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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10

On Secured Spinning Reserve Deployment of Energy-Limited Resources Against Contingencies

Featured with fast response abilities and high ramp rates, energy storage systems (ESS), such as pumped-storage hydropower (PSH) plants and battery storage systems (BSS), are considered as key first-responders to provide spinning reserve in response to system contingencies. However, ESSs are energy-limited resources, and their sustained spinning reserve deployment is restricted by the stored energy and available capacity. Indeed, the spinning reserve deployment against contingencies may deviate actual state-of-charge (SOC) from the scheduled value, inducing potential SOC boundary violations and non-dispatchability in later hours. This paper proposes the post-contingency operation model and the spinning reserve secure constraints to address these issues. The post-contingency operation model describes that spinning reserve from ESSs is promptly deployed when contingency occurs, and then gradually substituted by quick-start units when they are switched online. By leveraging this operation strategy, spinning reserve secure constraints in terms of SOC headrooms are adopted to guarantee its deplorability. Furthermore, a modified IEEE 118-bus system with multiple PSHs and BSSs is used to verify the proposed approach.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Macro Analysis to Estimate Electric Vehicles Fast-Charging Infrastructure Requirements in Small Urban Areas

Electric vehicles (EVs) are known to reduce emissions and fossil fuel dependency. However, the limited range, long charging time, and inadequate charging infrastructure have hampered the adoption of EVs. The current EV charging infrastructure planning studies and tools require detailed information, extensive resources, and skills that can be a significant barrier to urban areas for finding the required charging infrastructure to support a targeted EV market share. This study generates regression models to estimate the number of direct current fast charging stations and the chargers to support the EV charging demand for urban areas. These models provide macro-level estimates of the required infrastructure investment in urban areas, which can be easily implemented by policy-makers and city planners. This study incorporates data obtained from applying a disaggregate optimization-based charger placement model, developed recently by the same authors, for multiple case studies to generate the required data to calibrate the macro-level models, in the state of Michigan. This simulated data set includes the number of charging stations and chargers for each market share, technology advancement scenario, and the transportation network topology. The results show that the number of charging stations reduces with battery size and charging power and increases with EV market share and the road network lane length. The number of chargers reduces with charging power, whereas it increases with battery size, EV market share, and vehicle miles traveled in the system. The model developed here can be applied to any state having urban characteristics and weather conditions similar to Michigan.

Engineering↗

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Catalog of >4000 Sunyaev–Zel’dovich Galaxy Clusters

Here, we present a catalog of 4195 optically confirmed Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) selected galaxy clusters detected with signal-to-noise ratio >4 in 13,211 deg 2 of sky surveyed by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). Cluster candidates were selected by applying a multifrequency matched filter to 98 and 150 GHz maps constructed from ACT observations obtained from 2008 to 2018 and confirmed using deep, wide-area optical surveys. The clusters span the redshift range 0.04 < z < 1.91 (median z = 0.52). The catalog contains 222 z > 1 clusters, and a total of 868 systems are new discoveries. Assuming an SZ signal versus mass-scaling relation calibrated from X-ray observations, the sample has a 90% completeness mass limit of M 500 c > 3.8 × 10 14 M ⊙ , evaluated at z = 0.5, for clusters detected at signal-to-noise ratio >5 in maps filtered at an angular scale of 2.'4. The survey has a large overlap with deep optical weak-lensing surveys that are being used to calibrate the SZ signal mass-scaling relation, such as the Dark Energy Survey (4566 deg 2 ), the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (469 deg 2 ), and the Kilo Degree Survey (825 deg 2 ). We highlight some noteworthy objects in the sample, including potentially projected systems, clusters with strong lensing features, clusters with active central galaxies or star formation, and systems of multiple clusters that may be physically associated. The cluster catalog will be a useful resource for future cosmological analyses and studying the evolution of the intracluster medium and galaxies in massive clusters over the past 10 Gyr.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Mapping snow depth and volume at the alpine watershed scale from aerial imagery using Structure from Motion

