Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: June 2020

In this edition, a study shows wind power can stabilize the grid, we explain inertia without the spin, hydrogen shows potential for seasonal storage, and more!

NREL Shows How Wind Power Will Stabilize Grid in At-Scale Demonstration

Although global wind power continues to grow by many gigawatts each year, another important capability of wind power plants—their potential to provide reliability services to the electric grid—has remained untapped. In a real-system demonstration from NREL, Avangrid, General Electric (GE), and the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), that potential has been proven, showing how any commercial wind power plant can double as a source of energy and stability using plant-level controls.

The demonstration project took place on a 131.1-MW wind power plant in Southern California owned by Avangrid. The project team showed that commercial wind power plants can provide primary frequency response, frequency regulation, various types of active power controls, provision of spinning reserves, and reactive power and voltage control, including the ability to provide voltage control during periods of low wind.

In this demonstration, GE-developed controls were programmed to characterize the response of the whole plant when providing different services. The plant followed 4-second power directions from CAISO and demonstrated how utility-scale wind power can participate in automatic generation control. During all tests, the wind power plant demonstrated fast and precise responses—much faster than any conventional resource in CAISO's system can provide.

The results demonstrate that wind resources can help actively manage a future electric grid with high levels of renewable generation. Continued improvements to smart inverters combined with advanced plant controls will allow inverter-based resources to provide a large variety of reliability services to the grid.

Read the full story from the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Looking beyond this demonstration, NREL is pursuing plant-level controls for other bulk renewable energy systems—such as solar and storage—that can increase reliability on the electric grid. Stay tuned for an upcoming article on this work.

Lowering Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide in a Large-Scale Renewable Energy Electrochemical Process

What if carbon dioxide (CO₂), a prevalent greenhouse gas, could be transformed into higher-value fuels and chemicals using low-cost renewable electricity?

Researchers at NREL have been focusing on improving electrochemical routes to convert CO₂, which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, into a range of value-added products. Previously, limitations in energy efficiency, scalability, product selectivity, and production rate (the rate at which electrons transfer, measured in the form of current density for electrochemical devices) have prevented widespread adoption of these devices to reduce CO₂ either from manufacturing emissions or from capture directly from the atmosphere; however, recent results from NREL show enhanced process performance that enables the scale-up of an electrochemical process to reduce CO₂ that has not been possible until now.

Learn how NREL is converting CO₂ using renewable electricity.

Go-Solar Project Shows How Utilities Can Manage Millions of Solar PV Devices with Only a Few Sensors

Keeping up with the meteoric increase of solar photovoltaics (PV) on customer rooftops is a challenge for utilities needing to manage the energy flow of these behind-the-meter resources. Go-Solar is a research initiative from NREL that enables utilities to monitor, estimate, and operate millions of PV arrays through efficient communication with only a small number of devices instead of needing to connect to every individual rooftop solar system.

Learn how GoSolar is advancing PV management.

NREL Guide Explains Power Grid Inertia (without the Spin)

Inertia has been an integral concept to the electric grid since its beginning. The rotation of large generators helps regulate grid frequency and maintain system reliability. As rotating resources give way to inverter-interfaced resources (e.g., solar photovoltaics, wind, and battery storage), NREL and partner organizations worldwide are occupied with finding the safest transition to a synthetic and even zero-inertia energy system. A recent NREL video and report titled Inertia and the Power Grid: A Guide without the Spin clarifies the importance of inertia and how system reliability can be maintained in the evolving grid.

"Ultimately, although growth in inverter-based resources will reduce the amount of inertia on the grid, there are multiple existing or possible solutions for maintaining or improving system reliability," said Paul Denholm, one of the report’s authors.

The specific solutions to managing grid stability through this transition are presented in the report, which serves as a guidebook for policymakers and other interested stakeholders. Although inertia is an obscure topic for a lay audience, the report and video make grid inertia intuitive and help explain it without the spin.

Answer to Energy Storage Problem Could Be Hydrogen

Hydrogen has the greatest potential among technologies for seasonal energy storage in the future, according to an analysis conducted by researchers at NREL.

Seasonal energy storage can facilitate the deployment of high and ultrahigh shares of wind and solar energy sources, according to Omar Guerra, a research engineer at NREL and lead author of a new paper, "The Value of Seasonal Energy Storage Technologies for the Integration of Wind and Solar Power."

The article appears in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. The authors developed a multi-model approach that considers both the estimated cost and value of storage technologies in determining cost-competitiveness. They analyzed 80 scenarios involving hydrogen, pumped hydropower, and compressed air in making their determination. In the 2050–2070 timeframe, hydrogen with as much as two weeks of stored energy is forecast to be a cost-effective storage method based on projected power and energy capacity capital costs. In addition, because hydrogen can be used in other sectors, such as transportation and agriculture, that could provide additional revenue streams.

