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Palmintier, Bryan

Publications and source records attributed to Palmintier, Bryan.

51 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Advanced Inverter Functions and Communication Protocols for Distribution Management

This paper aims at identifying the advanced features required by distribution management systems (DMS) service providers to bring inverter-connected distributed energy resources into use as an intelligent grid resource. This work explores the standard functions needed in the future DMS for enterprise integration of distributed energy resources (DER). The important DMS functionalities such as DER management in aggregate groups, including the discovery of capabilities, status monitoring, and dispatch of real and reactive power are addressed in this paper. It is intended to provide the industry with a point of reference for DER integration with other utility applications and to provide guidance to research and standards development organizations.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2016

On the Path to SunShot. Emerging Issues and Challenges in Integrating Solar with the Distribution System

This report analyzes distribution-integration challenges, solutions, and research needs in the context of distributed generation from PV (DGPV) deployment to date and the much higher levels of deployment expected with achievement of the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot targets. Recent analyses have improved estimates of the DGPV hosting capacities of distribution systems. This report uses these results to statistically estimate the minimum DGPV hosting capacity for the contiguous United States using traditional inverters of approximately 170 GW without distribution system modifications. This hosting capacity roughly doubles if advanced inverters are used to manage local voltage and additional minor, low-cost changes could further increase these levels substantially. Key to achieving these deployment levels at minimum cost is siting DGPV based on local hosting capacities, suggesting opportunities for regulatory, incentive, and interconnection innovation. Already, pre-computed hosting capacity is beginning to expedite DGPV interconnection requests and installations in select regions; however, realizing SunShot-scale deployment will require further improvements to DGPV interconnection processes, standards and codes, and compensation mechanisms so they embrace the contributions of DGPV to system-wide operations. SunShot-scale DGPV deployment will also require unprecedented coordination of the distribution and transmission systems. This includes harnessing DGPV's ability to relieve congestion and reduce system losses by generating closer to loads; minimizing system operating costs and reserve deployments through improved DGPV visibility; developing communication and control architectures that incorporate DGPV into system operations; providing frequency response, transient stability, and synthesized inertia with DGPV in the event of large-scale system disturbances; and potentially managing reactive power requirements due to large-scale deployment of advanced inverter functions. Finally, additional local and system-level value could be provided by integrating DGPV with energy storage and 'virtual storage,' which exploits improved management of electric vehicle charging, building energy systems, and other large loads. Together, continued innovation across this rich distribution landscape can enable the very-high deployment levels envisioned by SunShot.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Enabling Smart Grid Cosimulation Studies: Rapid Design and Development of the Technologies and Controls

The 21st century electric power grid is transforming with an unprecedented increase in demand and increase in new technologies. In the United States Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Title XIII sets the tenets for modernizing the electricity grid through what is known as the 'Smart Grid Initiative.' This initiative calls for increased design, deployment, and integration of distributed energy resources, smart technologies and appliances, and advanced storage devices. The deployment of these new technologies requires rethinking and re-engineering the traditional boundaries between different electric power system domains.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2016

On the Path to SunShot: Emerging Issues and Challenges in Integrating Solar with the Distribution System.

The U.S. Department of Energy launched the SunShot Initiative in 2011 with the goal of making solar electricity cost-competitive with conventionally generated electricity by 2020. At the time this meant reducing photovoltaic and concentrating solar power prices by approximately 75%— relative to 2010 costs—across the residential, commercial, and utility-scale sectors. To examine the implications of this ambitious goal, the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) published the SunShot Vision Study in 2012. The study projected that achieving the SunShot price-reduction targets could result in solar meeting roughly 14% of U.S. electricity demand by 2030 and 27% by 2050—while reducing fossil fuel use, cutting emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, creating solar-related jobs, and lowering consumer electricity bills.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

On the Path to SunShot: Emerging Issues and Challenges in Integrating Solar with the Distribution System

From 2010 through the first half of 2015, the installed capacity of solar photovoltaics (PV) connected to the U.S. distribution system increased sixfold, from approximately 1.8 GW to more than 11 GW. This accounts for over half of the approximate total U.S. solar installations of 20 GW. Distributed generation from PV (DGPV) is expected to comprise 50%–60% of total U.S. PV capacity through at least 2020. The rapid deployment of high penetrations of DGPV into the distribution system has both highlighted challenges and demonstrated many successful examples of integrating higher penetration levels than previously thought possible. In this report, we analyze challenges, solutions, and research needs in the context of DGPV deployment to date and the much higher levels of integration that are expected with the achievement of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot targets.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Final Technical Report: Integrated Distribution-Transmission Analysis for Very High Penetration Solar PV