Time series mapping of snow volume in the mountains at global scales and at resolutions needed for water resource management is an unsolved challenge to date. Snow depth mapping by differencing surface elevations from airborne lidar is a mature measurement approach filling the observation gap operationally in a few regions, primarily in mountain headwaters in the Western United States. The same concept for snow depth retrieval from stereo- or multi-view photogrammetry has been demonstrated, but these previous studies had limited ability to determine the uncertainties of photogrammetric snow depth at the basin scale. For example, assessments used non-coincident or discrete points for reference, masked out vegetation, or compared a subset of the fully snow-covered study domain. Here, using a unique data set with simultaneously collected airborne data, we compare snow depth mapped from multi-view Structure from Motion photogrammetry to that mapped by lidar at multiple resolutions over an entire mountain basin (300 km 2 ). After excluding reconstruction errors (negative depths), SfM had lower snow-covered area (~27%) and snow volume (~16%) compared to lidar. The reconstruction errors were primarily in areas with vegetation, shallow snow (< 1 m), and steep slopes (> 60°C). Across the overlapping snow extent, snow depths compared well to lidar with similar mean values (< 0.03 m difference) and snow volume (± 5%) for output resolutions of 3 m and 50 m, and with a normalized median absolute deviation of 0.19 m. Our results indicate that photogrammetry from aerial images can be applied in the mountains but would perform best for deeper snowpacks above tree line.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Rare Earth Element Detection and Quantification in Coal and Rock Mineral Matrices

As global demand for rare earth elements (REEs) increases, maintaining the production and supply chain is critical. Technologies capable of being used in the field and in situ in the subsurface for rapid REE detection and quantification facilitates the efficient mining of known resources and exploration of new and unconventional resources. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a promising technique for rapid elemental analysis both in the laboratory and in the field. Multiple articles have been published evaluating LIBS for detection and quantification of REEs; however, REEs in their natural deposits have not been adequately studied. In this work, detection and quantification of two REEs, La and Nd, have been studied in both synthetic and natural mineral matrices at concentrations relevant to REE extraction. Measurements were performed on REE-containing rock and coal samples (natural and synthetic) utilizing different LIBS instruments and techniques, specifically a commercial benchtop instrument, a custom benchtop instrument (single- and double-pulse modes), and a custom LIBS probe currently being developed for in situ, subsurface, borehole wall detection and quantification of REEs. Plasma expansion, emission intensity, detection limits, and double-pulse signal enhancement were studied. The limits of detection (LOD) were found to be 10/14 ppm for La and 15/25 ppm for Nd in simulated coal/rock matrices in single-pulse mode. Signal enhancement of 3.5 to 6-fold was obtained with double-pulse mode as compared to single-pulse operation.

La detection↗

Advanced Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Evaluation of Inverter-Based Resources (IBRs)

Power-hardware-in-the-loop evaluation of IBRs has become more and more important as it provides reliable testing results to investigate the real responses of inverters with interconnected systems. A successful laboratory PHIL testing gives confidence of the hardware system to be deployed and de-risk technology integration prior to field deployment. So far, there are two important applications for PHIL evaluation: (1) test stability and functionality of large utility inverters into the system when it interconnects to the distribution systems/microgrids; and (2) test the collective grid service that inverters can provide to the grid. For the first application, the PHIL evaluation has high requirements for the stability and accuracy of the PHIL interface as the close-loop in digital real time simulator (DRTS) should replicate the actual current and voltage dynamics in the inverter. This is challenging because of the delays, sensing errors, nonlinearities of inverters, and hardware bandwidth limitations of the elements in the HIL loop. For the second application, multiple inverters will be tested resulting in multiple PCCs, which naturally causes competing dynamics and oscillations among hardware inverters if traditional PHIL interface is used. Therefore, new PHIL interface should be developed to compromise between stability and accuracy and represent the dispatched grid services for the hardware inverters. In this presentation, we will share our latest work in developing PHIL interface in these two applications to address the two key challenges.

DERMS↗

Explainable machine learning model for multi-step forecasting of reservoir inflow with uncertainty quantification

We propose an explainable machine learning (ML) model with uncertainty quantification (UQ) to improve multi-step reservoir inflow forecasting. Traditional ML methods have challenges in forecasting inflows multiple days ahead, and lack explainability and UQ. To address these limitations, we introduce an encoder–decoder long short-term memory (ED-LSTM) network for multi-step forecasting, employ the SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) technique for understanding the influence of hydrometeorological factors on inflow prediction, and develop a novel UQ method for prediction trustworthiness. We apply these methods to forecast 7-day inflow in snow-dominant and rain-driven reservoirs. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the ED-LSTM model, with high forecasting accuracy for short lead times. Our UQ method provides reliable uncertainty estimates, covering 90% of data with a 90% confidence level. The SHAP analysis reveals the importance of historical inflow and precipitation as influential factors. These findings and methods may support reservoir operators in optimizing water resources management decisions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Architecture for Web-Based Visualization of Large-Scale Energy Domains: Preprint

