Integrated waste management - Water system using radioisotopes for thermal energy
Integrated waste collection and purification system using radioisotopes for thermal energy in 180-day space mission life support system
Ingelfinger, A. L.↗
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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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System and method for management of electrochemical energy storage devices
Methods and software for electrochemical energy storage management including operation, planning, and valuation. The decision objective for operation is to maximize the total/remaining life-cycle benefit of electrochemical energy storage, subject to degradation and other operational constraints. The operational decisions are both short term and long term, to address the intertemporal trade-offs brought by degradation issues. Two metrics are proposed for operational and planning decisions respectively: marginal benefit of usage and average benefit of usage. A sample algorithm is provided to solve the multi-timescale optimization problem.
Whitacre, Jay↗
Synthetic residential load models for smart city energy management simulations
The ability to control tens of thousands of residential electricity customers in a coordinated manner has the potential to enact system-wide electric load changes, such as reduce congestion and peak demand, among other benefits. To quantify the potential benefits of demand-side management and other power system simulation studies (e.g. home energy management, large-scale residential demand response), synthetic load datasets that accurately characterize the system load are required. This study designs a combined top-down and bottom-up approach for modelling individual residential customers and their individual electric assets, each possessing their own characteristics, using time-varying queueing models. The aggregation of all customer loads created by the queueing models represents a known city-sized load curve to be used in simulation studies. The three presented residential queueing load models use only publicly available data. An open-source Python tool to allow researchers to generate residential load data for their studies is also provided. The simulation results presented consider the ComEd region (utility company from Chicago, IL) and demonstrate the characteristics of the three proposed residential queueing load models, the impact of the choice of model parameters, and scalability performance of the Python tool.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
A low-cost centralized HVAC control system solution for energy savings, load shedding, and improved maintenance
University campuses rely on centralized controls for managing and optimizing complex HVAC systems in larger buildings. However, most campuses also have many smaller buildings with packaged HVAC systems controlled by a stand-alone thermostat. Even when these distributed and often overlooked systems have modern programmable thermostats, they cannot be centrally monitored or controlled, and they are typically not programmed adequately. This paper describes the implementation of a low-cost centralized control solution for these systems serving smaller campus buildings, mostly under 5,000 sf and representative of light commercial spaces. Thanks to advances in technology spurred by residential and commercial IoT developments, simple networked thermostat solutions exist that can easily replace original thermostats, and, connect these systems to a web-based portal for monitoring and control. We show that, with small customizations, these platforms can be integrated into facility management workflows. Beyond the energy savings potential from improved scheduling and closer management of these systems, there are significant advantages for maintenance crews since these systems can now be monitored on smart phones or tablets. A grid-responsive load-shedding program has also been implemented for additional cost savings. The networked thermostats can also be connected to additional systems such as economizer controls for improved ventilation management and energy savings. With data from these systems integrated centrally, it can also be used for improved analytics and fault detection. A toolkit has been developed to share the program with other campuses, whether for energy savings, improved management of ventilation, or a more proactive maintenance approach.
Fauchier-Magnan, Nicolas↗
Distributed Energy Management for Networked Microgrids Embedded Modern Distribution System Using ADMM Algorithm
Not Available
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
Turbine Electrified Energy Management for Single Aisle Aircraft
Electrified aircraft propulsion technology is being developed to reduce the environmental impacts of the aviation industry. This is prompting the exploration of potential uses and benefits of hybrid systems in which electric powertrains are integrated with more traditional gas turbine propulsion systems. Turbine Electrified Energy Management (TEEM) is an energy management approach for hybrid-electric architectures in which electric machines are connected to the turbofan shafts and used to suppress the off-design operation naturally associated with engine transients. This reduces the need to maintain a large amount of compressor operability margin, thus allowing further exploration of the engine design space. In this study, a 19,000 lbf engine within a parallel hybrid propulsion system is considered along with a 30,000 lbf standalone engine. Data from prior TEEM applications are used to approximate the electric machine sizing required to achieve operability benefits. The TEEM controller is shown to improve operability during transients through the reduction of stall margin undershoots and the decrease of transient variations in component performance maps by over 29%.
