Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: March 2024

In this edition, NREL forecasts transformer demand through 2050, industry can validate grid integration solutions on the Power Electronics Grid Interface Platform, a new life cycle assessment evaluates the environmental impacts of clean energy technologies, and more.

New NREL Research Estimates Future Demand for Distribution Transformers

Almost every kilowatt-hour of electricity flows through a distribution transformer, a bedrock component of U.S. electrical distribution infrastructure. Distribution transformers are currently experiencing unprecedented demand, which has led to rising prices and procurement delays. To ease the supply-demand mismatch, an NREL study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity and Office of Policy aims to forecast the demand for transformers through 2050. The NREL team’s initial results indicate that transformer demand could increase 160%–260% by 2050 compared to 2021 levels. This increase in demand is primarily due to aging infrastructure and electrification, but factors such as extreme weather damage and utility resilience programs can further compound demand. The NREL analysis is providing the first-ever comprehensive forecasting of distribution transformers, informing vital distribution planning decisions and supporting collaborative efforts across the public and private energy sectors

Wanted: Partners in Power Electronics Experiments

NREL is issuing a special invitation to forward-thinking power system operators; pioneering utilities; cutting-edge, grid-level power electronics vendors; and courageous communities. Bring your most fundamental renewable grid modernization/transition challenges to NREL’s Power Electronics Grid Interface (PEGI) Platform, and we’ll provide the incomparable capabilities and expertise to validate your proposed solutions. It’s a 50-50 collaboration, and partners walk away with data-backed confidence to move forward.

The PEGI Platform is specifically designed to inform the biggest challenges related to operating power systems with high levels of renewable energy, such as solar photovoltaic power. Partners will use the PEGI Platform to demonstrate overall power system performance under a multitude of current and future grid scenarios, such as high shares of inverter-based generation, low short-circuit ratio interconnections (weak grids), and alternative protective-relaying schemes.

PEGI offers a flexible hardware platform with both inverter-based resources and synchronous generation sources, controllable grid impedance, and even platforms for evaluating novel grid-forming inverter controls. NREL will cover 50% of the project costs, cost-shared with the partner, and projects will last approximately 1 year. This is an excellent opportunity for any entity struggling with stability, integration, system design, and/or the operation of energy systems with large amounts of renewable power.

Interested organizations can contact Barry Mather to collaborate with NREL on the PEGI Platform.

Renewable Energy Is Green, but We Can Make It Greener

For decades, researchers have been working to understand the long-term environmental impacts of renewable energy technologies. Now, NREL is leading a new way to scale more detailed analysis: novel code-based life cycle assessments. The automated approach gives researchers a more comprehensive view of renewables’ environmental impacts over their life spans and as conditions change.

“We can now automatically account for system dynamics, like a changing economy or power sector,” said NREL researcher Patrick Lamers, who has spearheaded code-based life cycle assessment at the laboratory. “We can do this over a series of environmental impacts and resource-use metrics at the same time.” Learn more about NREL’s code-based life cycle assessment work.

Breaking Down Silos: 2024 Energy Transition Summit

Achieving a carbon-free power sector by the 2035 deadline while reaching U.S. net-zero emissions goals by 2050 requires sharing new tools, concepts, ideas, and technologies. Managing this type of exchange in an efficient and secure manner also means breaking down silos that have sometimes existed between key stakeholders in the renewable energy space. This type of transformative collaboration was on full display this February at the 2024 Energy Transition Summit.

Cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Grid Modernization Initiative and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, the event helped build the framework for achieving three long-term energy goals:

• Create the grid of the future that can deliver resilient, reliable, flexible, secure, sustainable, and affordable electricity
• Foster collaborative security solutions to enable a more resilient and equitable energy transition
• Provide a collaborative workspace for energy and security professionals to learn from one another and identify opportunities to bolster each other’s efforts. 

Check out the top five cyber takeaways from this year’s Energy Transition Summit to learn more.

New Video: Learn About the Grid-Forming Inverter

The stability of the power grid is becoming more dependent on renewable resources. But how exactly do renewables take on this new role? Much of it boils down to grid-forming technologies: a variety of controls and hardware solutions that allow renewable energy to lead other resources on the grid. Instead of passively following power signals, renewable resources can now form them, and this enables very high or 100% levels of clean energy.

But there is still plenty of work ahead for grid-forming technologies, such as research and development, standardization, validation, and deployment—all of which are the focus of the NREL-led UNIFI Consortium, a many-member effort to bring grid-forming solutions to the power industry. To help stakeholders understand the role of grid-forming technology, NREL has produced the new explainer video From Follower to Leader: How Grid-Forming Technology Puts Renewables at the Front of Grid Stability.

