NREL To Support $50 Million Investment in Distributed Energy Systems by Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations
Laboratory Will Use World-Class Platforms To Optimize Distributed Energy System Investments in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Colorado
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) selected the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to provide technical assistance with integrating distributed energy resources (DERs) in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Virginia to make the electric grids safer and more responsive, resilient, and affordable.
OCED's Distributed Energy Systems (DES) Demonstrations Program aims to support diverse, scalable, replicable clean energy projects. On Sept. 30, 2024, OCED announced up to $50 million for three energy projects that are designed to implement distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS). DERMS can help manage both the growing demand for electricity amid the electrification of buildings, vehicles, and industrial processes and the installation of DERs like solar photovoltaic units, battery storage, smart appliances, and other technologies.
NREL's technical assistance includes access to facilities like the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) research platform, which is designed to validate strategies for securely controlling large numbers (millions to tens of millions) of interconnected devices. All three demonstrations will leverage an ARIES research powerhouse called the Advanced Distribution Management Systems Test Bed, where utility partners use a safe laboratory environment to evaluate how advanced grid controls can benefit their systems.
"ARIES will be used to prove what is possible for widespread integration of DERs, with customized R&D conditions based on the needs and opportunities of the energy system for each project," said Jennifer Kurtz, director of NREL's ARIES and the Center for Energy Conversion and Storage Systems.
"We are excited to support these utilities by providing access to ARIES, the world's most advanced platform for de-risking strategies to integrate distributed energy resources, as well as our cutting-edge analysis capabilities," said Sherry Stout, Laboratory program manager for NREL's State, Local, and Tribal activities. "In addition, NREL is ready to support each project's Community Benefits Plan by leveraging our expertise in community-driven, equitable energy transitions."
The three projects selected for award negotiation include:
GRid Integration and Demonstration of FLEXible Energy Resources (GRID-FLEXER) in Suffolk, Virginia
Led by Virginia Electric and Power Company (d/b/a Dominion Energy Virginia), GRID-FLEXER plans to demonstrate a DERMS in Virginia's southeastern region. This project aims to coordinate the area's current DERs with control software. Leveraging these DERs, Dominion Energy Virginia would optimize and manage the 150 MW of clean energy derived from these resources to provide real-time safe, reliable, and affordable grid support and capacity, particularly during high demand and peak load events, all without costly grid upgrades.
By successfully demonstrating this approach, Dominion Energy Virginia hopes to pave the way for wider implementation across its service territory, ensure consistent power delivery and cost-effective clean energy integration, and ultimately provide a replicable model for future implementation across utility providers and diverse service territories.
"We are extremely excited to be part of the Dominion Energy GRid Integration and Demonstration of FLEXible Energy Resources (GRID-FLEXER) project," said Martha Symko-Davies, Laboratory program manager at NREL. "This effort will leverage NREL's research to support coordinated, interoperable, hierarchical grid architecture for managing DERs at scale."
Outer Cape Microgrid Optimization (OCMO) From Orleans to Provincetown, Massachusetts
Led by Eversource Energy, the OCMO project aims to implement a DERMS to improve regional energy reliability and resiliency in the Cape Cod, Massachusetts area. Surrounded by water on three sides, Cape Cod customers are especially vulnerable to power outages caused by New England's increasingly frequent and extreme weather.
The DERMS would coordinate customer-owned DERs with an existing 24.9-MW battery energy storage system owned by Eversource that serves as the main resource for the current microgrid in the area. The project would enhance the existing regional microgrid with a DERMS that is capable of dispatching customer-owned clean energy to extend the duration it can operate for customer resilience.
Prime Time Virtual Power Plant in Boulder, Colorado
Led by Xcel Energy Services Inc. (Xcel Energy), the Prime Time Virtual Power Plant project would develop and integrate a virtual power plant (VPP) in the Boulder, Colorado area. Boulder is home to several federally funded research labs, the University of Colorado Boulder, and a concentration of advanced technology companies. These highly electrified sectors, combined with a rapid electrification of customer end uses, are drivers that compel the company to utilize VPP strategies.
This project would deliver clean energy to customers—without building new power plants or transmission lines—by aggregating the DERs of participating consumers and using them to balance, optimize, and shift electrical loads, minimizing upgrades and costs for customers. The project could help Boulder reach its 100% renewable electricity goals by 2030. The implementation of the proposed VPP offers a scalable solution that can be applied to the rest of Xcel Energy's multistate grid, providing operational flexibility to enable the power system to respond efficiently to changes in supply and demand that could be further replicated across the industry.