Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: September 2021

In this edition, NREL creates consensus for grid modernization standards; a look at how NREL is using voltage junctions to improve grid resilience, fault protections, and renewable integration; what to do with aging solar panels; and more.

Tending the Garden of Grid Standards: How NREL Has Built, and Continues to Build, Consensus in Grid Modernization

At the turn of the millennium, a public-private coalition scrambled to save energy systems from discordance related to distributed solar integration, which threatened to entirely derail the adoption of renewable energy. This effort, led by NREL, resulted in a grid standard that, years later, became the bedrock for modern power systems. Now, with the electric grid in another state of transition, NREL is standardizing the changing technical landscape on multiple fronts, including cybersecurity, blockchain, microgrids, and bulk renewable integration. There has never been a greater transformation in the history of the power system, and NREL is working hard with industry to ensure that it proceeds smoothly and safely.

Read the full story about NREL's leadership in building consensus for grid modernization.

NREL Deploys Compact Converters to Explore Advanced Grid Architectures

Renewables are running into limitations with the underlying electric grid because distribution networks are not designed to accommodate the flexibility available from modern energy resources. One solution is to break the grid into segments that have switchable boundaries, redesigning the grid into collections of connected microgrids—an approach being explored by NREL. With silicon carbide-based power converters, NREL is demonstrating how medium-voltage junctions across the distribution grid could enable increased resilience, fault protections, and renewable integration.

Read the full story about medium-voltage silicon-carbide converters for novel grid architectures.

To Toss, Repair, or Recycle? How Human Behavior Affects the Fate of Aging Solar Panels

Most research on circular economy strategies has focused on the technical and economic feasibility of recycling or reusing solar photovoltaic (PV) materials. But what about the impacts of human behavior?

For the first time, NREL applied agent-based modeling to end-of-life PV management to understand how people make decisions about recycling and reusing PV modules—marking a major shift in how we understand the potential for circular economy strategies to be successful. With this approach, consumers could become an integral part of the solution. A follow-on article in Nature Energy calls for all future research on circular economy strategies to consider social factors—like the NREL team demonstrated for the first time.

Read the full story.

NREL Researchers Study Synergistic Value Streams in Hybrid Power Plants

With support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, NREL researchers joined with other national laboratories to develop a hybrid generation power plant at NREL's Flatirons Campus. The project, called FlexPower, envisions a future grid that provides all the comfort and convenience consumers have come to expect as well as grid reliability and resilience services that are similar to—or better than—conventional power plants.

Read the full story on FlexPower.

How NREL Helps the Military Build Resilient and Renewable Microgrids

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is looking to bolster its backup power with battery storage to replace the current preference for diesel generators.

To discover the best microgrid-storage implementations across its diverse sites, DOD's Environmental Security Technology Certification Program arranged a unique program that is half competition, half technology accelerator.

Under the program, companies have been invited to validate their microgrid solutions on progressively increasing realistic grid systems. NREL researchers, using the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform, are evaluating those solutions, and the winning one will be deployed by DOD.

Check out this video to learn more about the project.

Tune in for a Special Announcement and Roundtable Discussion with Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk

To kick off Cybersecurity Awareness Month, on October 6, 2021, at 10 a.m. ET, Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk; DOE EERE; DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response; industry partners; and NREL will host a virtual roundtable to discuss an exciting new initiative that will catalyze cybersecurity solutions for the nation's clean energy grid of the future.

As we work toward a zero-emissions future, we are also tackling the increasing cyber threats to the U.S. energy sector. This initiative will create a visionary path to accelerate cyber innovation for modern, renewable energy technologies around high-priority cybersecurity risks to the energy sector.

Join the event on Zoom.

Industry Experts, Researchers Put Charging Systems for Electric Trucks to the Test

Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Reducing those emissions requires a significant shift away from gasoline- and diesel-fueled internal combustion engines to electric motors powered by renewable sources. Electric vehicle industry experts and scientists at NREL are working on a new high-power charging standard for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, called the Megawatt Charging System. The Megawatt Charging System will facilitate charging capacity up to 3.75 MW—seven times higher than the current light-duty fast-charging technology, which peaks at 500 kW.

Read the full story about how the Megawatt Charging System and the Electric Vehicle Research Infrastructure evaluation platform at NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility are setting a new charging standard for electric trucks.

Job Listings in Integrated Energy Solutions at NREL

NREL accelerates energy transitions globally through a system-of-systems approach that considers technology, policy, social, and market systems. Interested in helping NREL is this mission? We are growing quickly and looking to fill a variety of positions. Check out the NREL Careers page to explore a future with NREL!

R7594 - Graduate Internship: Renewable Energy Optimization Modeling & Analysis

R7447 - Federal Agency/FEMP Engineer

R7594 - Graduate Internship: Renewable Energy Optimization Modeling & Analysis

NREL's Vision for the Future: Integrated Energy Pathways

The U.S. power system has not changed much in its 100-year history—until now. To ensure smooth and sustainable energy transitions for communities everywhere, NREL's critical research area of Integrated Energy Pathways is focused on accelerating and scaling solutions that support clean, secure, and reliable power.

Watch this video to see how NREL is solving today's energy challenges and finding tomorrow's energy solutions.

Publications Roundup

An Overview of Issues Related to IEEE Std 1547-2018 Requirements Regarding Voltage and Reactive Power Control

NREL and partners have shaped grid modernization for more than two decades with technical standards development, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard 1547 for distributed energy resource (DER) interconnection. This NREL technical report provides supplementary information for stakeholders to apply a specific clause of the revised IEEE Std 1547-2018 related to reactive power and voltage/power control capabilities of DERs. This report first summarizes voltage regulation issues facing modern power systems, and then it discusses the voltage regulation guidelines from Std 1547-2018. The authors cover key decision points around using specific voltage regulation modes for stakeholders, including electric utilities, DER operators, DER manufacturers, testing agencies, laboratories, and commissioning agencies. For more educational materials on IEEE Std 1547, visit NREL's webpage on IEEE 1547-2018 resources.

Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium Survey of Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection and Interoperability Standards

A modernized grid requires robust levels of device and system interconnectivity supported by reliable methods of testing and certification. As such, the use of open, standard, and highly interoperable communications protocols—such as the garden of standards tended to by NREL—is essential to the effective deployment of DERs. This report, developed under the DOE Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium evaluates key standards across multiple domains and considers the challenges posed by the interconnection, interoperability, and testing of DERs, specifically aiming to identify gaps that prevent the effective management of DER grid services. The report looks to help fill the gaps by assisting in the development and validation of needed standards and DER test procedures to perform certain key grid services either individually or collectively.

Enabling Realistic Communications Evaluations for Advanced Distribution Management Systems

Increasing levels of DERs in distribution systems are creating challenges in system operations. Currently, advanced distribution management systems use wired or proprietary wireless communications to detect the state of the system and provide optimal DER control. Through projects with industry partners such as Anterix, however, NREL is demonstrating that private, wireless Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks are an alternative solution that can enable improved connectivity. This NREL technical report outlines in-lab validations performed on NREL's novel advanced distribution management systems test bed to study the impact of private, wireless LTE communications on grid performance, specifically for peak load management applications.