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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Connected Loads – Grid Connected Appliances: Commercial Refrigeration System Fault Detection and Diagnostics

As one of the most energy-intensive end-uses in the commercial buildings sector, supermarkets consume around 50 kWh/ft 2 (or 537.6 kWh/m 2 ) of electricity annually, or more than 2 million kWh of electricity per year for a typical store. The biggest consumer of energy in a supermarket is its refrigeration system, which accounts for 40–60% of its total electricity usage and is equivalent to about 2–3% of the total energy consumed by commercial buildings in United States, or around 0.5 quadrillion Btu (or 0.53 quadrillion KJ). Also, the supermarket refrigeration system is one of the biggest consumers of refrigerants. Current supermarket refrigeration systems rely on high global warming potential hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants. Reducing refrigerant usage or using environment friendly alternatives can result in significant climate benefits. Transcritical CO2 refrigeration systems have attracted more attention in recent years because of their zero-carbon emission advantages compared with traditional refrigerants. These systems are widely used in commercial buildings such as supermarkets. The refrigeration system can also be adapted to handle flexible building loads and be integrated into grid response transactive control to balance the supply and demand of the electric grid. Even minor improvements in the efficiency and operational reliability of supermarket refrigeration systems can create significant value in terms of saving energy, improving food quality, protecting the environment, reducing carbon footprint, and enhancing electric grid resilience.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Connected Loads – Grid Connected Appliances: Deployment IoT Solution for Fault Detection and Diagnostics

As one of the most energy-intensive end-uses in the commercial buildings sector, supermarkets consume around 50 kWh/ft 2 ( or 537.6 kWh/m 2 ) of electricity annually, or more than 2 million kWh of electricity per year for a typical store. The biggest consumer of energy in a supermarket is its refrigeration system, which accounts for 40–60% of its total electricity usage and is equivalent to about 2–3% of the total energy consumed by commercial buildings in United States, or around 0.5 quadrillion Btu (or 0.53 quadrillion KJ). Also, the supermarket refrigeration system is one of the biggest consumers of refrigerants. Current supermarket refrigeration systems rely on high global warming potential hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants. Reducing refrigerant usage or using environment friendly alternatives can result in significant climate benefits. Transcritical CO2 refrigeration systems have attracted more attention in recent years because of their zero-carbon emission advantages compared with traditional refrigerants. These systems are widely used in commercial buildings such as supermarkets. The refrigeration system can also be adapted to handle flexible building loads and be integrated into grid response transactive control to balance the supply and demand of the electric grid. Even minor improvements in the efficiency and operational reliability of supermarket refrigeration systems can create significant value in terms of saving energy, improving food quality, protecting the environment, reducing carbon footprint, and enhancing electric grid resilience. For decarbonization, the new administration has set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50– 52% by 2030 and targeting a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. For electrification, the goal is to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035. Such decarbonization and electrification in the building sector require that energy consumption in buildings be reduced significantly. Therefore, the building sector must continuously adopt new technologies to achieve its energy and carbon emission goals. One of the most fundamental technologies is the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT has proven to be an effective solution for the building domain, including building information/energy modeling, smart buildings, etc. Although much progress has been made in the development of IoT-based building energy systems, there is still a lack of reliable, scalable, and affordable IoT-based automated fault and degradation diagnostics (AFDDs) solutions. Such solutions would enable deployment of advanced algorithms into real systems to archive the projected energy benefits. This study reviews existing IoT solutions developed for building energy– related application and developed a simple but effective AFDD IoT deployment solution, including developing a suitable IoT architecture and conducting easy and scalable deployment by leveraging a common cloud-based IoT service.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2012

CoNNECT: Citizen Engagement for Energy Efficient Comunities

The CoNNECT system is a home energy management software system developed to provide the public and electric utilities access to timely, useful, and actionable information about energy usage (that is, usage data for electricity, water, gas, and others). CoNNECT for the public provides the utility customers access to historical usage data; permits visual correlation between weather and consumption patterns; compares customers’ consumption data to that of their peers (customers living in houses of similar size, age, and household size); and provides information for actions using generic appliance data. Utility customers can customize their information for action by contributing data about their appliances. CoNNECT for the utility provides electric utility analysts access to additional data, such as building envelope data, which they naturally do not have access to; permits easy decision making through the generation of usage “heat-maps” for global comparison and assessment; and permits the clustering of customers based on user-defined criteria.

