Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “O&M costs”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

100% Carbon-Free Electricity for Sandia NM and KAFB Using Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) (SAND Report)

This report provides a design study to produce 100% carbon-free electricity for Sandia NM and Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) using concentrating solar power (CSP). Annual electricity requirements for both Sandia and KAFB are presented, along with specific load centers that consume a significant and continuous amount of energy. CSP plant designs of 50 MW and 100 MW are then discussed to meet the needs of Sandia NM and the combined electrical needs of both Sandia NM and KAFB. Probabilistic modeling is performed to evaluate inherent uncertainties in performance and cost parameters on total construction costs and the levelized cost of electricity. Total overnight construction costs are expected to range between ~$300M - $400M for the 50 MW CSP plant and between ~$500M - $800M for the 100 MW plant. Annual operations and maintenance (O&M) costs are estimated together with potential offsets in electrical costs and CO 2 emissions. Other considerations such as interconnections, land use and permitting, funding options, and potential agreements and partnerships with Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), Western Area Power Administration (WAPA), and other entities are also discussed.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Regional Economic Impacts of the Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Transition

To help mitigate greenhouse gas (GHGs) generation from burning fossil fuels, many state and local governments are requiring utilities to dramatically increase the share of electricity generated from renewable sources. The City of Los Angeles has set a target of 100% renewable energy by 2045 and has formulated a plan that considers nine potential alternative scenarios that differ by technology, location, and timing. Each scenario has a unique set of local investments, operating and maintenance (O&M) costs, and concomitant rate structures. In this study we develop and apply a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model built specifically for LA to estimate and compare the economic impacts for each of the scenarios over time relative to a reference case. We find differences in economic impacts across scenarios, depending on the level and timing of investment and O&M expenditures, as well as differences in the relative rate changes across scenarios. Results show that employment and economic output are positively correlated with greater capital and O&M spending, while higher electricity rates can dampen economic activity. Several scenarios generate positive economic impacts relative to the reference case, showing that the transition need not have harmful economic impacts, and all scenarios generate a number of other positive co-benefits, such as reduced damage to health from the reduction of ordinary air pollutants. The net employment impacts from 2026 to 2045 across the scenarios range from a low of 3,600 job-year losses annually to 4,700 job-year gains, both around only 0.1% of the baseline average annual employment in the city over that period. The analysis also indicates that lower-income households are relatively more affected than others by the scenarios. Overall, even in the most negatively impactful case, the economic output and employment effects are quite small when taken in the context of the overall size of the regional economy and the large reduction in GHGs.

economic impact modeling↗
DOE OSTI2021

NREL’s Wind Turbine Drivetrain Condition Monitoring and Wind Plant Operation and Maintenance Research During the 2010s: A US Land-Based Perspective

The wind industry has seen tremendous growth during the past two decades, with the global cumulative installation capacity reaching more than 650 gigawatts by the end of 2019. Despite performance and reliability improvements of utility-scale wind turbines over the years, the industry still experiences premature component failures, leading to increased operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. Among various turbine components, gearboxes—and, more broadly, drivetrains—have shown to be costly to maintain throughout the design life of a wind turbine. The problem of premature component failure is industry wide. As early as 2007, the US Department of Energy (DOE) started to address this challenge through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) reliability initiative that first focused on gearboxes and more recently expanded to entire drivetrains. The wind turbine drivetrain condition monitoring and wind plant O&M research that is the subject of this paper is part of the NREL initiative and includes a few research and development (R&D) activities conducted during the 2010s. These activities included technology evaluation during the first few years; novel monitoring technique investigation (specifically, compact filter analysis) during the middle years; and data and physics domain modeling for fault detection and prediction in recent years. A high-level summary of these activities is provided in this paper along with some key observations from each activity. Most of the work discussed has been published and can be referred to for more information. They reflect the expected evolution of wind turbine condition monitoring and O&M in the US market—primarily, a land-based perspective. In addition, we have identified several R&D opportunities that can be picked up by the research community to help industry advance in related areas, making wind power more cost competitive in the future.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Co-Development of Oscillating Water Column (OWC) and Offshore Power Station

The project proposed an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) at a low power rating (1-5kW); to build a prototype and perform field testing within 1–3 years and achieving a commercial version of the OWC 3–5 years. We selected the OWC off-the-shelf components to secure the supply-chain sources and to warrant stable and minimum pricing. We want to curtail the capital cost by reducing the weight and volume of the overall system structure at the design level by designing a high-speed turbine generator and optimizing the airspeed amplification. We want to minimize the operational and maintenance (O&M) costs through simplified architecture, minimal parts, modular/plug-and-play, and easy access designs.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2022

