Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: December 2020

In this edition, NREL publishes a comprehensive guide to understanding inverter-dominated power systems, the Department of Energy awards NREL to pursue national solutions in solar integration, an article from NREL researchers in IEEE Spectrum looks at the autonomous power grid of the future, and more.

Technical Roadmap Guides Research Direction for Grid-Forming Inverters

Power electronics—including the inverters that interface solar, wind, battery energy storage, and electric vehicles—are a rapidly expanding presence on the electric grid. As a result, inverters will inherit new responsibilities and introduce new challenges. Recognizing a knowledge gap, a team of experts from NREL and several collaborating institutions published the Research Roadmap on Grid-Forming Inverters, a comprehensive guide to understanding inverter-dominated power systems.

Read our news story about the roadmap.

NREL Nets Awards To Pursue National Solutions in Solar Integration

NREL projects received more than $9 million to study solar integration and reliability as part of the Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) 2020 funding program. Within the SETO 2020 program, and alongside a network of collaborators, NREL will lead three projects and support three others.

“Solar power has grown substantially on the electric grid, and we expect that growth to continue. Now we are focused on optimally integrating that solar: for resilience, reliability, and efficiency,” said Ben Kroposki, a co-principal investigator on one of NREL's awarded projects. “The SETO 2020 funding program will allow NREL and partners to continue developing cutting-edge controls and strategies to support hybrid and high-solar power systems everywhere.”

Each NREL project will support the SETO 2020 program mission to achieve solar cost targets for 2030 while enabling utilities to manage a grid with more solar energy. NREL will use multimegawatt infrastructure and a cyber emulation platform to demonstrate solutions at a scale similar to real grid operations—from residential systems to bulk system integration.

Of the three projects that NREL leads, two will target broad challenges in systems integration, and another will apply artificial intelligence to solar optimization. NREL is also a subrecipient on projects in systems integration and in photovoltaic reliability. Overall, the awards emphasize NREL's leadership in producing advanced solutions for solar integration.

Read the full story in SETO Awards NREL To Pursue National Solutions in Solar Integration.

The Future Is Autonomous: NREL's Autonomous Energy Grids Research Featured in IEEE Spectrum

Some neighbors depend on each other for a cup of sugar or dog-walking. But in the Colorado neighborhood of Basalt Vista, the residents are closer than most: They share their electricity. In the few years since NREL began exploring autonomous control algorithms for energy systems, a variety of experimental and real-system successes such as Basalt Vista have made the NREL vision of autonomous energy grids a reality. A recent feature story in IEEE Spectrum magazine covers current progress and the opportunities ahead for autonomous energy grids.

Read the full story in The Future Is Autonomous: NREL’s Autonomous Energy Grids Research Featured in IEEE Spectrum.

Solving Solar Power Growing Pains in Michigan

In 2018, Michigan's two major utilities saw enormous growth in requests for grid interconnection to solar and other distributed energy resources. In previous years, the state's total operating solar generation had been slightly more than 100 MW, but now the requests amounted to 3 GW.

The queue was long, and Michigan's interconnection rules had not been updated since 2009. To expedite distributed energy resource integration and plan for more distributed energy generation, the Michigan Public Service Commission turned to NREL for help updating its rules.

Read the full story in Solving Solar Power Growing Pains in Michigan.

Three National Laboratories Collaborate on New Hybrid Energy Systems Initiative

Combining multiple fuel sources into hybrid energy systems to produce power is the focus of a collaborative effort from the nation's three applied energy laboratories: NREL, Idaho National Laboratory, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

New research published in Joule outlines how diverse energy generators—including renewable energy, nuclear energy, and fossil with carbon capture—can be leveraged together to provide power, heat, mobility, and other energy services. Researchers from the three laboratories present a new framework with engineering-based modeling and analysis to support the complex optimization of energy generation and transmission and demonstrate a viable path forward for hybrid energy systems.

Read more about the tri-lab innovation initiative.

This Year's Top News Stories and Downloaded Publications

Thank you for making this newsletter your go-to source for the latest news in energy systems integration (ESI) research. A lot has happened this year, so we rounded up our top stories from 2020 in one can't-miss list.

The ESI team at NREL continued its track record of publishing groundbreaking and impactful research. NREL's ESI publications logged more than 32,000 downloads during the fiscal year. See our list of the top 10 downloaded publications from FY 2020:

Resilience Is the Word: Happy Holidays from NREL

NREL research has always focused on building a more resilient future energy system to continue to deliver the power we rely on. This year, the word resilience took on another meaning. From our family to yours, NREL sends you this holiday message wishing you a safe, hopeful, and resilient holiday season.

Expanded Online Tool Provides Answers to Grid Impact of Electric Vehicles

To help utilities and community planners prepare for increased electric vehicle charging, NREL has expanded the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Projection (EVI-PRO) Lite Tool with more analytic capabilities. The new features enable users to predict how added electric vehicle charging will impact electricity demand, or load shapes, in their area at any given time.

2020 Standard Scenarios Outlook Models Possible Evolution of U.S. Electricity Sector

NREL has updated its Standard Scenarios U.S. Electricity Sector Outlook, including the 2020 report and the new Scenario Viewer and Data Downloader. Supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the annual report provides context, discussion, and data to help inform stakeholder decision-making about the future evolution of the U.S. power sector.

The 2020 report captures 45 forward-looking scenarios for how the U.S. power sector might evolve through the year 2050, showing a breadth of trajectories. New this year, five scenarios include projected hourly electricity generation, cost, and emissions data for all 50 states.