Transmission and distribution simulations have historically been conducted separately, echoing their division in grid operations and planning while avoiding inherent computational challenges. Today, however, rapid growth in distributed energy resources (DERs)--including distributed generation from solar photovoltaics (DGPV)--requires understanding the unprecedented interactions between distribution and transmission. To capture these interactions, especially for high-penetration DGPV scenarios, this research project developed a first-of-its-kind, high performance computer (HPC) based, integrated transmission-distribution tool, the Integrated Grid Modeling System (IGMS). The tool was then used in initial explorations of system-wide operational interactions of high-penetration DGPV.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

glmgen

Python scripting of GridLAB-D input files (.glm) derived from the Open Modeling Framework (OMF).

Pinney, David↗
DOE OSTI2015

Bus.py: A GridLAB-D Communication Interface for Smart Distribution Grid Simulations

As more Smart Grid technologies (e.g., distributed photovoltaic, spatially distributed electric vehicle charging) are integrated into distribution grids, static distribution simulations are no longer sufficient for performing modeling and analysis. GridLAB-D is an agent-based distribution system simulation environment that allows fine-grained end-user models, including geospatial and network topology detail. A problem exists in that, without outside intervention, once the GridLAB-D simulation begins execution, it will run to completion without allowing the real-time interaction of Smart Grid controls, such as home energy management systems and aggregator control. We address this lack of runtime interaction by designing a flexible communication interface, Bus.py (pronounced bus-dot-pie), that uses Python to pass messages between one or more GridLAB-D instances and a Smart Grid simulator. This work describes the design and implementation of Bus.py, discusses its usefulness in terms of some Smart Grid scenarios, and provides an example of an aggregator-based residential demand response system interacting with GridLAB-D through Bus.py. The small scale example demonstrates the validity of the interface and shows that an aggregator using said interface is able to control residential loads in GridLAB-D during runtime to cause a reduction in the peak load on the distribution system in (a) peak reduction and (b) time-of-use pricing cases.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2015

Evaluation of the Netherlands' International Test Facility for Smart Grids

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, or RVO) engaged the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for two primary purposes: to evaluate the International Test Facility for Smart Grids (ITF) sponsored by RVO and to learn best practices for integrated test facilities from NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). This report covers the ITF evaluation and is largely based on a one-week visit to the Netherlands in November 2014.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2014

Examining System-Wide Impacts of Solar PV Control Systems with a Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Platform

High penetration levels of distributed solar PV power generation can lead to adverse power quality impacts such as excessive voltage rise, voltage flicker, and reactive power values that result in unacceptable voltage levels. Advanced inverter control schemes have been proposed that have the potential to mitigate many power quality concerns. However, closed-loop control may lead to unintended behavior in deployed systems as complex interactions can occur between numerous operating devices. In order to enable the study of the performance of advanced control schemes in a detailed distribution system environment, a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) platform has been developed. In the HIL system, GridLAB-D, a distribution system simulation tool, runs in real-time mode at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and supplies power system parameters at a point of common coupling to hardware located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Hardware inverters interact with grid and PV simulators emulating an operational distribution system and power output from the inverters is measured and sent to PNNL to update the real-time distribution system simulation. The platform is described and initial test cases are presented. The platform is used to study the system-wide impacts and the interactions of controls applied to inverters that are integrated into a simulation of the IEEE 8500-node test feeder, with inverters in either constant power factor control or active volt/VAR control. We demonstrate that this HIL platform is well-suited to the study of advanced inverter controls and their impacts on the power quality of a distribution feeder. Additionally, the results from HIL are used to validate GridLAB-D simulations of advanced inverter controls.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Bus.py

GridLAB-D is an agent? based distribution system simulation environment that allows fine-grained end-user models, including geospatial and network topology detail. GridLAB-D addresses the lack of runtime interaction by designing a flexible communication interface, Bus.py (pronounced bus-dot-pie), that uses Python to pass messages between one or more GridLAB-D instances and a Smart Grid simulator.

Hansen, Timothy↗
DOE OSTI2014

Flexibility in 21st Century Power Systems

Flexibility of operation—the ability of a power system to respond to change in demand and supply—is a characteristic of all power systems. Flexibility is especially prized in twenty-first century power systems, with higher levels of grid-connected variable renewable energy (primarily, wind and solar). This paper summarizes the analytic frameworks that have emerged to measure this characteristic and distills key principles of flexibility for policy makers.

21CPP↗