Bridging Equipment Reliability Data and Robust Decisions in a Plant Operation Context

In order to reduce operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, nuclear power plants (NPPs) are moving from corrective and periodic maintenance to predictive maintenance strategies. Such transition requires changes on the data that needs to be retrieved and on the type of decision processes to be employed. Advanced monitoring and data analysis technologies are essential to support predictive strategies. They can in fact provide precise information about health of a component, track its degradation trends, and provide information of its expected failure time. With such information, maintenance operations for a component can be performed right before its expected failure time. This dynamic context of O&M operations requires new methods to analyze data, propagate component health information from the component to the system level, and optimize plant resources. In this respect, the risk informed asset management (RIAM) project has been tasked to develop and test this new class of methods into a risk analytics toolset. This toolset consists of data analytics tools coupled with reliability methods designed to manage plant assets and performances in a predictive maintenance context. This report shows the latest improvements on such development and the initial testing of our methods on the three main research areas that the RIAM project is focusing on. These areas are the following: equipment reliability data analytics, system reliability modeling, and plant resources optimization methods. We show how the methods developed in these areas can support predictive maintenance strategies by: 1) analyzing equipment reliability data (either in numeric and textual form), 2) assessing component and system health through an innovative margin-based reliability approach, and 3) identifying the most critical components and set optimal maintenance schedule based on plant economic and operational constraints.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Usability Evaluation of the Innovation Portal and Integrated Capability Analysis Platform

The usability evaluation of the ICAP and IP tools was conducted as part of the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) ION effort with two evaluators for the Idaho National Laboratory. Many nuclear operations in the United States are facing challenges of increased business, operations, and maintenance costs due to subsidized renewables and natural gas. The commercial NPP industry has looked to other industries to develop methods such as Integrated Operations (IO) to use available technologies to reduce operating costs. One concept for reducing costs that has been developed is the Integrated Operations for Nuclear (ION). A capability Stack model was developed as part of the ION effort to break down information related to People, Technology, Processes, and Governance (PTPG). The Innovation Portal (IP) and Integrated Capability Analysis Platform (ICAP) were created from the Capability Stack model as part of the ION effort to help utilities reduce O&M costs by identifying work reduction opportunities. Two heuristic evaluations and a cognitive walkthrough of the ICAP and IP tools were completed to identify usability issues to further develop the tools for use in the ION effort. Usability issues identified were rated by priority levels and across both tools. The priority levels identified were high (5), medium (11), and low (10). Recommendation were made to help reduce usability issues of the systems and help increase the user response rate of using the systems once they are implemented for utilities. Future work on designs for the IP tool and additional heuristic evaluations and external testing are being developed to continue refinement of the ICAP and IP tools for the ION effort.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

High Fidelity Digital Twins for BWRX-300 Critical Systems

This project developed and demonstrated digital-twin technology for advanced nuclear systems under the ARPA-E GEMINA program, with a focus on the BWRX-300 small modular reactor. The primary objective was to reduce operation and maintenance (O&M) costs through predictive health monitoring and model-based fault detection. The project combined MIT’s high-fidelity physics models and machine-learning and digital-twin algorithms, and GE Hitachi’s digital-twin algorithms and operational expertise to build physics-based digital twins capable of real-time system monitoring and maintenance scheduling.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design and Technoeconomic Analysis of High-Temperature Particle Conveyance Components for a 100 MW e Concentrating Solar Power Plant

Levelized costs of electricity (LCOE) approaching the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office 2030 goal of 0.05 $/kWh may be achievable using Brayton power cycles that use supercritical CO2 as the working fluid and flowing solid particles with temperatures >700° C as the heat transfer media. The handling and conveyance of bulk solid particles at these temperatures in an insulated environment is a critical technical challenge that must be solved for this approach to be used. A design study was conducted at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, with the objective of identifying the technical readiness level, performance limits, capital and O&M costs, and expected thermal losses of particle handling and conveyance components in a particle-based CSP plant. Key findings indicated that chutes can be a low-cost option for particle handling but uncertainties in tower costs make it difficult to know whether they can be cost effective in areas above the receiver if tower heights must then be increased. Skips and high temperature particle conveyance technology are available for moving particles up to 640° C. This limits the use of mechanical conveyance above the heat exchanger and suggests vertical integration of the hot storage bin and heat exchanger to facilitate direct gravity fed handling of particles.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Report on the Use and Function of the Integrated Operations Capability Analysis Platform (ICAP) and the LWRS Innovation Portal (IP)

