Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: October 2024

In this issue, NREL releases the National Transmission Planning Study, the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform answers complex energy transformation questions, a new partnership with Meta enables research on corporate procurement benefits, and more.

Release of the National Transmission Planning Study Shifts Energy Transition Into High Gear

The most cost-effective path for U.S. power grid evolution includes significant expansion of the transmission system—potentially doubling in size or more by 2050, the National Transmission Planning Study finds. The recent release of the study’s final report wrapped up 2 years of research led by the U.S. Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office in partnership with NREL and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Read the full story to learn how transmission expansion could provide a path to a cost-effective, low-carbon, reliable energy future.

ARIES Solves Future Large-Scale Energy Challenges in the Present 

Renewable energy generation has risen for years, now supplying 22% of U.S. electricity. But the next gains will not come easy. Looming obstacles include a lack of energy storage, increasing cyber threats, and possible electrical instabilities. Like constellations that once guided explorers, the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform helps users to orient their clean energy decisions. Following recent expansions in customizable power scenarios, hydrogen integration, and enhanced cybersecurity, ARIES is ready to help researchers explore the greatest challenges yet for a clean energy transformation.

Learn more about new capabilities, like the controllable grid interface that generates customized grid power to emulate any scenario, integrated hydrogen hardware to demonstrate long-term energy storage, and the ARIES Cyber Range that enhances grid security against emerging cyber threats.

NREL Explores How Corporate Procurement Can Advance Renewable Energy Deployment

Clean energy buyers can play a key role in providing the price certainty needed for renewable energy project development. Through a new partnership with Meta, one of the world’s largest renewable energy buyers, NREL is exploring this dynamic to better understand how corporate buyers can help stabilize prices, reduce investment risks, and accelerate clean energy deployment. Read more to discover how this research could shape the future of renewable energy planning and development.

Of Biofuels and Batteries: The System Dynamics Behind NREL’s Analysis Innovations

Everything is connected. That is the core principle behind one philosophy and tool researchers in NREL energy analysis use to examine the impacts of new renewable energy technologies long term. That research technique—called system dynamics—dissects the feedback loops within various technologies and supply chains. It is behind several NREL modeling tools, like the Bioenergy Scenario Model, the Recursive Integrated Networks for Growth Model, and the Lithium-Ion Battery Resource Assessment Model. Read how system dynamics research is evolving at NREL and informing decision-making for decades to come.

Enter the Waves, Currents, and Tides of Hydropower Through Emulation

Researchers at NREL often simulate the profound complexity of power systems using the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform, but, until now, they lacked the ability to see how hydropower plays with the larger grid.

That changed with the creation of a real-time hydropower emulator. The emulator replicates hydroelectric hardware one-to-one using data from real-world facilities, and it links these emulations to detailed models of the grid. It has been used to modernize hydropower-heavy electric grids in coastal Alaska, helping communities understand resources before deployment.

U.S. Forest Service Partners With NREL on Renewable Energy Deployment in Wildland Fire Camps

When a wildfire threatens communities, firefighters from all over the United States come together to mitigate its impact on ecosystems and prevent it from approaching inhabited areas. But supplying fuel to remote fire camps has always been expensive and logistically challenging, creating a need for new sources of energy. NREL’s partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, as well as its Greening Fire Team, is working on reducing these challenges by developing the infrastructure needed to integrate more renewable energy methods into the national wildfire mitigation and control strategy, making adoption a systematic process while reducing the human footprint in remote wilderness areas. Learn more about NREL’s partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and its recent accomplishments.

New Technical Assistance Opportunities for Community Microgrids and Utility and Grid Operators

Remote communities and Tribes can build energy independence and energy resilience through microgrid development assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity and facilitated by NREL. The Community Microgrid Assistance Partnership provides technical assistance and/or funding for microgrid planning, implementation, or improvements to nonprofits (included energy cooperatives) and state, local, or Tribal governments in underserved and electrically islanded areas. The first request for proposals closes in Dec. 2024. Visit the Community Microgrid Assistance Partnership website to learn more and register for an informational webinar on DOE.

A separate technical assistance opportunity, provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Grid Deployment Office, offers utilities and grid operators technical assistance to accelerate clean energy and transmission deployment.