Webinar: Informing Cybersecurity Investment Decisions With the Cybersecurity Value-at-Risk Framework

The Cybersecurity Value-at-Risk Framework is a web-based tool that can help power plant owners and operators gain greater visibility into their operations from a cyber-risk perspective. The DOE Water Power Technologies Office and NREL are excited to bring you this informational webinar that will show attendees how to use the tool and develop an understanding of its methodology and the security control implementation guidance the tool can provide.

Join us on April 16, 2024, at 1 p.m. ET to learn how the framework allows hydropower operators to asses their risks and make informed investments for enhanced cybersecurity. Register for the webinar.

Upgrades to NREL’s REopt Web Tool Offer Enhanced Energy Solutions

NREL’s popular REopt^® web tool is getting some exciting upgrades in 2024. REopt helps users identify, prioritize, and evaluate the cost and environmental impacts of potential renewable energy projects. The REopt team is excited to continue advancing the platform to address emerging challenges and opportunities. New capabilities coming in 2024 include the ability to analyze hydrogen generation, storage, and use; analyze the demand for prolonged energy storage solutions; increase precision in heat load modeling; and much more. Learn more about how these enhancements will help users address emerging challenges and opportunities in renewable energy optimization.

Puerto Rico Study Recognized With Highest Honor

The Puerto Rico Grid Recovery and Modernization research team was recognized with an Energy Achievement Award, the highest form of recognition for federal and contractor employees within the U.S. Department of Energy. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm awarded 53 teams across the U.S. Department of Energy for what she called “remarkable contributions to this department and to our country.” Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Infrastructure Kathleen Hogan praised the Puerto Rico team for contributing to a “resilient and reliable electrical grid in the wake of several devastating hurricanes” and for developing several pathways for the island to reach 100% renewable electricity by 2050. Learn more about the team’s PR100 Study and the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund to which the team contributed.

Best Paper Award Goes to NREL For De-Risking Novel Utility Tools

Emerging software technologies equip distribution utility personnel with the tools they need to manage a grid with high shares of distributed energy resources and interconnected devices. Researchers at NREL implemented these novel tools in three use cases to validate system performance and demonstrate the diverse benefits. One of the resulting publications, Integration of Utility Distributed Energy Resources Management System and Aggregators for Evolving System Operators, was named the best paper of 2022 by the Journal of Modern Power System and Clean Energy. The validations were performed on NREL’s Advanced Distribution Management System Test Bed, a research platform for next-generation control room capabilities.

Publications Roundup

Achieving an 80% Renewable Portfolio in Alaska’s Railbelt: Cost Analysis, NREL Technical Report (2024)

The Alaska Railbelt grid faces several challenges and could turn to renewable energy to overcome them. Nearly two-thirds of the Railbelt electricity demand is provided by natural gas, but supply from the Cook Inlet is decreasing, and prices are projected to considerably increase. A new NREL study looked at potential costs and benefits of increased renewable energy on the grid in the context of a proposed 80% renewable portfolio standard. NREL evaluated total electricity system costs to deploy different amounts of renewables from now through 2040. Check out the full report to find out why deploying more renewables could be more cost-competitive for Railbelt utilities.

Cambium 2023 Scenario Descriptions and Documentation, NREL Technical Report (2024)

NREL’s Cambium data sets are annually released sets of simulated hourly emission, cost, and operational data for a range of modeled futures of the U.S. electric sector with metrics designed to be useful for long-term decision-making. The 2023 Cambium data set is the fourth annual release. In this documentation, we describe Cambium 2023’s scenarios, define the metrics, and document the Cambium-specific methods for calculating those metrics.

Interregional Renewable Energy Zones, NREL Technical Report (2024)

NREL studied the potential of high-voltage transmission lines that cross multiple regions to deliver the nation’s best renewable energy resources to the biggest load centers. These long-distance transmission corridors are called interregional renewable energy zones. NREL found that linking the nation’s highest concentrations of low-cost renewable energy to its biggest load centers could save money and provide greater grid reliability than solely relying on local resources. States and tribes can use the findings to inform their planning and energy policies. The National Transmission Planning Study, conducted by NREL and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office, will be released later this year and will be complemented by several companion reports, the first of which is the Interregional Renewable Energy Zones report.

Reevaluating Contour Visualizations for Power Systems Data, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (2023)

Effective visual analytics tools are needed now more than ever as emerging energy systems data and models are rapidly growing in scale and complexity. In this paper, NREL authors examined the suitability of colored contour maps to visually represent bus values in two power system models: a dense 24,586-bus distribution system and a 240-bus transmission system. The quantitative analysis found that contour maps misrepresent power systems data, changing the statistical dispersion of the bus values, including the loss of extreme values. A controlled empirical study with 30 professional power system research engineers showed that these distortions significantly impact excursion identification tasks. Additionally, the engineers were less confident in their assessments using contour-based visualizations than glyph-based visualizations.