Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: September 2023

In this edition, the Clean Energy to Communities program announces technical assistance opportunities, 7th Partner Forum industry discussions, the first Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator cohort summary is now available, and more.

Clean Energy to Communities Program Announces Opportunities for Short-Term Technical Assistance, Selects Communities for In-Depth Partnerships

Applications are open for two short-term technical assistance opportunities through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Energy to Communities program: Peer-Learning Cohorts and Expert Match. Peer-Learning Cohorts convene up to 15 communities to learn from each other and national energy experts over 6 months. Applications for the next round of cohorts will remain open through Oct. 31. Expert Match, which accepts applications year-round, pairs communities with national laboratory researchers to provide tailored solutions that address communities’ short-term energy goals. Learn more about these two offerings on the Clean Energy to Communities website.

Additionally, six community teams were recently selected for the Clean Energy to Communities in-depth partnerships program. Selected communities in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will use $25 million in award funding and technical assistance to research, model, and deploy clean energy systems that are reliable, affordable, equitable, and reflective of local priorities.

Facing Change: Industry Discusses Future Energy Systems at 7th Partner Forum

Cities and companies are preparing for historic investments to update their energy systems, but as the host of NREL's 7th Partner Forum noted, "You can't spend that twice." This circumstance framed conversations throughout the forum as panels of partner utilities, corporations, governments, researchers, and transit ports shared the stage to discuss the immediate issues of energy transitions in their industries. Top-priority topics included deploying new technology, improving market predictability, and engaging with customers, which all agreed have major power and interest in shaping future energy systems. Read the full coverage of this year's partner forum.

First Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator Cohort Looks Back and Ahead

A summary of the first Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator cohort is now available. The report summarizes Blue Ridge Networks', Sierra Nevada Corporation's, and Xage Security's proposed innovations and the technical assessments performed in NREL’s Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems Cyber Range. The results provide valuable insights on cyber solutions for common system configurations under realistic threat scenarios. Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator’s evaluations are part of an ongoing collaboration to bolster U.S. cyber resilience against adversaries. Learn more about the first Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator cohort.

NREL Enhances REopt Web Tool With Hybrid Geothermal Heat Exchange Technology

NREL has enhanced its Renewable Energy Integration and Optimization (REopt®) web tool to aid commercial building owners and energy managers in more effectively evaluating geothermal heat pump projects. This upgrade allows for the integration of hybrid heat exchange technology with geothermal heat pumps, aiming to improve project cost-effectiveness and support decarbonization goals.

NREL Experts Join Resilience Week 2023 in Washington, D.C.

This year's Resilience Week, led by Idaho National Laboratory and in partnership with Defense TechConnect, will shed light on critical links across infrastructure systems, evaluating how private and public partners can work together to ensure a secure and reliable flow of energy across the nation. NREL’s Eliza Hotchkiss and Bobby Jeffers have played a significant role in planning for this year's event, serving on the planning team for the Energy Equity and Community Resilience focus area.

Hear from NREL resilience and cybersecurity experts during Resilience Week 2023 sessions, including a session moderated by Hotchkiss on Building Equity and Justice Into Resilience Planning. Attendees will hear about research and development challenges around quantifying equitable resilience outcomes, how to include principles like equity in resilience planning efforts, and a discussion of sourcing the definition of resilience directly from communities. See the full Resilience Week program for details, and register for the November Resilience Week event.

Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) Capacity Expansion Model Now Open-Source

NREL’s Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS™) model is now open source, enabling users to freely access the code and use it in their energy analysis. ReEDS, first developed in the early 2000s, is NREL’s flagship capacity planning model for the power sector. The model simulates electricity sector investment decisions based on system constraints and demand for energy and ancillary services. ReEDS is the engine behind nearly every large-scale power grid study at NREL and has been used in more than 150 publications.

New ReEDS users can access YouTube trainings on how to use the model and join the open access model GitHub discussion.

Distributed Energy Resource Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 Enables Multiple Assessments, Capability Mapping

Cybersecurity assessments are mandatory for many organizations, but they can be extremely time-consuming. NREL’s Distributed Energy Resource Cybersecurity Framework, codeveloped with the U.S. Department of Energy Federal Energy Management Program, helps organizations streamline the process and reduce time and resources spent performing these assessments. And now, a new update to the tool allows a single user to conduct multiple assessments across their organization’s facilities to benchmark and assess cybersecurity posture over time. Distributed Energy Resource Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 also features asset and capability mapping, furthering the ability of organizations to understand and evaluate their facilities key assets.

