPs is expected to enhance energy distribution efficiency.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Memory forensic analysis of a programmable logic controller in industrial control systems

In industrial control systems (ICS), programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are used to automate physical processes such as nuclear plants and power grid stations, and are often subject to cyber attacks. As in conventional IT domain, the memory analysis of the PLCs can help answer important forensic questions about the attack, such as the presence of malicious firmware, injection of modified control logic (the program running on the PLC), and manipulation of I/O devices (e.g., sensors and actuators). Unlike conventional IT domain, PLCs have heterogeneous hardware architecture, proprietary firmware and control software, making it challenging to employ a unified framework for their memory forensics. For merely extracting artifacts of forensic importance, reverse-engineering the firmware is a tedious task, and the effort needs to be repeated for every PLC model. As a community, a step-wise approach to tackle this challenge is to analyze the memory of specific PLCs, and subsequently find a generic framework applicable to all PLCs. Our work is a step forward in this direction. By following a methodology that focuses on the functional layer of PLCs instead of reverse engineering the firmware, we analyze the digital forensic artifacts available in a common PLC, Allen-Bradley ControlLogix 1756-L61. Before diving into the memory dump, we analyze the PLC control software to create a list of important artifacts that are sure to exist in the PLC memory dump. The approach employs a setup where PLC control software RSLogix-5000 is connected to the PLC, and the memory dump can be obtained as and when needed. We create test cases that sequentially highlight each category of artifacts, followed by an examination of the resultant impact on memory. After attaining the listed artifacts, we employ conventional string and known data searches to extract interesting information present in this PLC's memory. The memory analysis profile, presented as a Python library and shared with the community, can help a forensic investigator to readily extract forensic artifacts from the same model's controller. The adopted approach may help researchers in creating memory profile of other PLCs, and ultimately formulating a generic PLC memory analysis framework.

Rais, Muhammad Haris↗

DOE OSTI2020

Vulnerability Detection Methodology for a Digital Signal Processor Micro-Controller at Edge Level Distributed Energy Resource Controller

Integration of renewable energy and energy storage based Distributed Energy Resource (DER) assets to the grid has seen an upsurge over the past few decades. Traditionally, energy would be generated at a thermal or nuclear power plant and then transmitted over long distance through the transmission grid and then supply to the customers at the distribution grid. Modern renewable energy based DER assets have brought energy production at the edge of distribution grid, which has made the grid vulnerable to cyber intrusion as the power flow controllers for such DER assets are now distributed across the grid from distribution level to transmission level. This paper discusses the vulnerability posed by such power flow controllers of DER assets and demonstrates a detection methodology for unauthorized access and manipulation of system configuration for Digital Signal Processor based Microcontrollers. Experimental results proving efficacy of the methodology have been shown in paper.

Bhowmik, Pankaj↗

DOE OSTI2021

A High Performance Communication Architecture for a Smart Micro-Grid Testbed Using Customized Edge Intelligent Devices (EIDs) With SPI and Modbus TCP/IP Communication Protocols

Not Available

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Design, Modeling, and Control of a Hardware-in-the-Loop Testbed for Off-Road Vehicles

This paper presents the design, modeling, and control of a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testbed for off-road vehicles. The proposed HIL testbed employs a transient hydrostatic dynamometer to load a diesel engine to emulate any loading cycles of a wheel loader, which is a representative off-road vehicle. A fully validated wheel loader model is used to calculate the engine load, including both the drive and work functions. Besides, iterative learning control (ILC) has been designed for the loading torque tracking of the hydrostatic dynamometer to ensure accurate emulation of real-world operation scenarios. The developed HIL testbed is used to demonstrate more than 26% energy benefits of automated wheel loaders through systematic optimization compared with human-operated wheel loaders. As a result, this HIL testbed serves as a robust platform for advancing research and development across various off-road vehicles, including excavators, tractors, and harvesters.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Economical and Engineering Aspects of Proactive Demand Participation: Centralized versus Bilateral Control Structure