Controls↗
An Autonomous MCP Bridge to Rucio: Enhancing Data Management Accessibility for High Energy Physics
The Rucio Data Management System [1] is an important tool used by High Energy Physics experiments, including those at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, to store and manage exabyte-scale scientific datasets. Despite its central role in coordinating data across globally distributed storage sites, Rucio's command line interface (CLI) presents a steep learning curve, and makes it difficult for scientists to navigate through. To solve this issue, a containerized Model Context Protocol (MCP) [2] server was built that connects Large Language Models directly to Rucio, allowing AI agents to handle data tasks by using simple, natural language rather than memorized terminal commands. The core engineering focus of this project was moving the server away from slow terminal commands that require text parsing and replacing them with a native Python Client API toolset and a planned REST API framework. Moving to the Python API handles data operations directly in memory, which helps clear up formatting errors, provides the AI with clean, structured JSON data and speeds up tool execution. To prove that the system actually works, a benchmarking pipeline was also built with various questions to test the AI across four different model configurations. The questions included finding data scopes, tracking down specific datasets, and checking replication rules. Through benchmarking, early runs showed that with raw terminal text, the model would get confused and stuck, whereas switching to the Python API to feed the AI clean, structured data yielded massive improvement. By creating an intelligent and autonomous bridge to a storage network, this project shows how AI can be implemented in scientific data management, which ultimately helps scientists at Fermilab spend less time sorting through data and more time focusing on their experiments and analysis.
Akella, Kashyap [William Rainey Harper Coll.]↗
Enabling Realistic Communications Evaluations for ADMS
Increasing penetration levels of inverter-based distributed energy resources (DERs) in distribution systems are creating challenges in system operation. Currently, wired or proprietary wireless communications are used by advanced distribution management systems (ADMS) to detect the state of the system and control the DERs for optimal operation. Wireless communications are an alternative solution that can enable connectivity between the dispersed assets used in distribution system applications. As demand for the seamless integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) continues to increase, proper networking and communications systems are becoming important to support the DER infrastructure. This report summarizes validation of a private wireless LTE network in a laboratory environment. The purpose of this work is to 1) demonstrate the effectiveness of private wireless LTE communication for grid applications and 2) provide a means of evaluating latency and overall performance of wireless communication in grid applications. First, private wireless LTE communication was validated in a direct transfer trip relaying scenario as an example of one-way communications using grid equipment. This study provided a baseline understanding of the variation in latency for seven different kinds of wireless scenarios shown in Figure A below. As expected, weak (attenuated) wireless signal-based communication yielded the widest ranges in latency. When higher priority was set for the trip signal communication, this resulted in lower latency in communication timing. In the final phase of this project, the private wireless LTE network was validated using two-way communications in an advanced distribution management system (ADMS) testbed which was developed in the ESIF at NREL. The purpose of this was to study the impact of wireless communication on grid performance.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
Adaptive primal–dual control for distributed energy resource management
With the increased adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) in distribution networks, their coordinated control with a DER management system (DERMS) that provides grid services (e.g., voltage regulation, virtual power plant) is becoming more necessary. One particular type of DERMS using primal–dual control has recently been found to be very effective at providing multiple grid services among an aggregation of DERs; however, the main parameter, the primal–dual step size, must be manually tuned for the DERMS to be effective, which can take a considerable amount of engineering time and labor. To this end, we design a simple method that self-tunes the step size(s) and adapts it to changing system conditions. Additionally, it gives the DER management operator the ability to prioritize among possibly competing grid services. Here we evaluate the automatic tuning method on a simulation model of a real-world feeder in Colorado with data obtained from an electric utility. Through a variety of scenarios, we demonstrate that the DERMS with automatically and adaptively tuned step sizes provides higher-quality grid services than a DERMS with a manually tuned step size.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
An Uncertainty Management Framework for Integrated Gas-Electric Energy Systems
In many parts of the world, electric power systems have seen a significant shift toward generation from renewable energy and natural gas. Because of their ability to flexibly adjust power generation in real time, gas-fired power plants are frequently seen as the perfect partner for variable renewable generation. However, this reliance on gas generation increases interdependence and propagates uncertainty between power grids and gas pipelines and brings coordination and uncertainty management challenges. To address these issues, we propose an uncertainty management framework for uncertain, but bounded gas consumption by gas-fired power plants. The admissible ranges are computed based on a joint optimization problem for the combined gas and electricity networks, which involves chance-constrained scheduling for the electric grid and a novel robust optimization formulation for the natural-gas network. This formulation ensures feasibility of the integrated system with a high probability, while providing a tractable numerical formulation. A key advance with respect to existing methods is that our method is based on a physically accurate, validated model for transient gas pipeline flows. Our case study benchmarks our proposed formulation against methods that ignore how reserve activation impacts the fuel use of gas power plants and only consider predetermined gas consumption. Here, the results demonstrate the importance of considering uncertainty to avoid operating constraint violations and curtailment of gas to the generators.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
Concurrent development of fault management hardware and software in the SSM/PMAD
Space Station issues in fault management are discussed. The system background is described with attention given to design guidelines and power hardware. A contractually developed fault management system, FRAMES, is integrated with the energy management functions, the control switchgear, and the scheduling and operations management functions. The constraints that shaped the FRAMES system and its implementation are considered.