Omitaomu, Olufemi↗
DOE OSTI2020

Hierarchical, Grid-Aware, and Economically Optimal Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources in Realistic Distribution Systems

Renewable portfolio standards are targeting high levels of variable solar photovoltaics (PV) in electric distribution systems, which makes reliability more challenging to maintain for distribution system operators (DSOs). Distributed energy resources (DERs), including smart, connected appliances and PV inverters, represent responsive grid resources that can provide flexibility to support the DSO in actively managing their networks to facilitate reliability under extreme levels of solar PV. This flexibility can also be used to optimize system operations with respect to economic signals from wholesale energy and ancillary service markets. Here, we present a novel hierarchical scheme that actively controls behind-the-meter DERs to reliably manage each unbalanced distribution feeder and exploits the available flexibility to ensure reliable operation and economically optimizes the entire distribution network. Each layer of the scheme employs advanced optimization methods at different timescales to ensure that the system operates within both grid and device limits. The hierarchy is validated in a large-scale realistic simulation based on data from the industry. Simulation results show that coordination of flexibility improves both system reliability and economics, and enables greater penetration of solar PV. Discussion is also provided on the practical viability of the required communications and controls to implement the presented scheme within a large DSO.

distribution network↗
DOE OSTI2020

Software Coordinates Multiple Smart Devices and User Preferences, Redefining "Smart" Homes

NREL developed foresee™ to achieve users' preferences while simplifying the coordination of when and how a home's connected appliances and electronics use energy. This reduces complexity and improves the consistency and diversity of whole-home outcomes. These include enhanced comfort, convenience, reduced costs, and lower environmental impact based on input from the homeowner. The software accounts for time-of-use rates and is compatible with smart products from any manufacturer.

automation↗
DOE OSTI2020

Opening the Door to Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings with Energy Codes

Building codes represent standard design practice in the construction industry and must continually evolve to account for advancing technologies and innovative practices. Energy codes have historically focused on energy efficiency within buildings and across their systems. However, many of tomorrow's technologies go beyond efficiency and target increased flexibility. These demand flexibility (DF) measures can postpone or reduce building electric load based on price or other grid signals, and include smart appliances, connected lighting, and connected mechanical systems. Expanding codes to enable such grid-interactive efficient building (GEB) has the potential to influence their realization at scale, which will support renewable-energy grid-integration and building-sector decarbonization. However, considering DF measures in code development creates a new set of challenges for codes and the practices contained therein. This paper considers the role of building energy codes in enabling GEB. Specifically, it reviews the status of demand flexibility (DF) measures in current commercial building energy code. It examines the national model code development process and identifies components barring the consideration and inclusion of DF measures - including code scope, characterization and analysis of proposed new prescriptive measures, and accounting for time-of-day and geographic differences in their benefits. The paper presents findings from code development analyses that indicate the cost benefit of DF measures and the limitations associated with current code development conventions. To encourage building flexibility and improved energy resilience moving forward, recommendations are made for removing code development barriers and sanctioning DF measure consideration in future model codes.