The commercial nuclear power industry has achieved excellent safety and reliability performance but is struggling to survive in an electricity market that is increasingly dominated by subsidized renewables and cheap natural gas. These challenges have forced utilities to explore previously uncharted avenues to drastically reduce the operations and maintenance costs of their plants which are the primary drivers of the total cost to produce electricity. The petrochemical industry faced similar challenges some years ago as the costs of extraction and processing were rising while their reservoirs were being depleted along with a drop-in commodity prices that resulted in unsustainable operations. In this challenging climate, they developed a business model called Integrated Operations (IO) that sought to utilize technology to enable news ways of working through the integration of people, technology, process and governance changes. The Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program, working with IFE have developed an operating model via transferable learnings from the North Sea O&G industry. This framework is termed “Integrated Operations for Nuclear” (ION). ION is a transformation model that integrates the benefits and features of four principal factors: People, Technology, Process and Governance. The purpose of this report is to describe how to generate an ION business process analysis and utilize this information to reduce O&M costs. In order to make this job easier, DOE LWRS has created a suite of tools that will allow a person who is involved in a transformation effort at their company to build a solid documented business case for embarking on a major transformation effort. These tools, the Integrated Operations Capability Analysis Model (ICAP) and the LWRS Innovation Portal (IP) are described herein with instructions on their use. Instructions on how the interface with the EPRI Business Case Analysis Method (BCAM) are also provided.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Big Adaptive Rotor Phase I (Final Report)

The Big Adaptive Rotor (BAR) project was initiate by DOE in 2018 with the goal of identifying novel technologies that can enable large (>100m) blades for low specific power (SP) turbines. Five distinct tasks were completed to achieve this goal: 1. Assess trends, impacts, and value of low-SP turbines, 2. Wind turbine blade cost reduction roadmap study, 3. Research and Development (R&D) opportunity screening, 4. Detailed design and analysis, and 5. Low-cost carbon fiber. These tasks were completed by the national lab team consisting of Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The objective of Task 1 was to assess the historical trends of low-SP of onshore deployments, and to assess the impact and value of low-SP turbines. Analysis under this task showed that there is significant value for low-SP turbines, especially in markets where there is a higher saturation of wind energy on the grid. This has to do with the fact that low-SP turbines have increased capacity factors, and can contribute more reliable energy to the grid, even in lower wind conditions. This bodes well as higher renewable scenarios are likely in the coming years. Task 2 was a detailed analysis on the logistical challenges of deploying very large (>100m) onshore blade. This work was completed by experts at DNV-GL. The report looked at various ways to get around the current transportation constraints which are estimated to be around 75m in length. The report concluded that there are viable solutions to this issue including: segmented blades (which the industry is already pursuing), lighter than air (LTA) transportation, on-site manufacturing, and controlled bending of blades on rail. The final option was recommended for further analysis and study by DOE and the national labs because keeping a single piece blade reduces manufacturing and operations and maintenance (O&M) costs. Task 3 focused on identifying novel concepts that are capable of enabling a cost effective 5MW 206m rotor for onshore deployment. The findings from the first two tasks were considered in the analysis, in that the concepts identified must be able to overcome the transportation logistics challenges. Around 20 concepts were identified and evaluated by experts within the industry. Additionally, science and engineering challenges were identified for each concept. Based on these evaluations six concepts were deemed the most impactful and were selected for further analysis in Task 4. The concepts were: highly flexible rail transportable blades, downwind rotors, distributed aerodynamic control (DAC) devices, inflatable blade, bi-wing blade, and 4/5 bladed rotors. Task 4 conducted detailed design, optimization, and analysis on the selected BAR concepts. A modeling gaps analysis was conducted, and modeling improvements were implemented that allowed for the study and design of the novel concepts. The BAR team established a set of baseline designs by which to compare the selected designs through a technoeconomic analysis. It was found that the highly flexible rail transportable blade, the downwind rotor, and the DAC devices have the most promise to deliver the BAR targets. A Phase II for BAR has been proposed to further mature these concepts and address the open science and engineering challenges identified in Task 3. Task 5 conducted research on optimized carbon fiber materials that were used throughout the BAR Phase I project. Overall, the BAR project has identified low-SP turbines as important to continued LCOE reductions for onshore turbines. Furthermore, the project has identified viable solutions to the technical and logistical challenges to realizing these goals. The most promising technologies that were identified in Phase I of the project will be further matured and de-risked in Phase II of the BAR project.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Masking of photovoltaic system performance problems by inverter clipping and other design and operational practices