The electric grid of the U.S. is evolving from a system characterized by large and centralized fossil-fueled power plants and passive customers to a network with high penetration of distributed energy resources and proactive customers. This project facilitated the evolution of the U.S. electric power grid by enabling proactive participation of demands in electricity market at the power distribution system level. This project has three major achievements. First, we designed a centralized distribution system operator managed electricity market and developed a three-phase alternating current optimal power flow algorithm to coordinate the operation of large-scale flexible loads and distributed energy resources. Second, we designed a decentralized bilateral coordinate framework for retail electricity market, where each participating customer is capable of making decisions regarding energy production and consumption based on information received from transactive neighbors. Third, the impacts of centralized and decentralized demand-side participation scheme on power system operations were evaluated with both large-scale simulations and hardware-in-the-loop demonstrations. The major activities and specific accomplishments of the technical tasks are summarized in Section II. The detailed design of centralized/hierarchical and decentralized/bilateral retail electricity markets and the comparison between the two markets are described in Section III. The accomplishments and conclusions of the project are presented in Section IV. The major findings of the project falls into three areas, hierarchical distribution system operator managed electricity market, bilateral electricity market and decentralized market coordination, and comparison of centralized and decentralized market coordination mechanisms. In the area of hierarchical distribution system operator managed electricity market design, an integrated wholesale and retail electricity market was shown to be highly effective in extracting the operational flexibility from distributed energy resources to provide services to the wholesale market. A chordal conversion based convex iteration algorithm is not only computationally efficiency but also achieves global optimal solution in coordinating the operations of a large number of heterogeneous distributed energy resources.In the area of decentralized market coordination approach, we showed that bilateral transactions among proactive customers and decentralized transaction clearing mechanism based on simultaneous second-price sealed-bid auction can encourage truthful bidding strategies from the market participations. In addition, the individual customers can rely on a portfolio optimization approach to maximize their returns while minimizing risks. In the area of comparison of centralized and decentralized market coordination mechanisms, we found that the centralized market design results in higher social welfare and lower wholesale market clearing price for electricity. In general, centralized market design favors distributed energy resources and fixed loads. The decentralized market design mostly benefits flexible loads and conventional generators.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2026

Providing Thermal Stability for an Exascale Supercomputer: A Case Study of Frontier's Cooling System

High performance computing (HPC) systems frequently produce large dynamic power swings, even under typical operating conditions, that can present a significant challenge for their direct-liquid cooling systems. Further, the primary cooling loops that must remove this waste heat have response times measured in minutes while the underlying HPC component thermal stress is measured in seconds. The per-socket power demand for both compute processing units (CPUs) and graphic processing units ( GPUs) continues to increase with each successive generation while case temperatures are declining. New HPC systems are expected to exacerbate the challenge of these dynamic power swings and the impact on effective and timely cooling systems. This paper describes the cooling and controls system for Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Frontier Supercomputer, the first sustained exascale system, as a case study for this situation. The cooling and control system for Frontier demonstrates specific success, but with a number of trade-offs and decisions that suggest further design and operating optimizations for the community at large to consider.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2020

ModuleOT: A Hardware Security Module for Operational Technology: Preprint

With increasing penetration levels of distributed energy resources (DERs) on the distribution grid, as well as new technological advancements in the cyber space, new cyberattack vectors are being introduced, and the available attack surface is constantly increasing. Despite this increasing risk, the standard IEEE 1547-2018 does not yet recommend cybersecurity measures for DERs. To address this and to better protect data on the distribution grid - from the standpoints information security as well as operational security - ModuleOT has been developed. The module aims to significantly reduce cyberattack vectors by improving data privacy for user applications. This is accomplished by performing the core functions of encryption, authentication, authorization, certificate management, and user access control. The module integrates a custom security application with hardware cryptographic acceleration. The application secures all communications using Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). These include the three most commonly used communications protocols for power systems information exchange: Modbus, Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3), and Smart Energy Profile 2.0 (SEP2.0). These three protocols are also supported by IEEE 1547-2018 for all DER devices. This paper tests the data encryption/decryption feature on a physical networking test bed with emulated Modbus devices reporting grid data and presents the results.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Fast modular reactor nuclear design parameters of fuel cycle and power distributions