With the growing penetration of inverter-based distributed energy resources and increased loads through electrification, power systems analyses are becoming more important and more complex. Moreover, these analyses increasingly involve the combination of interconnected energy domains with data that are spatially and temporally increasing in scale by orders of magnitude, surpassing the capabilities of many existing analysis and decision-support systems. We present the architectural design, development, and application of a high-resolution web-based visualization environment capable of cross-domain analysis of tens of millions of energy assets, focusing on scalability and performance. Our system supports the exploration, navigation, and analysis of large data from diverse domains such as electrical transmission and distribution systems, mobility and electric vehicle charging networks, communications networks, cyber assets, and other supporting infrastructure. We evaluate this system across multiple use cases, describing the capabilities and limitations of a web-based approach for high-resolution energy system visualizations.

grid modernization↗

Management of Risk and Uncertainty Through Optimized Co-Operation of Transmission Systems and Microgrids with Responsive Loads (Final Report)

The evolution of the power system to the reliable, efficient and sustainable system of the future will involve development of both demand- and supply-side technology and operations. Ambitious national and state-level goals around the decarbonization of electricity relies on the integration of very high levels of renewable resources, most of which are variable and intermittent. The use of demand response is an ideal approach to counterbalance the intermittency of renewable generation and brings the consumer into the spotlight. Until recently, very little research had been conducted on the co-optimization of these two systems due to computational limitations. However, advances in computational capabilities, and the judicious use of decomposition methods and innovative approximation methods for high-dimension dynamic programming made this goal a viable objective for this project, leading to a fundamental shift in the ability to integrate and fully utilize demand-side resources. To this end, the modeling framework developed introduces a novel co-optimization framework, to include the operations of both the transmission and distribution systems (or microgrids) in operational decision making. This framework was used to analyze renewable and distributed generation along with responsive demand and to compare the capability of co-optimized systems to perform with higher levels of variable renewables. Results show that the use of a bi-level optimization approach is an appropriate structure, capable of co-optimizing a transmission system with multiple distribution systems and microgrids. While increasing the number of connected systems provides increasing flexibility for renewables integration this can also the economic benefits to the low-voltage subsystems with each additional system connected. Comparison of a traditional single-level decision structure with the co-optimization approach illustrates a reduction in overall system cost under co-optimization, while specific cost allocations to transmission and distribution systems are changed.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

LandScan HD: a high-resolution gridded ambient population methodology for the world

Unwarned population distributions accounting for routine human activities are needed to address many global human security challenges, including disasters, conflict, and infrastructure demand. LandScan High Definition (LSHD) supports this need through gridded ambient population estimates that measure average human presence between daytime and nighttime at a high spatial resolution of 3 arcseconds (approximately 90 m). Although LSHD has traditionally been produced on a country-specific basis, advances in global foundational data and computational resources now enable scaling its methodology to the world. Combining aspects of top-down and bottom-up gridded population methods, LSHD allocates subnational population totals from authoritative statistics to built-up areas based on occupancy estimates for multiple facility types (e.g., residential, commercial) and then reaggregates these estimates to a global population grid. We scale this approach by organizing the LSHD data stack into a 1° resolution tileset of vector analytic features, enabling an efficient and repeatable workflow for all countries worldwide. Examining the Philippines as an output of the global LSHD baseline dataset, we contrast unwarned and residential (WorldPop) population distributions by (1) exploring a practical application of flood risk assessment and (2) evaluating their congruence with outcomes of collective human activities (subnational CO 2 emissions). Finally, we discuss plans to address current LSHD limitations through data/modeling and uncertainty quantification improvements and provide outlook for workflow automation and extending the model to social, demographic and economic population characteristics.

Building morphology↗

Characterizing Drought Behavior in the Colorado River Basin Using Unsupervised Machine Learning

Drought is a pressing issue for the Colorado River Basin (CRB) due to the social and economic value of water resources in the region and the significant uncertainty of future drought under climate change. Here, we use climate simulations from various Earth System Models (ESMs) to force the Variable Infiltration Capacity hydrologic model and project multiple drought indicators for the sub-watersheds within the CRB. We apply an unsupervised machine learning (ML) based on Non-Negative Matrix Factorization using K-means clustering (NMFk) to synthesize the simulated historical, future, and change in drought indicators. The unsupervised ML approach can identify sub-watersheds where key changes to drought indicator behavior occur, including shifts in snowpack, snowmelt timing, precipitation, and evapotranspiration. While changes in future precipitation vary across ESMs, the results indicate that the Upper CRB will experience increasing evaporative demand and surface-water scarcity, with some locations experiencing a shift from a radiation-limited to a water-limited evaporation regime in the summer. Large shifts in peak runoff are observed in snowmelt-dominant sub-watersheds, with complete disappearance of the snowmelt signal for some sub-watersheds. The work demonstrates the utility of the NMFk algorithm to efficiently identify behavioral changes of drought indicators across space and time and to quickly analyze and interpret hydro climate model results.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A Fairness-based Distributed Energy Coordination for Voltage Regulation in Distribution Systems