Building Energy Codes and Standards, Grid-Interact↗
DOE OSTI2018

Final Report: TIP-337 Home Battery System for Cybersecure Energy Efficiency and Demand Response

Many challenges related to energy use and grid participation face the residential building sector and utilities that serve our homes today. To reduce energy consumption, increase grid service participation, and improve homeowner benefits, a solution is needed that can adapt itself to each home and homeowner/occupant, that can deliver both building and grid services with reliability and high availability, that can automate these operations to minimize cost and complexity of deployment, and that can provide both home data privacy and grid cybersecurity. We hypothesize that customer-oriented home automation can mutually satisfy home occupant/owner needs, reduce energy consumption, and deliver reliable grid services. This project seeks to develop innovative technology solutions that prove this hypothesis. The Home Battery System (HBS) is a technology package comprised of connected 'smart' appliances, rooftop solar photovoltaics, a home battery, and a coordinating smart controller. This system is envisioned, developed and demonstrated by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Bosch, ESCRYPT and Colorado State University (CSU). It is the result of three years of research by our diverse team. NREL developed the home automation controller, and performed simulation and laboratory evaluations of the HBS. Bosch developed and delivered most of the connected appliances used in the project, and provided technical and commercialization guidance. ESCRYPT led cybersecurity analysis and developed the cybersecurity layer. CSU provided leadership on preference elicitation methodologies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2018

Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Simulations for Smart Grid Impact Studies

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations are increasingly employed in power engineering as more inverter-based generation and smart appliances are connected to the electric grid. HIL techniques allow for the co-simulation of analytical models with actual devices whose complex behavior is computationally inefficient or difficult to model. They also allow for testing the behavior of these devices under adverse conditions that rarely occur in the field but are important to evaluate. This paper provides an overview of how HIL simulations have been used to date and proposes that HIL simulations should play an important role in evaluating new control strategies, especially at the distribution level, that are being proposed to allow for continued affordable and reliable operation of the electric grid. We present a new capability that was developed to evaluate the interactions between residential loads and the smart grid: smart home hardware-in-the-loop. The paper includes results from an HIL experiment that incorporates multiple technologies and controls.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

On the Feasibility of Market Manipulation and Energy Storage Arbitrage via Load-Altering Attacks

Around the globe, electric power networks are transforming into complex cyber–physical energy systems (CPES) due to the accelerating integration of both information and communication technologies (ICT) and distributed energy resources. While this integration improves power grid operations, the growing number of Internet-of-Things (IoT) controllers and high-wattage appliances being connected to the electric grid is creating new attack vectors, largely inherited from the IoT ecosystem, that could lead to disruptions and potentially energy market manipulation via coordinated load-altering attacks (LAAs). In this article, we explore the feasibility and effects of a realistic LAA targeted at IoT high-wattage loads connected at the distribution system level, designed to manipulate local energy markets and perform energy storage (ES) arbitrage. Realistic integrated transmission and distribution (T&D) systems are used to demonstrate the effects that LAAs have on locational marginal prices at the transmission level and in distribution systems adjacent to the targeted network.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Grid Connected Functionality

Dataset demonstrating the potential benefits that residential buildings can provide for frequency regulation services in the electric power grid. In a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) implementation, simulated homes along with a physical laboratory home are coordinated via a grid aggregator, and it is shown that their aggregate response has the potential to follow the regulation signal on a timescale of seconds. Connected (communication-enabled), devices in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) received demand response (DR) requests from a grid aggregator, and the devices responded accordingly to meet the signal while satisfying user comfort bounds and physical hardware limitations.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2018

Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Simulations for Smart Grid Impact Studies: Preprint

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation is increasingly employed in power engineering as more inverter-based generation and smart appliances are connected to the electric grid. HIL techniques allow for co-simulation of analytical models with actual devices whose complex behavior is computationally inefficient or difficult to capture. It also allows for testing of the behavior of these devices under adverse conditions that only occur rarely in the field, but that are important to evaluate. An overview of how HIL simulation has been used to date is provided. This paper further proposes that HIL simulation should play an important role in evaluating new control strategies, especially at the distribution level, that are being proposed to allow for continued affordable and reliable operation of the electric grid with the introduction of these new technologies. It presents a new capability that was developed to enable evaluation of interactions between residential loads and the smart grid: smart home hardware-in-the-loop. The paper includes results from an HIL simulation that incorporates multiple technologies and controls.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2018