This paper describes conceptual design of a 112 MW thermal (50 MW electric) Fast Modular Reactor (FMR) system operating at 7 MPa with inlet/outlet temperatures of 509/800 Celsius degrees. The reactor system includes the reactor core, fuel assemblies, fuel rods, reactor internals, reflector, neutron control system, flow control, and structural components. The nuclear design and analysis were conducted to search for a baseline core with a cycle length greater than 8-year and the power peaking factor less than 1.5 by adjusting the fuel assembly, reactor core, and reflector configurations. The neutron transport calculations of the baseline core showed that a refueling interval of 9-year is achieved with a total peaking factor of 1.47 and a fuel rod average linear power of 3.6 kW/m. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2020

The Demonstration of Power over Ethernet (PoE) Technologies in Commercial and Institutional Buildings

PoE technologies are currently ubiquitous in offices in the form of phones, access points, and IP security cameras and managed by on-site IT staff. As low voltage DC-power capabilities have increased with network switches, PoE devices are now being integrated across additional building systems, including lighting, computers, and HVAC controls. Since PoE devices are connected to network switches, energy monitoring and management can be performed through the IT network management software. Data and results from technology validations are still very limited for PoE equipment. This lack of information hinders higher adoption as its benefits and challenges have been insufficiently quantified in real-world scenarios. The use of IT network switches to power and control lighting, plug loads, and HVAC were demonstrated at a variety of sites including offices, schools, and a hotel. This paper presents the findings of a three-year DOE-/State of Minnesota-funded project that demonstrated and assessed the energy and non-energy benefits of Power over Ethernet (PoE) technologies at four commercial/institutional sites. The goals of the demonstrations were to: (1) assess the receptiveness of commercial and institutional markets to these new technologies, (2) demonstrate the feasibility of PoE technologies within standard design/construction practices and commercial codes, (3) assess the energy and cost savings opportunities of these technologies, (4) provide energy management opportunities where they typically are not available, and (5) formulate approaches to spur adoption of these technologies in the marketplace.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2020

The Demonstration of Power over Ethernet (PoE) Technologies in Commercial and Institutional Buildings

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2022

A Nonlinear Direct Power Controller for a Three-Phase Grid-Connected Inverter with Online Parameter Update for PV Application

This work proposes a nonlinear direct power controller for a three-phase grid-connected inverter for photovoltaic application. Grid-connected converters for solar applications require advanced control architectures to ensure optimal operation and extraction of maximum power from the photovoltaic arrays. Therefore, to ensure this, a nonlinear power controller architecture has been proposed to extract the maximum power from the solar arrays and to achieve the most optimal operation. To further improve the performance, a parameter update scheme has been utilized which is based on model reference adaptive system. The latter helps to accomplish not only good dynamic response but also excellent tracking performance. The overall control come estimation architecture is verified based on computer simulations via MATLAB/Simulink and PLECS domain and various important case study results are presented.

direct power control↗

DOE OSTI2021

TPCPF: Three-Phase Continuation Power Flow Tool for Voltage Stability Assessment of Distribution Networks With Distributed Energy Resources

This article presents a three-phase unbalanced continuation power flow algorithm for voltage stability assessment of distribution systems with high penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs). Analyzing distribution system voltage stability with DER will allow high penetration of renewable energy necessary for the sustainability goals. The developed algorithm can analyze voltage stability for both the meshed and radial systems and the balanced and unbalanced three-phase distribution systems. The developed tool allows the voltage stability analysis to facilitate the planning, operation, control, and distribution system management. The impact of DER on the voltage stability of several test cases has been analyzed considering constant power (P Q) and regulated-voltage (P V ) modes of operation for DER units. Moreover, different voltage stability case studies are presented to demonstrate the impact of unbalance, load increment, and network topology on the maximum loading capacity. Finally, results using the IEEE 13-node feeder, the 18-bus balanced shipboard system, the 13-node CIGRE benchmark system, and the 136-bus redial distribution feeder demonstrate that the developed continuation power flow tool can efficiently perform voltage stability analysis for active distribution systems.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2024