Freeman, Kenneth A.↗
Energy Management of the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle Using a Goal-Oriented Control System
Safe human exploration in space missions requires careful management of limited resources such as breathable air and stored electrical energy. Daily activities for astronauts must be carefully planned with respect to such resources, and usage must be monitored as activities proceed to ensure that they can be completed while maintaining safe resource margins. Such planning and monitoring can be complex because they depend on models of resource usage, the activities being planned, and uncertainties. This paper describes a system - and the technology behind it - for energy management of the NASA-Johnson Space Center's Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicles (SEV), that provides, in an onboard advisory mode, situational awareness to astronauts and real-time guidance to mission operators. This new capability was evaluated during this year's Desert RATS (Research and Technology Studies) planetary exploration analog test in Arizona. This software aided ground operators and crew members in modifying the day s activities based on the real-time execution of the plan and on energy data received from the rovers.
Braman, Julia M. B.↗
Proceedings of the National Conference on Energy Resource Management. Volume 2: Applications
Subject areas related to the integration of remotely sensed data with geographic information systems for application in energy resource management are covered. The current trends and advances in the application of these systems to a number of energy concerns are addressed.
Brumfield, J. O.↗
Machine Learning for Automated Metadata Assignment in Buildings: Cooperative Research and Development (Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-18-00767)
RealTerm Energy and NREL have identified a shared vision to evaluate opportunities to facilitate the organization and assignment of metadata to building control system (BCS) data via industry-informed machine learning (ML). Manual metadata assignment is labor intensive and costly, slowing down any Energy Management and Information System (EMIS) deployment in the building space. This project aims to develop methodologies to accurately assign this metadata and significantly decrease the level of effort associated with deploying EMIS. The objective of this project is to identify/design methodologies to assign metadata to HVAC control points automatically. The identified methodologies will be programmed in analytics algorithms so they can ingest a list of points and produce a detailed tagging following the Haystack classification nomenclature. To validate the efficacy of each methodology, tagging results will be compared utilizing a list of points extracted from RealTerm's building database-as well as data extracted from the NREL campus via the Intelligent Campus program-enabling testing against large datasets with real world challenges. The developed methodologies may leverage building manager/operator input on a limited basis to add context to the classifying algorithms. The partnership aims to advance global efforts in areas related to the DOE missions through improving operational performance of commercial buildings. It is well documented that buildings fall out of commission after they are occupied, wasting significant energy and incurring associated costs simply due to poor operational performance. Emerging EMIS technologies that perform continuous commissioning help to address this issue, yet integration of these systems can be labor intensive both for the technology vendor and the building owner/operator. This project will enable more efficient and cost-effective analytics for buildings, enabling improvement in building operations at lower cost points.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Thermoelectric air conditioning undergarment for personal thermal management and HVAC energy saving
Personal thermal management systems (PTMS) are highly desirable for improving individual thermal comfort and reducing indoor HVAC energy consumption. Although there have been many attempts in developing PTMS, existing PTMS are generally bulky, heavy or immobile. Besides, previous analysis on additional personal cooling and heating power required for maintaining thermal comfort in changing environments did not consider the individual difference in metabolism and the variability of comfort skin temperature with environmental conditions. In this paper, we report on the development of a novel lightweight (<1 kg) thermoelectric air conditioning undergarment system with a preferred design of branching tubing network (branching angle of 60° and diameter ratio of 0.782) for air distribution. Through thermal manikin and human subject tests, we demonstrated that the novel system is capable of providing a maximum of 15.5 W of personal cooling and 18.1 W personal heating with a coefficient of performance (COP) greater than 0.4, which is sufficient to the expansion of the indoor set-points by at least 2.2 °C (4 °F) on both sides without compromising thermal comfort and the potential saving of about 15% HVAC energy. Furthermore, our study improved the understanding of the required additional personal cooling and heating power for changing environmental conditions, which are essential guidelines for the further development of PTMS.