The study included the cost of seasonal storage based on the power capacity and energy capacity. Although that is common in energy storage analysis, the researchers included potential revenues of capacity value, which is the cost to build new peaking plants to supply electrical demand, and, uniquely, accounted for avoided grid operating costs. Previous studies into energy storage do not consider the potential benefits to the grid.

"This is perhaps the most comprehensive techno-economic assessment of seasonal storage performed to date," Guerra said.

Energy Sector Workforce Training Enables Colombia's Power Sector Transformation

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Colombia and NREL are supporting the government of Colombia in transforming their energy sector by providing targeted technical assistance and comprehensive workforce training. USAID Colombia, NREL, the U.S. Energy Association, and USAID's Scaling up Renewable Energy Program are working as a team to develop a series of training modules designed to ready Colombia's energy sector workforce to participate in the construction and operation of clean energy projects that deliver variable renewable energy, such as wind and solar, to the grid. Participants of the training program represent all the regions and various organizations within Colombia's energy sector. The selection process, which prioritized the inclusion of women, includes early-career professionals in positions that could have potential for future leadership roles.

Additionally, USAID Colombia and NREL will provide support for a key aspect of the program focused on providing electricity to 117 communities identified within Colombia's ratified peace zones. The goal of this project is to increase the productive use of electricity in these areas via reliable, constant power and clean energy microgrids.

Originally designed to be presented in-person in Colombia, the program's partners worked swiftly and diligently to convert seven training modules into a robust online curriculum because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Learn more about the workforce training program in Colombia.

New Hydrogen Filling Simulation Tool Drives Innovation for Fueling Stations

As hydrogen fuel cell electric cars and trucks grow in popularity, a new publicly available Hydrogen Filling Simulation (H2FillS) tool is laying the groundwork for the safe design of hydrogen fueling systems. NREL researchers, in collaboration with Kyushu University in Japan, designed H2FillS to answer vital questions about the change in hydrogen temperature, pressure, and mass flow when filling a hydrogen fuel cell car.

Job Postings

Interested in joining NREL? We are growing quickly and looking to fill a variety of positions. Check out the NREL Careers page to explore a future with NREL!

R5785 Power Systems Integration Engineer

R5909 Ports and Airports Engineer

R5613 Postdoc – Multi-Timescale Inverter-Dominated Power System Modeler

R6257 Hybrid Power Systems Engineer

R6306 Senior Power and Energy System Research Engineer

NREL, USAID To Host Webinar on Cybersecurity for Distributed Energy Resources

Although deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs) has the potential to increase grid resilience, it also introduces new challenges to grid cybersecurity. As an activity of the Resilient Energy Platform, experts from NREL, in partnership with USAID and USEA, are hosting a webinar focused on addressing cybersecurity for DERs and identifying best practices in cybersecurity governance, technical management of cyber-physical systems, and physical security.

Cybersecurity and Distributed Energy Resources
July 9, 2020, at 9 a.m. EST
Register

Publication Roundup

Technical Design Challenges for the Renewable Energy Grid

What will power systems look like when renewable energy becomes the dominant technology on the grid? This is the central question in a new NREL study published in WIREs: Energy and Environment. In the study, NREL researchers specifically examine the challenges and potential solutions for integrating variable inverter-based renewable energy sources (VIBRES), such as wind and solar photovoltaics, into energy systems. Although the challenges of incorporating VIBRES into the grid include their variable power generation and asynchronous interface with larger systems, researchers also focus on how power markets should be redesigned or adapted to implement a 100% VIBRES system with synchronous AC power. These design challenges include new control methods for interoperability, approaches for black-start capabilities, and distributed control systems for scaling up VIBRES to meet high, instantaneous power shares on the grid.

Small New York Community Aims for Equitable Energy Transition Using NREL Analysis

The city of Kingston, New York, is committed to 100% renewable energy and reducing the high economic burden of energy costs for residents. NREL deployed the lab's broad suite of modeling tools to determine how Kingston can go green while decreasing energy bills and while supporting local jobs and investments. A summary of NREL's support is available in a fact sheet titled "Equitable Clean Energy Transitions for Small Communities."

From the analysis, NREL determined that Kingston could improve its energy efficiency and economic equality by pursuing a variety of retrofit opportunities. Other conclusions from the study directed Kingston to possible policy scenarios that will meet city-defined objectives and help the small community achieve greater equality throughout its energy transition.