Design and Prototyping of Advanced Control Systems for Advanced Reactors Operating in the Future Electric Grid (Final Report)

Despite its significant advantages as a baseload, low-carbon energy source, the U.S. nuclear power industry has faced increasing difficulties in maintaining economic competitiveness in a rapidly evolving energy market. The economic conditions faced by the current fleet of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the U.S. deregulated electricity market require a concerted effort to mitigate specific cost factors. Many units are struggling to stay competitive, and some premature shutdowns have occurred. Besides, in response to the large penetration of renewable energy sources, the role of nuclear power plants as pure baseload units needs to be reconsidered. Based on these experiences, operational flexibility is considered a fundamental requirement for the next generation of nuclear reactors to be competitive in the future energy market. The deployment of advanced reactors capable of operating within a new power grid paradigm, known as the Integrated Energy System (IES) was investigated. This approach combines new reactor designs with Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technologies, allowing the nuclear reactor to maintain a steady power output without the need for constant adjustments in response to load demand fluctuations. With this configuration, the reactor operates as a baseload unit, experiencing only very gradual power transients, while the energy storage facility within the power conversion cycle acts as a peaking unit.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2023

First feedback-controlled divertor detachment in W7-X: Experience from TDU operation and prospects for operation with actively cooled divertor

In the last experimental campaign (OP1.2b) of the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), boronisation as a mean for first wall conditioning was applied for the first time which led to strongly reduced impurity fluxes from plasma-facing components. Thermal detachment at the uncooled target plates of the test divertor unit (TDU) was reached at higher plasma densities and was accompanied by high recycling of neutrals at the target plate. A feedback control system was established in W7-X to actively control the gas injection (actuator) for plasma fuelling and impurity seeding [3] through the divertors. It allowed very successful stabilisation of the detached plasma condition state as well as mitigation of thermal overloads to some baffle tiles. Different routinely available diagnostic signals were used as input parameters (sensors). We describe the setup of the feedback control system, its performance and provide some example results with the main focus on the development of the control scheme which led to the detachment stabilisation over the entire longest (30 s) high-power discharge at W7-X so far. In view of the achieved very successful detachment stabilisation and the necessity to include simultaneous optimisation of the core performance in the future, the feedback control system is being upgraded for the upcoming campaign (OP2.1) in which the water cooled and hereby inherently steady-state capable divertor has been currently installed. The prospects and some experiment ideas for active detachment control are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2019

A Prognostics and Health Management Framework for Wind

Operation and maintenance costs are a major driver for levelized cost of energy of wind power plants and can be reduced through optimized operation and maintenance practices accomplishable by various prognostics and health management (PHM) technologies. In recent years, the wind industry has become more open to adopting PHM solutions, especially those focusing on diagnostics. However, prognostics activities are, in general, still at the research and development stage. On the other hand, the industry has a request to estimate a component's remaining useful life (RUL) when it has faulted, and this is a key output of prognostics. Systematically presenting PHM technologies to the wind industry by highlighting the RUL prediction need potentially helps speed up its acceptance and provides more benefits from PHM to the industry. In this paper, we introduce a PHM for wind framework. It highlights specifics unique to wind turbines and features integration of data and physics domain information and models. The output of the framework focuses on RUL prediction. To demonstrate its application, a data domain method for wind turbine gearbox fault diagnostics is presented. It uses supervisory control and data acquisition system time series data, normalizes gearbox temperature measurements with reference to environmental temperature and turbine power, and leverages big data analytics and machine-learning techniques to make the model scalable and the diagnostics process automatic. Another physics-domain modeling method for RUL prediction of wind turbine gearbox high-speed-stage bearings failed by axial cracks is also discussed. Bearing axial cracking has been shown to be the prevalent wind turbine gearbox failure mode experienced in the field and is different from rolling contact fatigue, which is targeted during the bearing design stage. The method uses probability of failure as a component reliability assessment and RUL prediction metric, which can be expanded to other drivetrain components or failure modes. The presented PHM for wind framework is generic and applicable to both land-based and offshore wind turbines.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Multi-Timescale Integrated Dynamics and Scheduling for Solar (MIDAS-Solar) (Final Technical Report)