Laboratory Resources and Techniques to Evaluate Smart Home Technology: Preprint

Smart home technologies promise to make residential buildings more comfortable, less costly to operate, more energy efficient, and more integrated with the grid, but these systems are difficult to evaluate in traditional laboratory spaces. To aid in the development and evaluation of new home energy management systems (HEMS), NREL built the Systems Performance Laboratory (SPL) within the Energy Systems Integration Facility. SPL has electrical infrastructure for three residential buildings, complete with smart meters, breaker panels and a full complement of major and minor appliances in each 'home.' Cord and plug power connections mean that appliances can easily be swapped for different models. Distributed energy resources (DER), such as residential photovoltaic (PV) inverters and home batteries, are also available for integration. Sensors monitor the power consumption of all loads and controllers can simulate occupancy to drive the appliances in realistic ways. A novel hardware-in-the-loop application was developed to ensure air conditioner cycling by combining a building simulation with a physical air conditioner and a thermostat, which allows us to simulate performance in any climate with any building construction. Another application of the hardware-in-the-loop technique uses a grid simulation to model the grid impact for different control strategies related to smart home technologies. This laboratory is a powerful, flexible tool that can be employed to evaluate the effect that home energy management and other smart home technologies will have at the appliance, whole-home, and distribution feeder levels - all of which are important perspectives for different stakeholders.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2010

Springboard Engineering's Smart Grid Controller for Non-Smart Household Electricity-Consuming Appliances (Final Technical Report)

The Smart Grid opens the door to the development of many companion technologies which will in turn enable the development of a variety of devices for household electricity-consuming appliances that can communicate with it; especially, many major appliance manufacturers (such as Whirlpool and General Electric) have made public commitments to design their appliances to be Smart Grid-compatible over the next several years. Yet during that same time period, customers will purchase many millions of long-lasting appliances which are not compatible with the Smart Grid. This research project's purpose is to bring significant Smart Grid compatibility to previously-installed appliances that were not specifically designed for any Smart Grid communications, in a way that is both economical and attractive for users who want to share in the energy cost savings and reduction of peak power demand opportunities provided by the evolving Smart Grid infrastructure. The focus of this effort is to identify and research smart control solutions which take advantage of the effective strategies of demand-response (DR) communications from utilities [including time-of-day (TOD) and peak-demand pricing options] and function apart from any need for operational changes to be designed into the non-smart appliances. Our Phase I concepts promote technological advancements for enabling devices that shift the available-use time of millions of different appliances which otherwise have no Smart Grid capability. We researched low-cost microcontroller-based ways of creating devices with the ability to: (1) maintain an accurate time and day (with no need for battery backup throughout a power outage); (2) perform two-way wired and wireless communications directly with the utility company's demand management signals, to identify both low-cost time periods as well as critical-reduction periods when the cost of energy use would otherwise be much higher; (3) measure the power usage of the connected non-smart appliance; and (4) remove power for a period of time from the appliance (such as a dehumidifier, portable heater, or pool pump) in response to both time-pricing schedule and critical peak-load information from the utility, or inform the user of a batch-type appliance (such as a clothes dryer or dishwasher) regarding the current cost associated with using the appliance. The new products that could be developed as a result of this research into new consumer-centric features and characteristics includes smart wall outlets, smart outlet power-monitoring adapters, smart load switches and smart remote electric rate indicators associated with the non-smart appliances. Our Phase I goal of determining the feasibility of the above technologies was successful. The objectives were also met of developing concepts for a family of microprocessor-based control/indicator devices that can provide the above capabilities while connected in series between an appliance and its electrical power source and/or while indicating cost-of-use status to the appliance user.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Distribution Feeder-Scale Fast Frequency Response via Optimal Coordination of Net-load Resources Part II: Large-Scale Demonstration