We describe how performance problems can be “masked,” or not readily evident by several causes: by photovoltaic (PV) system configuration (such as the size of the PV array capacity relative to the size of the inverter and the resultant clipped operating mode); by instrumentation design, installation, and maintenance (such as a misaligned or dirty pyranometer); by contract clauses (when operational availability is transformed to contractual availability, which excludes many factors); and by identified management and operational practices (such as reporting on a portfolio of plants rather than individually). A simple method based on a duration curve is introduced to overcome shortcomings of Performance Ratio based on nameplate capacity and Performance Index based on hourly simulation when quantifying masking effects, and inverter clipping and pyranometer soiling are presented as two examples of the new method. With a better understanding of the non-transparency of masking issues, stakeholders can better interpret performance data and deliver improved AC and DC plant conditions through PV system operation and maintenance (O&M) for improved performance, reduced O&M costs, and a more consistently delivered, and reduced, levelized cost of energy (LCOE).

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

WEC fault modelling and condition monitoring: A graph-theoretic approach

The nature of wave resources usually requires wave energy converter (WEC) components to handle peak loads (i.e., torques, forces, and powers) that are many times greater than their average loads, accelerating equipment degradation. Moreover, due to their isolated nature and harsh operating environment, WEC systems are projected to possess high operations and maintenance (O&M) cost, i.e., around 27% of their leveled cost of energy. As such, developing techniques to mitigate these costs through the application of condition monitoring and fault tolerant control will significantly impact the economic feasibility of grid connected WEC power. Toward this goal, models of faulty components are developed in the open source modeling platform, WEC-Sim, to estimate the performance and measurable states of a WEC operating with likely device and sensor failures. Two types of faulty component models are then applied to a point absorber WEC model with basic controller damping and spring forces. Resulting changes in device behavior are recorded as a benchmark, and a graph-theoretic approach is proposed for fault detection and identification utilizing multivariate time series. Simulation results demonstrate that these faults can greatly affect the WEC performance, and that the proposed method can effectively detect and classify different types of faults.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2020

Benchmarking Utility-Scale PV Operational Expenses and Project Lifetimes: Results from a Survey of U.S. Solar Industry Professionals

This paper draws on a survey of solar industry professionals and other sources to clarify trends in the expected useful life and operational expenditure (OpEx) of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) plants in the United States. Solar project developers, sponsors, long-term owners, and consultants have increased project-life assumptions over time, from an average of ~21.5 years in 2007 to ~32.5 years in 2019. Current assumptions range from 25 years to more than 35 years depending on the organization; 17 out of 19 organizations surveyed or reviewed use 30 years or more. Levelized, lifetime OpEx estimates have declined from an average of ~$\$$35/kW DC -yr for projects built in 2007 to an average of ~$\$$17/kW DC -yr in 2019. Across 13 sources, the range in average lifetime OpEx for projects built in 2019 is broad, from $\$$13 to $\$$25/kW DC -yr. Operations and maintenance (O&M) costs—one component of OpEx—have declined precipitously in recent years, to $\$$5-8/kW DC -yr in many cases. Property taxes and land lease costs are highly variable across sites, but on average are—together—of similar magnitude. Other OpEx line items include security, insurance, and asset management. Given 2007-2009 values for not only project life and OpEx but also other drivers of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE, excluding the investment tax credit), the LCOE for utility-scale PV projects built from 2007 through 2009 averaged $\$$305 /MWh. Using 2019 values for all parameters yields an average LCOE of $\$$51 /MWh. The decline in LCOE from $\$$305 /MWh to $\$$51 /MWh was predominantly caused by reductions in up-front expenditures (and, to a much lesser extent, by changes in capacity factors, financing costs, and tax rates), but 9% ($\$$22 /MWh) of the overall decline is due to improvements in project life and OpEx. Project life extensions and OpEx reductions have had similarly sized impacts on LCOE over this period, at $\$$11 /MWh each. Had project life and OpEx not improved over the last decade, LCOE in 2019 would have instead been $\$$73 /MWh—43% higher. Given the limited quantity and comparability of previously available data on these cost drivers, the data and trends presented here may inform assumptions used by electric system planners, modelers, and analysts. The results may also provide useful benchmarks to the solar industry, helping developers and assets owners compare their expectations for project life and OpEx with those of their peers.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Report of the Condition of a General Electric Transportation Systems Gearbox