The rapid adoption of photovoltaic (PV) systems combined with falling prices of energy storage is paving the way for a future in which customers could locally supply their energy needs and export surplus power to the grid. However, reverse power flow from multiple sites in a network can cause overvoltage that decreases system reliability and the utilization level of PV system. In this paper, we present a two-stage approach to solve the energy coordination problem in distribution networks. In the first stage, a household with PV and energy storage is optimized to allow customers to adopt different control strategies such as load following and tariff arbitrage. We show that such customer-led control strategies can cause reverse power flows during peak PV generation periods, thus resulting in overvoltage. In such cases, the second stage of the proposed approach is called upon to solve a fairness-based energy coordination problem that can maintain voltages within limits while maximizing the PV generation while fairly distributing the actions among all the PV systems. As a result, each of the resources in the network has equal opportunity to export power and shares the responsibility of voltage regulation. Simulation studies have been carried out on the IEEE 13-bus test feeder to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Distributed energy resources, fairness, overvoltag↗

Feasibility Study for Disposal Control Rod Assemblies Using UNF-ST&DARDS As-Loaded Zion Dual Purpose Cask Models

This report documents an initial evaluation to support future use of disposal control rod assemblies (DCRAs) for post-closure criticality control in dual purpose canisters (DPCs). The work described herein is an extension of previous efforts performed by Walker using inputs generated by the Used Nuclear Fuel-Storage, Transportation & Disposal Analysis Resource and Data System (UNFST&DARDS) for the Zion site DPCs with as-loaded isotopic compositions. The results of this analysis demonstrate that there are multiple pathways to using DCRA for post-closure criticality control. Various configurations of DCRA material, diameter, number of rods per DCRA, and number and location of DCRAs within a DPC were shown to be effective in varying degrees for the set of DPCs analyzed by Walker. Because of the variations in DPC as-loaded isotopic compositions considered in an array of DCRA parametric sweeps, it can be concluded that a DPC-specific methodology is feasible (i.e., a one-size-fits-all approach may not be needed). Instead, the utility program created for this work can be expanded to develop capabilities to provide DPC-specific DCRA arrangements to limit cost and weight and to allow for operational considerations.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Deep Reinforcement Learning for Distribution System Restoration Using Distributed Energy Resources and Tie-Switches

Distributed energy resources (DERs), such as solar PVs and energy storage, can be used to restore distribution system critical loads after the extreme weather events to increase grid resilience. However, coordinating multiple DERs together with tie-switches for multi-step restoration process under renewable uncertainty is challenging. This paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning to control discrete actions of switching on/off tie switches and DERs for critical load restoration. The restoration problem is first cast into the Markov decision process suitable for DRL. Then, the original soft actor critic (SAC) method for continuous actions has been extended to handle discrete and continuous actions. Numerical comparison results with other stochastic optimization-based approaches on the modified IEEE 33-bus system show that the proposed method can achieve fast critical load restoration in the presence of substation power outage while maintaining system voltage limit throughout the restoration process.

active distribution systems↗

Single-cell chromatin accessibility and cis -regulatory element analyses in plants using the scPlantReg platform

Understanding gene regulation is fundamental to plant improvement, but the lack of plant-specific single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing (scATAC-seq) frameworks and cross-species databases has limited insights into cell-type-specific cellular regulation. Here we present ‘scPlantReg’, an integrated framework and database for plant scATAC-seq data. scPlantReg supports end-to-end analyses from raw data processing to biological interpretation and features ‘scATACtor’, a supervised machine-learning approach that outperforms existing tools for cell-type annotation. We applied scPlantReg to pearl millet to characterize cell-type-specific chromatin accessibility and identify validated activating and repressing accessible chromatin regions (ACRs), revealing WRKY transcription factors as potential regulators of xylem development. Furthermore, we reanalysed scATAC-seq datasets from 8 plant species, spanning 11 tissues and multiple developmental stages, enabling cross-species comparisons. Furthermore, these analyses uncovered conserved regulatory programmes, including AP2/EREBP-associated ACRs linked to cell wall development and cell-type-conserved TFs across grasses. Collectively, scPlantReg provides a general framework and resource for comparative regulatory analysis in plants.