To make this framework even more useful, NREL developed an extension to this tool called the Distributed Energy Resource Risk Manager that helps organizations manage authority to operate energy systems and renewables. Learn more about the tool in the Whole Building Design Guide Distributed Energy Resource Risk Manager on-demand, self-paced training.

Colorado State University and NREL Form Joint Educational Partnership

To prepare students to support the clean energy transition, NREL and Colorado State University (CSU) have formed an educational partnership, which recently received a $100,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation. The grant will enable CSU to offer more classes in electric vehicle engineering, manufacturing, and high voltage safety. “Having direct access to institutions of higher learning like CSU provides the kind of coordination we need to develop the workforce, build technologies, and progress toward our climate goals,” said Andy Walker, an NREL senior research fellow and CSU alumnus. Learn more about the mutually beneficial educational partnership program between CSU and NREL.

NREL’s Annabelle Pratt Named 2023 Digital Titan by ISG Women in Digital Awards

The ISG Women in Digital Awards honored NREL researcher Annabelle Pratt with a 2023 Digital Titan award for her digital leadership and advocacy for women in the workplace. Pratt’s work in transactive energy and advanced distribution management systems was highlighted in her nomination. “I was very surprised and honored by this award, and very pleased that the work of women in the energy industry and their role in the movement toward a clean energy future was highlighted in this way,” said Pratt.

Publications Roundup

Supply Chain Cybersecurity Recommendations for Solar Photovoltaics, NREL Technical Report (2023)

Solar photovoltaic (PV) installations that generate 75 MW or more are required to comply with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection. However, most utility and residential solar PV installations generate below that threshold and have been deployed with minimal oversight and highly variable cybersecurity maturity. Supply chain cybersecurity for solar PV represents a critical area for ensuring safe operations as the U.S. moves toward a clean energy future. This technical report identifies and recommends cybersecurity controls that might aid in hardening solar PV supply chain cybersecurity.

Fast Charging Infrastructure for Electrifying Road Trips To and From National Parks in the Western United States, NREL Technical Report (2023)

National parks in the western United States draw more than 80 million visitors every year, and most visitors rely on personal cars for their road trips. This study investigates the quantity and locations of on-route fast-charging infrastructure needed by 2030 to enable seamless travel to and from national parks using electric vehicles in seven target states in the region, employing unprecedented high-resolution spatial and temporal analysis.

Moving Beyond 4-Hour Li-Ion Batteries: Challenges and Opportunities for Long(er)-Duration Energy Storage, NREL Technical Report (2023)

This report is a continuation of the Storage Futures Study and explores the factors driving the transition from recent storage deployments with four or fewer hours to deployments of storage with greater than four hours. The report specifically builds on the first publication in the series, The Four Phases of Storage Deployment: A Framework for the Expanding Role of Storage in the U.S. Power System, and delves into phases two and three. In these phases, solar photovoltaics and storage increase the value of each other, and lower costs and technology improvements enable storage to be cost-competitive while serving longer-duration applications.

On the Low Risk of SSR in Type III Wind Turbines Operating with Grid-Forming Control, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy (2023)

We have shown in previous work that the risk of subsynchronous resonance between wind power plants with Type III wind turbines and series-compensated transmission lines is low when the wind turbines are operated in grid-forming mode instead of the standard grid-following mode. This paper explains the fundamental mechanism behind the improved damping characteristics by modeling the positive- and negative-sequence impedances of Type III wind turbines in grid-forming control mode.

Revisiting Power Systems Time-domain Simulation Methods and Models, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems (2023)

The changing nature of power systems dynamics is challenging present practices related to modeling and the study of system-level dynamic behavior. While developing new techniques and models to handle the new modeling requirements, it is also critical to review some of the terminology used to describe existing simulation approaches and the embedded assumptions. This paper provides a first-principles review of the simplifications and transformations commonly used in the formulation of time-domain simulation models. It introduces a taxonomy and classification of time-domain simulation models depending on their frequency bandwidth, network representation, and software availability. Furthermore, it focuses on the fundamental aspects of averaging techniques, and model reduction approaches that result in modeling choices, and discusses the associated challenges and opportunities of applying these methods in systems with large shares of inverter based resources. The paper concludes with an illustrative simulation that compares the trajectories of an inverter based resource-dominated system.