Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: September 2024

In this edition, a decade of supercomputing is fueling the clean energy transition, NREL’s decision support analysis informs pathways for Guam to achieve 100% clean electricity, renewable energy technical assistance is open for applications, and more.

Clean Energy Transition Takes Flight on the Wings of NREL’s Supercomputers

NREL is now marking a decade of state-of-the-art supercomputing that is fueling the acceleration of the clean energy transition. The Energy Systems Integration Facility fired up its first high-performance computing system in September 2013—a time when the latest research showed that reaching 80% renewable electricity by 2045 was feasible. Fast-forward 10 years, and with two more high-performance computing systems, those computers are giving NREL researchers the means to conduct analyses showing how the United States could reach 100% carbon-pollution-free electricity by 2035. Learn about the many studies and modeling capabilities that NREL’s supercomputers are now powering.

Guam’s Potential Path to 100% Renewable Energy

What could the path to 100% renewable energy look like for Guam? Right now, the U.S. territory is mostly reliant on imported fuel oil for its power—only 13% of its energy comes from renewable sources. Energy stakeholders and government leaders are now taking the next step toward helping Guam reach 100% of its electricity coming from renewable sources by 2045. Learn how NREL’s Guam100 decision support analysis is informing the means to transform Guam’s power grid in a way that is equitable, resilient, and affordable for the territory’s residents.

Apply Today for a U.S. Department of Energy Peer-Learning Cohort on Distributed Wind, Clean Energy in Appalachia, or Microgrids

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program is now accepting applications for a new round of peer-learning cohorts. Participants in C2C peer-learning cohorts receive strategic and technical assistance; access to training materials, tools, and best practices; and the chance to collaborate with peers across the country. 

The three peer-learning cohort topics in this round are: 

• Distributed wind
• Renewable energy and energy efficiency 101 in Appalachia
• Microgrids.

Each cohort starts in January 2025 and lasts 6 months. Eligibility for each cohort depends on the cohort topic, but ideal participants may include local and regional governments, not-for-profit economic development districts, municipal and cooperative utilities, Tribes, and community-based organizations. Applications are due by Oct. 31.

Haiti Works Toward Building a More Resilient Future

Approximately 49% of the population of Haiti had access to electricity as of 2022. In rural areas, that number is closer to 2%; and in urban areas, 80% of the population has electricity access. But even in areas with high access to electricity, that access might not be reliable. Haiti also faces other challenges in implementing reliable renewable energy, including high poverty, lack of infrastructure, and reliance on imported fossil fuels.

To address these obstacles, Haiti is forging a path forward with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-NREL Partnership. Some of this support involves formulating a comprehensive plan that will serve as a long-term guide prioritizing sustainability, security, and resilience across the energy sector. Other areas of support include the development of energy modeling frameworks and trainings, minigrids, agrivoltaics, and off-grid solar power. Learn more about NREL's partnership with USAID in Haiti by visiting the USAID-NREL Haiti webpage and reading more about the partnership’s work in Haiti.

The Long and Short Story Behind Energy Storage 

As more and more clean energy from sources like wind and solar comes online around the United States, determining how to ensure that the generated power can be used when it is needed is a big question. One answer to that question could be in energy storage. In a recently released Long Story Short video, NREL Distributed Energy Systems and Storage Analysis Group Manager Nate Blair discussed the possibilities that energy storage could hold for the future of clean energy in the United States. From lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries to long-duration grid-scale storage, find out how NREL’s energy storage research is helping unlock a clean energy future.

Laos Accelerates Goal of Deploying Electric Vehicles by Pursuing Technical Training and Capacity Building  

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) has a goal to have 30% of all vehicles on the country’s roads be electric by 2030. To achieve this goal, Lao PDR is creating an electric vehicle (EV) roadmap and planning to further develop its EV infrastructure. This development includes implementing reliable EV charging options that can meet consumer demand, ensuring that the charging infrastructure ecosystem includes publicly available affordable options, and offering convenient at-home charging. The greatest challenge for implementing EVs and integrating renewable energy in Lao PDR will be building national capacity, including effectively using the legal framework for regulation and standardization.

To support Lao PDR’s goals toward attaining energy efficiency, NREL partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to host a delegation of 10 Lao PDR government ministers for a tour of NREL. This tour marks the first time that all four key ministries sat at the same table for seven straight days, allowing the delegates to understand each other’s challenges, collaborate, view NREL’s state-of-the-art technology, and develop policies and regulations that address each of their concerns. Learn more about how the USAID-NREL Partnership is supporting the clean energy transition in Lao PDR by visiting the USAID-NREL Lao PDR webpage and reading more about the delegate’s visit.