This work is the second of a two-part series in which we develop and experimentally demonstrate a hierarchical control solution for optimally coordinating thousands of deferrable loads and distributed energy resources (DERs) to provide fast frequency response (FFR) from an entire distribution feeder. In Part I, we developed and proved practical algorithms for fast, cost-based optimal dispatch and for determining the optimal amount of headroom to operate solar inverters with to support FFR dispatch while minimizing opportunity cost. Simulation results in Part I demonstrated the advantages of the hierarchical dispatch approach in being able to maintain fast solution times needed for FFR even when the problem size increases. In Part II, we implement the algorithms developed in Part I in a novel, large-scale power hardware-in-the-loop experiment including embedded controllers and more than 100 powered appliance loads and DER connected to a simulated real-world distribution system with more than 10,000 controlled devices. Experimental results from multiple scenarios confirm that the optimal FFR dispatch approach scales well and can optimally coordinate more than 10,000 net-load resources across a distribution network while achieving hardware response times within 500 ms, which is not possible using state-of-the-art optimal coordination approaches.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2018

Metal hypersensitivity in the context of connective tissue disease – An opportunity for practice prevention

Highlights: • Metal implants are association with metal hypersensitivity reactions of the skin. • American Contact Dermatitis Society endorses nickel allergy testing. • Metal dental appliances may trigger cutaneous reactions. • Alternative include stainless steel, fiber composite, plastic, and resin-coated. • Alternatives may improve symptoms of fibromyalgia and connective tissue disease. Metal hypersensitivity reactions (MHR) are not associated with metal containing orthodontic implants unless there is a positive history of dermatitis from a high nickel-release item (piercing post, earring, watch). We wish to present this letter to highlight evidence surrounding orthodontic-related nickel hypersensitivity and to bring to the readers attention current American Contact Dermatitis Society (ACDS) guidelines that endorse the importance of addressing metal hypersensitivity reactions in the setting of implantable dental devices.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

VOLTTRON-Based System for Providing Ancillary Services with Residential Building Loads

Ancillary services entail controlled modulation of building equipment to maintain a stable balance of generation and load in the power system. Ancillary services include frequency regulation and contingency reserves, whose acting time ranges from several seconds to several minutes. Many pilot studies have been implemented to use industrial loads to provide ancillary services, and some have explored services from commercial building loads or electric vehicle charging loads. Residential loads, such as space conditioning and water heating, represent a largely untapped resource for providing ancillary services. The residential building sector accounts for a significant fraction of the total electricity use in the United States. Many loads in residential buildings are flexible and could potentially be curtailed or shifted at the request of the grid. However, there are many barriers that prevent residential loads being widely used for ancillary services. One of the major technical barriers is the lack of communication capabilities between end-use devices and the grid. End-use devices need to be able to receive the automatic generation control (AGC) signal from the grid operator and supply certain types of telemetry to verify response. With the advance of consumer electronics, communication-enabled, or 'connected,' residential equipment has emerged to overcome the communication barrier. However, these end-use devices have introduced a new interoperability challenge due to the existence of numerous standards and communication protocols among different end devices. In this paper, we present a VOLTTRON-based system that overcomes these technical challenges and provides ancillary services with residential loads. VOLTTRON is an open-source control and sensing platform for building energy management, facilitating interoperability solutions for end devices. We have developed drivers to communicate and control different types of end devices through standard-based interfaces, manufacturer-provided application programming interfaces, and proprietary communication interfaces. We document the ability to manage nine appliances, using four different standards or proprietary communication methods. A hardware-in-the-loop test was performed in a laboratory environment where the loads of a laboratory home and a large number of simulated homes are controlled by an aggregator. Upon receipt of an AGC signal, the VOLTTRON home energy management system (HEMS) of the laboratory home adjusts the end-device controls based on the comfort criteria set by the end users and sends telemetry to the aggregator to verify response. The aggregator then sends the AGC signal to other simulated homes in attempts to match the utility request as closely as possible. Frequency regulation is generally considered a higher value service than other ancillary services but it is also more challenging due to the constraint of short response time. A frequency regulation use case has been implemented with the regulation signals sent every 10 seconds. Experimental results indicate that the VOLTTRON-controlled residential loads are able to be controlled with sufficient fidelity to enable an aggregator to meet frequency regulation requirements. Future work is warranted, such as understanding the impact of this type of control on equipment life, and market requirements needed to open up residential loads to ancillary service aggregators.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