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

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

GMLC Technical Assistance to States: DER Interconnection Workshop #3

NREL hosted this workshop to help state public utility commissions (PUCs) understand the materials and support available to assist in distributed energy resource (DER) interconnection activities. This workshop focused on DER interconnection and included four speakers, whose material will be posted at https://www.nrel.gov/grid/ieee-standard-1547/workshops.html. The slides in this deck were for the facilitator to provide context to the attendees as well as additional resources on the topics discussed.

DER↗
DOE OSTI2023

GMLC Technical Assistance to States: DER Interconnection Workshop #2 [Slides]

NREL hosted this workshops to help state public utility commissions (PUCs) understand the materials and support available to assist in distributed energy resource (DER) interconnection activities. This workshop focused on "Modern DER Capabilities and Deployment Concerns" and included four speakers, whose material will be posted at https://www.nrel.gov/grid/ieee-standard-1547/workshops.html. The slides in this deck were for the facilitator to provide context to the attendees, as well as additional resources on the topics discussed.

1547↗
DOE OSTI2024

Options for Upgrading Low-Voltage Spot Network Protection to Increase DER Interconnection Capacity

Existing standards and policies for interconnecting distributed energy resources (DERs) into low voltage spot networks severely limits the amount of DER installed on those networks to avoid negative impacts on protection systems. This report investigates options for upgrading the protection systems of spot networks to allow for additional DER installations beyond the normal limits (i.e., no reverse power flows allowed onto the MV system). Eight potential upgrade options are discussed that span various methods for new network protector algorithms, hardware upgrades, and the addition of communication. Each method has tradeoffs in terms of accuracy of detecting faults, requirements to upgrade equipment in the spot networks, need for communication, and sensitivity to false trips—all of which are explored in this report.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

USAID Colombia Young Leaders Workforce Training Program Action Plans: Regulatory Road Map for Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Interconnection and Interoperability

As part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Young Leaders Workforce Training Program in Colombia, participants from Colombia's Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission (CREG) leveraged their training and professional experience to develop a regulatory roadmap for the interconnection and interoperability of increasing integration of distributed energy resources (DERs). CREG was one of four teams selected by the training program development team to receive continued technical assistance and strategic advisory support from the USAID-NREL Partnership for action plan development and implementation. This case study provides an overview of the key activities and outcomes of the technical assistance provided by NREL on the CREG Action Plan, and key next steps for implementation of Colombia's DER Integration Regulatory Roadmap.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Commercialization of Distribution System Load Modeling Tool for Improved DER Interconnection Studies

Residential and commercial buildings have huge potential to contribute value to improve grid resilience by participating grid services. To reveal the significant value, it is critical to estimate the grid service capability from these buildings. Unlike the large-scale distributed energy resources such as wind and solar farms, those buildings need to participate grid services in aggregation, not by individual. Therefore, it is important to appropriately group buildings for aggregation. The load profiles in the same group will have similar characteristics at the same time step, so grid operators can send the grid service signal to the customer group with a higher chance to respond at that time step. In this paper, we develop a load profile clustering method to classify the building-level load profiles for grid service capability estimation. In our two-step clustering approach, we first calculate the total load consumption for each building, clustering the load profiles based on energy consumption level. Then, we further cluster the load profiles in each energy cluster based on the load shape. The parameter selection for each clustering step is discussed. The proposed method is applied on actual building-level load profiles, and the results have proved the effectiveness of this method.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Distributed Energy Resource Integration

This webinar focuses on the subject of DER integration, outlining the current industry state of the art and status of DER adoption in the US, a holistic view and roadmap of DER integration, DER interconnection standards, interconnection screening and study processes, interconnection automation, DER hosting capacity, AMI analytics, and non-wires alternatives.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Roadmap