42 ENGINEERING↗
Developing Novel Electrode Materials for Aqueous Battery
Aqueous rechargeable batteries (ARBs) are particularly interesting for large-scale energy storage due to their inherent safety, superior rate capability and environmental friendliness. However, ARBs are not widely explored as yet, so we proposed designing, preparing, and testing new intercalation materials for ARBs. Development of these electrodes will enrich the electrode chemistry of existing ARBs, open up new avenues for high-performance electrode and system design, offer opportunities to improve energy efficiency of water purification, and inform future development of controls strategies and management systems for stationary aqueous energy storage. Researchers from Bosch and LBNL collaborated on relevant materials to pursue and the general design of experiments to implement. Bosch researchers prepared and fabricated the electrodes and used various characterization facilities at LBNL to evaluate electrode performance in-device. The research collaboration resulted in identifying electrode materials capable of Na + and Ca 2+ intercalation in aqueous systems, and their application for desalination was explored using testing platform available at LBNL. Besides the specific materials and their performance, the data collected during the study was also used to inform a broader techno-economic analysis to compare intercalation-desalination technique to commercially available capacitive desalination approach. Outcomes of this research effort will be published in peer-reviewed journals.
25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
Multi-Factor-Coupled, Ahead-of-Time Aggregation of Power Flexibility Under Forecast Uncertainty
The increasing penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) is significantly reshaping the role of distribution systems under active energy management. To aggregate the active-reactive power flexibility of DERs dispersed at the feeder and provide capacity support to the transmission system, it is essential to efficiently identify feasible substation power injection trajectories. This paper introduces a novel ahead-of-time flexibility characterization method to address it. First, a polyhedral non-feeder-level power flexibility region (PFR) is constructed, accounting for various time-dependent, power-coupled, and forecast error uncertainties. Then, a polyhedral feeder-level PFR is analytically derived through a coordinate transformation, which can reveal the uncertainty propagation path, i.e., how uncertainty applies to the feeder-level PFR. To facilitate the high-level application, a tractable chance-constrained Chebyshev centering optimization model is further developed to find a ball-shaped inner approximation of the feeder-level PFR. Finally, the proposed method is validated on a modified IEEE 123-bus test system. Here, both theoretical and experimental results show that, with appropriate robustness parameter settings, the proposed method can make the approximated PFR less conservative with abundant robustness against forecast error uncertainty.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
Integration of a Smart Outlet-Based Plug Load Management System with a Building Automation System
The growth of and reliance on renewable energy necessitate a multi-pronged approach to achieve grid reliability and economics. As they represent a notable portion of U.S. energy consumption, commercial buildings must play an active role in this effort. Conserving energy and responding to grid conditions through demand flexibility can be achieved through the integration of major building systems. Integration of plug and process loads with lighting and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems maximizes the effectiveness of integrated building energy management. In this research, we demonstrate the integration of smart outlets into a building automation system. We cover the installation process as well as the architecture required for smart outlets to communicate data to the building automation system and to receive commands back. After recording power measurements for one week as a baseline, we configured the building automation system to turn the smart outlets on and off according to a set schedule. This resulted in energy savings of 66% during 1 week on 25 plug loads. This work demonstrates that grid-interactive efficient buildings are achievable through building system integration.
building automation system↗