Epigenomics↗

Distributed-Memory Sparse Deep Neural Network Inference Using Global Arrays

Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) models exhibit tremendous promise in developing efficient and productive distributed-memory parallel applications. They have been used extensively in scientific computations due to conveniently offering a ``shared-memory''-like model and convenient interfaces that separate communication with synchronization. Traditionally, PGAS communication models have been applied to dense/contiguously distributed data, but most modern applications depict varied levels of sparsity. Existing PGAS models require certain adaptations to support distributed sparse computations, since associated computations often require matrix arithmetic, in addition to data movement. The Global Arrays toolkit from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of the earliest PGAS models to combine one-sided data communication and distributed matrix operations and is still used in the popular NWChem quantum chemistry suite. Recently, we have expanded the Global Arrays toolkit to support common sparse operations, like sparse matrix-dense matrix multiplies (SpMM), sparse matrix-sparse matrix multiplication (SpGEMM) and Sampled Dense-Dense Matrix Multiplication (SDDMM). As it turns out, these operations are the bedrock of sparse Deep Learning (DL); sparse deep neural networks and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have gained increasing attention recently in achieving speedups on training and inference with reduced memory footprints. Unlike scientific applications in High Performance Computing (HPC), modern (distributed-memory capable) DL toolkits often rely on non-standardized and closed-source vendor software optimizations, creating challenges in software-hardware co-design at scale. Our goal is to support a variety of distributed-memory sparse matrix operations and helper functions in the newly created Sparse Global Arrays (SGA), such that it is possible to build portable and productive Machine Learning scenarios for algorithm/software and hardware codesign purposes. Contemporary data-parallel schemes for training/inference are undergoing a major overhaul since model replication limits scalability and causes resource inefficiencies. As such, we have adopted tensor parallelism in decomposing the model and inputs, to mitigate memory issues. Current implementation is built on top of MPI and uses CPUs to maximize the portability across the platforms.

Distributed computing, machine learning↗

Transmission Value in 2023: Market Data Shows the Value of Transmission Remained High in Certain Locations Despite Overall Low Wholesale Electricity Prices

In 2023 additional electricity transmission would have provided the most value for links that crossed between grid interconnection regions in the United States (the Western Interconnection, the Eastern Interconnection, the Texas Interconnection) or crossed between system operator regions within the same interconnection. Many multi-interconnection or multi-region links had values of greater than $\$20$/MWh, or up to $\$175$ million/yr per 1 GW expanded transmission (subject to limits to the depth of the market at each side of the link). In contrast, many links within regions, or between regions in the northeast, had relatively low values in 2023, following the overall decline in wholesale electricity prices in 2023 compared with 2021-2022. The most valuable link in 2023, at $\$61$ /MWh, was between Texas and the Southwest. Multiple events in 2023 (high natural gas prices in the western U.S., and high summer temperatures in Texas and the Southwest) were observed to have driven this high value. Of particular note, high prices in Texas occurred at a largely distinct set of hours from high prices in the Southwest, helping to drive up the value of transmission in total and demonstrating significant value to both regions. This example demonstrates the unique value of transmission (compared to other solutions, such as building local generation resources) in delivering benefits to multiple regions given its ability to connect areas of the country that inevitably face differing circumstances.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Decision Support System

Forest-based value chains involve decisions that begin at the landscape level and extend through processing, product manufacturing, and end-use markets. However, these decisions are often made independently across sectors, with limited visibility into how upstream resource conditions, incentives, and land management choices influence downstream production systems. In forested regions of the United States, wildfire risk, fragmented ownership, and uncertain markets for low-value residues complicate efforts to align extraction, processing, and utilization decisions. Without tools that link these stages, stakeholders may overlook opportunities to improve resource utilization or inadvertently shift impacts elsewhere in the value chain. This repository introduces a decision support system (DSS) that applies a system-impact-analysis approach to forest biomass residues and co-products. The framework integrates forest inventory data, geospatial resource assessments, and economic modeling to evaluate how biomass extraction decisions influence downstream product pathways. By linking regional feedstock avail- ability with market incentives and processing options—such as fuels, wood products, or soil amendments like biochar—the tool allows decision-makers to compare value chain outcomes across multiple utilization strategies.

Davis, Maggie [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL↗