Adopting strategic reforms to DER interconnection can help reduce interconnection delays, fairly allocate costs, improve transparency and equity, and support efficient and strategic investment in distribution and sub-transmission grids that can accommodate a rapidly evolving energy landscape. The Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange envisions this roadmap and its transmission system companion volume as collaborative resources to facilitate continued stakeholder discussions, problem-solving, and innovation as the U.S. works together to enable simpler, faster, and fairer interconnection of clean energy resources all while enhancing the reliability, resiliency, and security of our electric grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating the Thermal Impacts of Inadvertent Export on Service Transformers

As more DER interconnect to the system there are times where the total generation (or load) of a DER cannot be supported by the system. To more quickly allow these DER to interconnect they may need to regulate their output to a different export capacity than their nameplate capacity via a power control system (PCS). In the time it takes PCS to respond, however, an inadvertent export may occur, where the DER operates beyond its export limit. This report evaluates the potential thermal impact such momentary violations may have on service transformers, to determine whether response times should be more tightly controlled or not.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Antigua and Barbuda Distributed Energy Resources Deployment Guidelines

This document is designed to provide comprehensive considerations, best practices and guidance for deployment of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) in Antigua and Barbuda. The document provides lists of various technology selection guidance including technical specifications, requirements and applicable key standards and code associated with key DERs and balance of plant equipment. The document also presents the key microgrid design considerations to integrate the DERs to achieve the economic, decarbonization and resiliency goals. Taking into account sensitive grid for such islands, for grid readiness and screening the potential DER interconnection, general approach is highlighted along with the potential technical interconnection requirements. Furthermore, this document shows the key stakeholders involved in such DER integration and/or microgrid project and how key responsible project team can be qualified. Finally, this document refers to key information about warranties and consumer rights and maintenance of the systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

GMLC Technical Assistance to States

This presentation provides an overview of the U.S. Department of Energy's Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) efforts to provide customized technical support specific to state public utility commissions (PUCs), specifically on the integration of distributed energy resources (DERs). The goals are to increase awareness of existing materials and support to help state PUCs move forward on DER interconnection activities, to help participants make connections to colleagues with similar challenges (and solutions), and to help the GMLC/National Renewable Energy Laboratory project team understand context and implementation challenges.

DER↗
DOE OSTI2024

Voltage Optimization

Voltage optimization refers to a volt-var optimization technique which was originally designed to minimize energy consumption and improve end-use efficiency on the distribution system. This reduces source voltage at a substation, which lowers generation demand, reduces system losses, and improves system stability. This has been the conventional implementation of voltage optimization: focusing on regulation of voltages throughout the distribution system via coordinated adjustments of load tap changers, line-voltage regulators, switched shunt compensation, and the targeted placement of new shunt compensation. These methods have received increased focus following a growth in distributed-energy resources (DERs) interconnecting at the distribution level, given their developing capability to participate in voltage regulation. This is paired with the intermittency challenges they pose, load imbalances, and voltage fluctuations. Voltage optimization has long been an area of extensive research within the distribution system, with various strategies and philosophies demonstrating a range of effects. The conventional focus on the distribution system owes to the typical operation of transmission systems, which assumes firm local resources and flows strictly from generation resources to loads. The strategies employed in distribution have also been optimized for this typically radial configuration and operation of the distribution system.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Energy Resilient Recovery in Puerto Rico: Hurricane Maria Recovery Support