Diverse Interns Help Strengthen Grid Cybersecurity

This summer, NREL was proud to welcome interns into the Enabling Native Researchers and Other Minorities Through Graduate Engineering program. Four interns took advantage of the opportunity to gain valuable experience in power, energy, and cybersecurity. Javier Moscoso’s deep personal experience of recent hurricanes in Puerto Rico gave focus to his cybersecurity research. Adrian Gomez’s U.S. Army and criminal justice training lent a unique perspective to his cybersecurity studies. Zain ul Abdeen leveraged his machine learning and artificial intelligence skills to help test the performance of power system algorithms during adversarial attacks. And Success Oluwole found the intersections between her mechanical engineering training and cybersecurity research to contribute to projects involving cyber-informed engineering. Read more about their internship successes.

NREL Tools Advance Cybersecurity for Hydropower

Two tools from NREL are helping the hydropower industry improve its cybersecurity posture. NREL recently released the data-driven and hardware-agnostic Cybersecurity Situational Awareness Tool for Hydropower, or CYSAT-Hydro. Using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, CYSAT-Hydro detects stealthy cyberattacks early, minimizes evolving cybersecurity risks, analyzes grid performance through technical and economic metrics, and aids grid operators in making informed decisions to enhance the resilience and security of hydropower plants.

NREL also released version 2.0 of the Cybersecurity Value-at-Risk Framework (CVF), a free, publicly available tool that helps power plant owners and operators assess their cybersecurity risks and make sound cybersecurity investment decisions. Informed by feedback from industry stakeholders, these updates to the CVF provide users with advanced tools to assess and improve cybersecurity across multiple facilities—and to better visualize those assessments. The tool also provides risk probabilities and scores, highlighting the financial value of the cybersecurity improvements that are needed to handle future threats.

25 New Coastal, Remote, and Island Communities Join Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project

Coastal, remote, and island communities face unique energy challenges because of their geographic isolation, which often contributes to issues with energy access, quality, affordability, and reliability. To make progress on addressing their energy challenges, 25 communities have joined the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project, a technical assistance program that connects communities with national laboratories and regional organizations to advance locally led energy resilience projects. This year's new communities have proposed projects ranging from water filtration and wildfire preparedness to home heat pumps and weatherization retrofits, microgrids and battery storage, electric transportation, solar power interconnection, and wind energy potential. Learn more about the newest partnership project communities and the projects they plan to pursue.

Publications Roundup

Quantifying Energy Justice Goals in the Power Sector: Developing and Using Metrics, IEEE Power and Energy Magazine (2024)

New policy goals are steering the future grid toward enhanced energy equity. At the same time, policy goals guide the grid toward decarbonization and resilience while maintaining cost, security, and reliability requirements. This creates a dilemma: the need for urgent action on climate change versus the necessity of meaningfully engaging frontline communities. To address this, the authors focus on metrics to baseline, measure, and analyze the impact of energy transition investments on disadvantaged populations. Quantifying equity in the power sector is complex, but recent years have seen progress in standardizing these concepts. This article outlines current knowledge among practitioners, established metrics, methods for developing these metrics, case studies demonstrating their application, and research strategies to enhance equity metrics' integration into power sector business practices.

Regional Power System Black Start With Run of River Hydropower Plant and Battery Energy Storage, Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy (2024)

Battery energy storage systems are an important asset for power systems with high integration levels of renewable energy, and they can be controlled to provide various critical services to the power grid. This paper discusses the real-world experience of using a megawatt-scale battery energy storage system and a run-of-river hydropower plant in restoring a regional power system. Through power hardware-in-the-loop experiments, the authors explore the roles of grid-following and grid-forming controls during black starts. Results indicate that these systems can significantly enhance grid stability and enable hydropower plants to become black-start-capable with battery support. This combination facilitates bottom-up black-start strategies, improving system resilience and robustness.

Resilient Energy Transition Planning for Ouzinkie, Alaska, DOE Technical Report (2024)

This report outlines an energy system planning study for Ouzinkie, Alaska, conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project. Ouzinkie, a remote community on Spruce Island, relies on diesel generators and a hydroelectric turbine for power. But aging infrastructure has led to declining reliability, and the cost of operating the diesel generators has significantly increased. In response, Ouzinkie asked the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project to provide technical assistance to develop an integrated plan for transitioning to a more reliable, resilient power system powered by renewable energy resources.