Sienna: An Open-Source Ecosystem for Simulation and Optimization of Modern Energy Systems (Text Version)

This is the text version of the video Sienna: An Open-Source Ecosystem for Simulation and Optimization of Modern Energy Systems.

This video highlights how Sienna, an open-source modeling tool, can represent aspects of decarbonized energy systems.

[The video opens with a cartoon drawing of Researcher A at a computer that is generating an image of a spinning globe.]

>>Narrator: Just when the energy system is going through its greatest transition in history, a framework has arrived to model these far-reaching changes comprehensively.

[The computer begins to smoke, and an error screen appears. Researcher B walks up to engage in conversation.]

>>Researcher B: How’s your model coming?

>>Researcher A: Terrible! It used to be easy to model the grid, but with renewables, electric vehicles, and batteries, I have to “hack” the tools into representing the important details. I’m taking shortcuts just to get something working. I just want it to do good analysis!

[The second researcher types into the computer. A 3D image of a cube made up of four brown cubes appears.]

>>Researcher B: Try this!

[The error message disappears.]

>>Researcher A: What?! Amazing—it all works coherently. I can see every step, from yearly planning and seasonal scheduling to minute-to-minute dispatch. And I can evaluate contingencies and check for stability. I can even customize it to do exactly what I want! What is this?

>>Researcher B: It’s called Sienna. I got it from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Sienna is an open-source modeling ecosystem that excels at representing variable generation, storage, inverters, and all other aspects of decarbonized energy systems, like new requirements for stability, economics, and reliability.

[The lab scene reappears, and a zoomed-in version of the cube appears. The cube breaks into four separate packages.]

Sienna is cohesive but modular. Its packages can be used independently or combined for different modeling capabilities. It is also scalable and has been accelerated with supercomputing to simulate the largest energy systems in the world.

[The packages come together to form a single cube, and the screen zooms out to show the lab scene.]

>>Researcher A: But what about data handling? I’m working with a monster data set.

>>Researcher B: Couldn’t be easier with Sienna. It organizes large and complex data sets into data objects that are simple to manipulate, edit, and extend. And it's so fast!

>>Researcher A: Can it help with resource scheduling? It’s tricky to schedule energy storage and manage wind and solar forecast errors.

>>Researcher B: Yep, with Sienna you can model multiple scheduling stages to simulate decisions made with imperfect forecasts and their impacts on the grid’s reliability.

>>Researcher A: Wow. OK, now this is asking a lot, but what if the schedules destabilize the grid, like we have seen in the past? Can it represent the system dynamics?

>>Researcher B: Yes! You can analyze all sorts of stability issues by representing the system’s small-signal stability, transient behavior, and even electromagnetic transients at blistering speed thanks to Sienna’s advanced numerical techniques and software innovations.

[The scene changes to focus on the computer screen on the cube. The cube breaks into many packages, and then reassembles again.]

What sets Sienna apart is its flexibility. Its individual packages can be run alone, assembled, or extended with new customizations as technologies change and new problems arise.

>>Researcher A: This is exactly what I needed. We can finally understand how our system is actually going to work in the future. This will be so much more efficient. Where do I get it?

>>Researcher B: Just download it—it’s all free and open-source.

[The computer screen of the brown cube comes back into focus. Sets of data and code begin to run on the screen next to the cube.]

>>Narrator: To plan and design clean energy systems, more researchers, utilities, and operators are turning to Sienna, the modular, high-performance, open-source ecosystem for complete energy system modeling.

[The Sienna logo reappears, and the cubes rearrange themselves in a variety of ways. The Sienna logo appears on the top of the screen. The video ends with a URL to learn more www.nrel.gov/analysis/sienna.html.]