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Douville, Travis C.

Publications and source records attributed to Douville, Travis C..

8 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Capacity contributions of Southern Oregon offshore wind to the Pacific Northwest and California

Variable renewable energy generation poses unique capacity challenges, which increasingly depend on weather events at varying timescales. Facilitated by transmission planning, geographic and technological diversity of the generation fleet may provide a mitigation to capacity shortfalls. In this work, offshore wind (OSW) energy is sited in the areas off the West Coast between Coos Bay, Oregon, and Crescent City, California. Three generation and transmission scenarios are modeled within the Western Interconnection: (i) 3.4 gigawatts (GW) of installed OSW capacity connected to Southern Oregon through a High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) Radial Topology in 2030; (ii) 12.9 GW of installed OSW capacity connected to Washington, Oregon, and California through a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Radial Topology post-2030, and (iii) the same 12.9 GW connected to the same locations through a Multi-terminal DC (MTDC) Backbone Topology post-2030. Zonal dispatch simulations assuming coincident wind, solar, and hydropower production and loads over 18 meteorological years, accounting for temperature-dependent equipment derating and forced outages, serve as inputs to the Associated System Capacity Contribution (ASCC) methodology. The capacity credit is 33%, 25% and 34% for the 2030 HVAC Radial Topology, 2030+ HVDC Radial Topology, and 2030+ MTDC Backbone Topology, respectively. Transmission design is shown to mitigate the typical erosion of marginal capacity contribution as more OSW is developed, underscoring the opportunity for grid modernization while decarbonizing the generation mix.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Singapore-US Feasibility Study on Regional Energy Connectivity

There is strong potential amongst the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to adopt subsea interconnectors and benefit from increased energy trade and decarbonization benefits. As part of the Net Zero World Initiative, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Energy Market Authority of Singapore, the technical and economic potential for such connectivity was investigated. This interim report provides a summary of the economic and technical feasibility analysis conducted related to increasing regional connectivity in Southeast Asia via subsea cables.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

West Coast Offshore Wind Transmission Literature Review and Gaps Analysis

This review of the state of west coast OSW transmission research organizes the body of literature to date and describes the most impactful grid integration analysis and convening opportunities. It is intended as a scan of the landscape to ground impactful investments, which will guide state and federal entities and private developers to maximize net value of west coast OSW to the Nation.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Small Hydropower Interconnections: Small Hydropower in the United States

Small hydropower projects, which we define as generators below 20 MW in capacity have been the predominant source of hydropower growth over the past decade and create the most cost-effective and environmentally permissible avenues for new hydropower installation in the United States (DOE 2016; Johnson et al. 2018). Small hydropower developers across the United States have found that interconnecting these projects with the grid can be challenging due to unexpected costs and schedule overruns. Understanding the interconnection challenges and improving the process may allow more small hydropower projects to be successful. Noting these challenges, the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office enlisted Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to investigate the small hydropower interconnection landscape across the United States. To begin to analyze the existing interconnection processes and challenges facing small hydropower, the state of small hydropower development in the U.S. must first be described to understand the characteristics of the industry. The first in a series, this paper presents the state of small hydropower projects in the U.S. to describe their type, location, and size based on data extracted from the HydroSource database (ORNL 2020). The following papers in the series will detail the variety of state interconnection processes to connect power generators with the grid (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: State Interconnection Processes”), analyze these interconnection processes (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Analysis of Interconnection Processes”), and present best practices in interconnection processes (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Best Practices”) that will help overcome barriers to future small hydropower development.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Small Hydropower Interconnections: State Interconnection Processes