Solar photovoltaic (PV) installations have experienced unprecedented growth in the United States. PV will become not only an energy producer but also a necessary provider of ancillary services at multiple timescales. Conventional methods to simulate power systems operations - such as long-term production simulation (which typically considers schedules from hours to minutes by using an optimization framework) and short-term transient studies (which simulate dynamics from seconds to sub-seconds using state variables and differential equations) - are not sufficient for studying the multiple-timescale variation of solar generation and its impact on system reliability. Long-term system economics and short-term system dynamics are highly coupled, particularly when the penetration level of renewable generation is extremely high, because the uncertainty and variability of solar generation will impact both power system steady-state and dynamic performance. This project helps meet and exceed the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office goal of systems integration by directly addressing this stability and reliability challenge for power grid planning and operation. We have developed a temporally comprehensive, closed-loop simulation model, named Multi-timescale Integrated Dynamics and Scheduling (MIDAS), that seamlessly simulates power system operations from economic scheduling (day-ahead to hours) to dynamic response analysis (seconds to sub-seconds). For schedules with very high levels of inverter-based resources (IBRs), up to and including 100%, the stability of grid controls has been evaluated through electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulations and power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulations of key transient events at key schedule points. Specifically, MIDAS provides: 1) a closed-loop simulation framework for simulating timescales from economic scheduling to dynamic stability analysis; 2) machine learning-based stability assessment; 3) EMT modeling and analysis for large-scale power systems; 4) MIDAS PHIL test bed. We worked with Hawaii Electric Companies to apply the MIDAS study framework to a Maui grid study. The entire island's transmission system was modeled in detail - from a yearly scheduling model, to a second-level frequency dynamic model, down to a sub-second-scale EMT model to address critical stability issues. The project demonstrated how MIDAS can help system planners and operators assess system reliability and stability while the power grid is marching toward a high-renewable, high-IBR future. In this Maui grid study, we found that 100% instantaneous IBR operation is achievable in EMT simulation and PHIL testing, and grid planners and operators might need new analysis/simulation tools to assess grid reliability and stability in the scheduling stage. MIDAS will bring Maui and other systems closer to 100% clean and stable energy futures. (In this study, we examined transient stability. Other topics necessary for 100% IBR operation, such as protection and resource adequacy, were not examined.)

100% Renewables↗

DOE OSTI2025

Fuel cells for single-aisle regional aircraft: System configuration, performance and cost

A hydrogen fuel cell propelled electric aircraft can compete with incumbent turbofan technologies for single-aisle regional aircraft by coupling design of stack, air handling, thermal management, propulsion, and airframe to optimize performance. The stack operates at 95°C to facilitate heat rejection during take-off and below 75°C during cruise to extend lifetime and is oversized to satisfy power requirements at end of life. A multi-stage turbocompressor with a compression ratio >10 is selected to reach high stack power density at 11,300-m cruise altitude. The propulsion system is configured to accommodate air handling within the core duct, an inclined heat exchanger in the outer duct to limit the nacelle size, and variable area nozzles to independently control mass flows through the core and bypass ducts. The airframe is modified for maximum lift coefficient and longer balanced field length for dramatically reduced thrust during take-off, and the fuselage is stretched by 20% to store liquid hydrogen (LH 2 ). Modularization of power systems promotes safety in one engine inoperative scenarios and allows reaching specific power metrics for stack, balance-of-plant and fuel cell system (FCS), necessary for acceptable take-off weight. In conclusion, cost parity requires increase in FCS lifetime, LH 2 cost reduction, and improved FCS specific power.

Catalyst durability↗