This report covers microgrids as a special application of distributed energy resources (DERs) in Puerto Rico. This is one of a series of reports describing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) multi-laboratory efforts undertaken. To ensure the sustainable, long-term recovery of Puerto Rico's electric power grid from hurricanes Maria and Irma and to build capacity to manage future potential natural disasters in the most secure and resilient way, DOE convened experts from multiple national laboratories to develop a comprehensive set of data, models, analytic tools, and studies, considering inputs from a wide variety of stakeholder groups, to support technically sound recommendations for Puerto Rico's energy investment decisions. In Phase 1 of the multi-laboratory effort to support Puerto Rico's recovery, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) provided the utility company Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) recommendations for a new framework of interconnection standards to accelerate the integration of utility-scale, transmission-connected, renewable electrical generation and energy storage that ensure cross-technology compatibility and enable high deployment levels without compromising grid reliability, safety, or security (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/73848.pdf). In Phase 2, NREL published a report focused on the interconnection of distributed energy resources (DERs) to the electric distribution system in Puerto Rico (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/77127.pdf). This report familiarized the reader with Puerto Rico's distribution infrastructure and operational practices and procedures that are relevant to DER interconnection. The report also provided considerations for streamlining the interconnection process given the expected increase in deployments resulting from Puerto Rico's renewable portfolio standard goal of 100% renewables by 2050. Accordingly, the report identifies considerations and concerns associated with the increase in intermittent generation, strategies for DER interconnection best practices, and the potential use of the latest technological solutions identified in the latest revision of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1547-2018 interconnection standard. Additionally, the report identified ways to improve the physical resiliency of installed DERs. This task describes how distributed energy systems may participate in and contribute to improving the resiliency of Puerto Rico's energy infrastructure in the future. This report presents an analysis of the Puerto Rico grid to illustrate the possible different microgrid and minigrid scenarios. The capability to form sustained microgrids and minigrids has the potential to provide a high level of resiliency during disturbances on the grid. DERs, on the other hand, have the capability to aid in the microgrid operation by providing grid support as well as grid-forming functionality. Other tasks in Phase 3 include voltage regulation in distribution networks using DERs and transmission-and-distribution co-simulation.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Understanding Community Microgrids

Increasing need for distribution circuit reliability and resilience prompt a clearer understanding of community microgrid interconnection and operational requirements. While customer-owned, behind-the-meter microgrid implementation is not always simple, increasing demand for reliability has commercialized many installation approaches. This rapid commercialization has broadened industry understanding of single-customer microgrid integration. Moreover, off-grid behaviors of such microgrids are not required to meet utility standard interconnection requirements. However, multi-customer community microgrids (utility- or third-party operated), are less well explored and introduce more complex design and operational challenges. The control of DER along with distribution automation devices, unmanned operation, protection coordination, and other aspects makes community microgrids challenging to implement and operate in both on-grid and off-grid modes. This whitepaper is a technical primer for understanding community microgrids. It provides a foundation for understanding the components, configurations, design, and operational considerations for community microgrids.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Use of Operating Agreements and Energy Storage to Reduce Photovoltaic Interconnection Costs: Conceptual Framework

This report explores one integrated technical and process concept designed to manage interconnection costs and streamline interconnection timelines to support near-term renewable energy deployment. We describe a new agreement between renewable energy developers and utilities, informed by the technical analysis. The agreement defines the operational parameters for a renewable energy system, with the goal of reducing risk and cost to all parties. This work provides a foundation upon which other states and utilities may build proof of concept. This report is supported by a technical analysis that is detailed in a companion report, "Use of Operating Agreements and Energy Storage to Reduce Photovoltaic Interconnection Costs: Technical and Economic Analysis" (McLaren et al. 2022).

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Real-time evaluation of cybersecurity threats to DER inverter grid-support functions

In this project we aim to contribute to the understanding of the type and severity of potential cybersecurity attacks to the grid-support functionalities of DER systems interconnected to the AC distribution grid via inverters. Our preliminary work focused on developing a small-scale testbed allowing to study cybersecurity threats to an isolated photovoltaic-battery system using a real-time simulator (Typhoon HIL602+) with a real DNP3 communication connection over TCP/IP, allowing for safe and efficient monitoring and manipulation of data traffic between the simulated hardware and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. In this project we propose to expand upon this development by utilizing a) a recently acquired NovaCor RTDS (Real Rime digital Simulator) to emulate the DER-inverter-grid topology including main grid-support functions as defined by IEEE Std. 1547-2018, and b) an industrial control and automation device to enable realistic evaluation of control functions and utilization of communication protocols for real-time data transmission.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