Wind power plant operations and maintenance (O&M) costs remain an appreciable contributor to the overall cost of wind energy. Premature of wind turbine gearboxes failures are often a result of abrasive wear, micropitting, scuffing, white-etch cracks, and macropitting issues. Micropitting is a fatigue phenomenon that occurs in Hertzian contacts in both gears and rolling-element bearings that operate in mixed or micro elastohydrodynamic lubrication regimes. Micropitting is influenced by and manifests itself in many different ways depending on operating conditions such as load, speed and operating temperature, and on factors such as gear geometry and accuracy, tooth flank roughness, percentage of tooth sliding, and lubricant composition. Despite much research by many investigators, micropitting remains complex, unpredictable, and difficult to control and remains a problem in wind turbine gearboxes. The purpose of this report is to document and describe the micropitting damage observed in a wind turbine gearbox, thereby facilitating further analysis and examination in future reports.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Techno-Economic Analysis for Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) of High Strength Aluminum Alloys

Aluminum alloy 7075 (AA7075) is a high strength aluminum alloy (HSAL), attractive for applications such as automotive, aviation, aerospace, defense, and marine applications. However, AA7075 has not yet been widely adopted due slow extrusion speed, high energy use, narrow process window, and sensitivity to incipient melting common in conventional extrusion methods. Alternative extrusion methods may overcome these limitations. New research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) is exploring the use of a new SPP approach called Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) for the manufacture of AA7075 extrusions. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are leading the development, testing and characterization of ShAPE, which is showing that high speed ShAPE extrusions (e.g., above 12 meters/min) which is significantly faster than the 1-2 meters/min possible with conventional AA7075 extrusions. Initial findings from the economic and energy analysis indicate that AA7075 tubes created with ShAPE use less energy than tubes that are conventionally heated and extruded. The reduction in energy use is primarily a result of using direct chill cast (non-homogenized) billets, eliminating the pre-heating step, and faster extrusion speeds. The TEA model translates CAPEX and O&M costs to a manufacturing cost, and then a minimum sustainable price (MSP) per ton of extruded product for multiple facility capacities. A sample output figure of the TEA model is presented below. It presents results of the preliminary version of the TEA model.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Development of an Extremely Durable Concrete (EDC) - A Novel approach coupling Chemistry and Autogenous Crack Width Control (Final Report)

Concrete cracking is a challenging issue and a constant threat to the durability of modern physical infrastructure. It is most commonly produced by mechanical loading and environmental deformations endured under field conditions, and structural deterioration accelerates at large crack widths. There is an urgent need for dramatic reductions in O&M cost, energy use, and emissions for infrastructure. The goal of this project is to fundamentally design an Extremely Durable Concrete (EDC) with a life expectancy at least five times that of current concrete by deploying a coupled micromechanical and chemical approach in material design. EDC is expected to embody an autogenously tight crack width (<50μm), high ductility (>3%), and stable chemistry using a green binder based on Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3), which together will produce a resilient formulation with self-healing capability.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Development of a Cloud-based Application to Enable a Scalable Risk-informed Predictive Maintenance Strategy at Nuclear Power Plants

Light-water reactor operations and maintenance (O&M) costs are prohibitively high, thus contributing to the premature decommissioning of nuclear power plants (NPPs). This is partly due to how the equipment is monitored. In recent years, cloud computing has emerged as a dominant technology by virtue of its low costs, computing and storage adaptability, and ability to host applications over numerous types of virtual infrastructures. Cloud computing can be a cost-effective alternative to onsite storage and diagnostics. This paper conducts a techno-economic assessment of a provisional cloud deployment architecture for a NPP predictive monitoring (PdM) system. The cloud-based monitoring system would enable maintenance and diagnostics (M&D) analysts and other authorized plant users to remotely monitor equipment functionality so as to enable PdM practices and early detection of faults. The Microsoft Azure cloud platform is included in the proposed cloud architecture to provide data processing and storage, sensor device networking, and database management; however, this analysis could be extended to other cloud computing service providers as well. For the techno-economic assessment, technical feasibility is measured in terms of network performance metrics such as response time, latency, and throughput, whereas economic feasibility is measured in terms of operational costs and capital expenditures. Finally, this report covers certain regulatory and security aspects that may concern licensees looking to implement cloud computing. The report focuses on the integration of sensor database storage, the application of cloud resources to PdM, and the identification of technological and economic hurdles associated with moving to a cloud-computing-based architecture.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