Municipal utilities, cooperative utilities, investor-owned utilities, regional transmission organizations, and independent system operators are invited to apply. Technical assistance offerings include access to national lab facilities, interconnection assistance, and rolling technical assistance for load forecasting, vehicle-grid integration, bulk-power planning, and more. Apply for the Key Assist and Interconnection Assistance pathways by Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024.

The Long and Short Stories on Supply Chain Cybersecurity

The increasing numbers of devices on our power grid demand a greater focus on cybersecurity risks throughout device supply chains. In our latest Long Story Short video on YouTube, NREL researcher Zoe Dormuth explains the challenges and opportunities in supply chain cybersecurity and the various ways NREL is advancing a safer, secure, and transparent supply chain for grid components.

Register for a Workshop on Grid System Controls

NREL invites you to join us in a unique opportunity for public-private engagement on the development and demonstration of solutions for operating modern, data-driven, distributed energy systems. The Advanced Distribution Management Systems Test Bed and Federated Architecture for Secure and Transactive Distributed Energy Resource Management Solutions Workshop will be held at NREL’s campus in Golden, Colorado, Dec. 11–12, 2024. Expect live demonstrations, results from recent projects, and a tour of the laboratories in NREL’s unique Energy Systems Integration Facility. This workshop is best for utilities, vendors of advanced distribution management systems and distributed energy resource management systems, and vendors of distributed energy resource aggregators. Register today. 

Publications Roundup

Best Practices Handbook for the Collection and Use of Solar Resource Data for Solar Energy Applications: Fourth Edition, NREL Technical Report (2024)

As the world increasingly seeks low-carbon energy solutions, solar power stands out as our planet’s most abundant resource; however, effectively harnessing this energy presents a critical challenge for the coming years. Solar technologies—including photovoltaics, solar heating and cooling, and concentrating solar power—have distinct capabilities and requirements. This highlights the need for reliable information about solar resources across various applications, from residential rooftops to large-scale power plants. By accurately forecasting generation patterns, utilities and system operators can enhance the integration of solar energy, ensuring grid stability. Researchers at NREL copublished this handbook with the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme Task 16. The work aims to provide dependable data and insights that will guide investments in solar energy and promote a sustainable future.

Best Practices for Renewable Energy Installations in the National Parks, NREL Technical Report (2024)

The U.S. Department of Energy Federal Energy Management Program has teamed up with the National Park Service (NPS) to advance the development and implementation of renewable energy technologies at federal facilities and on federal lands. The Federal Energy Management Program offers technical assistance to NPS on renewable energy projects, focusing on identifying substantial cost savings, enhancing efficiency, exploring ways to reduce carbon footprints and achieve carbon neutrality, and improving the resilience of NPS-owned facilities and sites. This report aims to assist NPS staff in assessing the potential use of renewable energy technologies in park operations.

Toward Robust and Scalable Dispatch Modeling of Long-Duration Energy Storage, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2024)

Long-duration energy storage is expected shake up the possibilities for power system operations, but existing evaluations of long-duration storage oversimplify power system operations or underrepresent the variety of storage technologies. In this article, NREL authors review the challenges of long-duration storage modeling and discuss the benefits and limitations of the current approaches. The authors find that better dispatch modeling of long-duration storage could increase the associated operational value by 4%–14%, and that robust and scalable dispatch approaches could further improve system value.

Energy Systems Integration Facility: World-Class Systems Integration Capabilities and Research, NREL Poster (2024)

The Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) is a U.S. Department of Energy user facility located at NREL’s campus in Golden, Colorado. The ESIF is distinguished by its continuously evolving, highly integrated systems that span the building, connecting research capabilities across multiple laboratories. With adaptability built into the very foundation of the building, the ESIF is the perfect place for plug-and-play experiments that stay on the pioneering edge of modern energy systems. The operations team continuously enhances the ESIF’s infrastructure to ensure that it keeps pace with anticipated research. The team developed a new poster on the ESIF systems integration capabilities that visualizes the four primary systems that power the research: data, cyber, and control networks; research electrical distribution buses; thermal integration infrastructure; and hydrogen systems.