Small hydropower projects with rated power output between 0 to 20 MW have been the predominant source of hydropower growth over the past decade in the United States (DOE 2016; Johnson et al. 2018). However, interconnection to electricity distribution and transmission grids is a persistent barrier. Interconnection of an electricity generating unit is overseen by the distribution or transmission owner, who use interconnection standards and requirements that vary by state. The differences between standards in standards may affect the final cost, timeline, and success of a small hydropower project. Small hydropower project developers across the United States have found interconnection procedures to be fraught with cost surprises and schedule overruns. System operators have struggled to understand impacts to overburdened or rapidly evolving transmission and distribution grids. The results of these shortcomings have been stranded costs and unrealized small hydropower potential. Though regulatory actions and policy recommendations at the state level have increased the situational awareness of interconnection challenges, the remote locations of small hydropower resources and the relatively small revenues associated with energy production through small hydropower facilities continue to make interconnection processes and requirements confusing and costly. Noting these challenges, the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office enlisted Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to investigate the small hydropower interconnection landscape across the United States. The second in a series, this paper investigates the interconnection process in each state in the U.S. to compare their attributes. Subsequent papers in the series will analyze these interconnection processes (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Analysis of Interconnection Processes”) and present best practices (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Best Practices”) that will help overcome barriers to future small hydropower development. The first paper in the series examined the state of small hydropower projects in the United States (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Small Hydropower in the United States”) to understand the industry characteristics.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Small Hydropower Interconnections: Analysis of Interconnection Processes

Small hydropower projects have faced the challenge of navigating the process to interconnect their generation source to electricity distribution and transmission grids. Small hydropower developers have found interconnection procedures to be opaque and ultimately result in unexpected cost surprises and long timelines. Noting these challenges, the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office enlisted Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to investigate the small hydropower interconnection landscape across the United States. After reviewing the status of small hydropower (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Small Hydropower in the United States”) and the interconnection procedures across the United States (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: State Interconnection Processes”) in the first two white papers of this series, this paper uses recent data from small hydropower interconnection applications to benchmark the efficacy of the process. Using data from interconnection queues hosted by utilities, balancing authorities, independent system operators (ISOs), and regional transmission organizations (RTOs), this paper provides context for the costs, timelines, and types of upgrades required for small hydropower projects. Interconnection applications and study reports for small hydropower projects were analyzed to collect key pieces of information about the interconnection process, timeline, costs, and type of upgrades required for interconnection. Information sourced from the reports was entered into an Interconnection Benchmarking database (IBdb), which may be found in Appendix A.1. Information from this database was used to evaluate the performance and challenges associated with interconnecting small hydropower projects. This white paper presents a description of the sources contained in the interconnection database (Section 2.0), an analysis of the interconnection timeline (Section 3.0), an evaluation the cost of interconnection upgrades (Section 4.0), and a description of the types of infrastructure upgrades (Section 5.0). The final paper in this series (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Best Practices”) will use the analysis described here to outline best practices for interconnection processes that will help overcome barriers to future small hydropower development.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Small Hydropower Interconnections: Best Practices

Small hydropower projects have been the predominant source of capacity growth of U.S. hydropower for more than a decade, and they present the most cost-effective and environmentally permissible avenues for hydropower growth (DOE 2016; Johnson et al. 2018). However, interconnection to electricity distribution and transmission grids is a persistent barrier due to cost surprises and schedule overruns. As a culmination to research into the status and requirements of small hydropower interconnection across the United States, this paper presents the best practices for setting interconnection standards that can improve the process for small hydropower developers. As part of the analysis, the interconnection costs are compared between small hydropower, solar, and wind. The analysis of the small hydropower interconnection landscape across the United States was carried out by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with support from the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office. The research team was guided by a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and gleaned data from publicly available sources, such as the HydroSource database (ORNL 2020) and interconnection queues hosted by utilities, balancing authorities, independent system operators (ISOs), and regional transmission organizations (RTOs). The results of this work are shared in a series of papers detailing the state of small hydropower in the United States (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Small Hydropower in the United States”), the variety of state interconnection processes to connect power generators with the grid (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: State Interconnection Processes”), and an analysis of the interconnection processes (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Analysis of Interconnection Processes”). In this, the final paper in the series, best practices for interconnection processes (“Small Hydropower Interconnections: Best Practices”) are identified from the solar energy and distributed wind energy industries that are transferrable to small hydropower development. This information will help overcome barriers to future small hydropower development.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