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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 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

What Can We Learn from US National Transmission Studies?

Multiple US regions have announced new electricity transmission plans, are actively revisiting the future role of transmission, and could benefit from findings from recent national-scale transmission studies. A review of seven national studies shows that significant transmission expansion is cost-optimal for serving new demand, integrating additional resources, and supporting grid reliability. A majority of the reviewed scenarios, which span a range of policy and technology assumptions, include at least a doubling of the transmission system by 2050. The national studies find substantial net system cost savings from transmission expansion and high benefit-cost ratios for transmission investments. The results are derived through multi-value, nationally coordinated, co-optimized, multi-scenario modeling, which is an approach that could yield lower-cost pathways compared to current industry planning practices.

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NASA NTRS2002

An Experimental Framework for Executing Applications in Dynamic Grid Environments

The Grid opens up opportunities for resource-starved scientists and engineers to harness highly distributed computing resources. A number of Grid middleware projects are currently available to support the simultaneous exploitation of heterogeneous resources distributed in different administrative domains. However, efficient job submission and management continue being far from accessible to ordinary scientists and engineers due to the dynamic and complex nature of the Grid. This report describes a new Globus framework that allows an easier and more efficient execution of jobs in a 'submit and forget' fashion. Adaptation to dynamic Grid conditions is achieved by supporting automatic application migration following performance degradation, 'better' resource discovery, requirement change, owner decision or remote resource failure. The report also includes experimental results of the behavior of our framework on the TRGP testbed.

Huedo, Eduardo↗
NASA NTRS2003

Facilitating the Portability of User Applications in Grid Environments

Grid computing promises the ability to connect geographically and organizationally distributed resources to increase effective computational power, resource utilization, and resource accessibility. For grid computing to be successful, however, users must be able to easily execute the same application on different resources. Different resources, however, may be administered by different organizations with different software installed, different file system structures, and different default environment settings. Even within the same organization, the set of software installed on a given resource is in constant flux with additions, upgrades, and removals. Users cannot be expected to understand all of the idiosyncrasies of each resource they may wish to execute jobs on, thus must be provided with automated assistance. This paper describes a new OGSI-compliant grid service (the Portability Manager) that has been implemented as part of NASA's Information Power Grid (IPG) project to automatically estab!ish the execution environment for user applications.

Kolano, Paul Z.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Grid Technology as a Cyberinfrastructure for Delivering High-End Services to the Earth and Space Science Community

Grid technology consists of middleware that permits distributed computations, data and sensors to be seamlessly integrated into a secure, single-sign-on processing environment. In &is environment, a user has to identify and authenticate himself once to the grid middleware, and then can utilize any of the distributed resources to which he has been,panted access. Grid technology allows resources that exist in enterprises that are under different administrative control to be securely integrated into a single processing environment The grid community has adopted commercial web services technology as a means for implementing persistent, re-usable grid services that sit on top of the basic distributed processing environment that grids provide. These grid services can then form building blocks for even more complex grid services. Each grid service is characterized using the Web Service Description Language, which provides a description of the interface and how other applications can access it. The emerging Semantic grid work seeks to associates sufficient semantic information with each grid service such that applications wii1 he able to automatically select, compose and if necessary substitute available equivalent services in order to assemble collections of services that are most appropriate for a particular application. Grid technology has been used to provide limited support to various Earth and space science applications. Looking to the future, this emerging grid service technology can provide a cyberinfrastructures for both the Earth and space science communities. Groups within these communities could transform those applications that have community-wide applicability into persistent grid services that are made widely available to their respective communities. In concert with grid-enabled data archives, users could easily create complex workflows that extract desired data from one or more archives and process it though an appropriate set of widely distributed grid services discovered using semantic grid technology. As required, high-end computational resources could be drawn from available grid resource pools. Using grid technology, this confluence of data, services and computational resources could easily be harnessed to transform data from many different sources into a desired product that is delivered to a user's workstation or to a web portal though which it could be accessed by its intended audience.

Hinke, Thomas H.↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Guide for Public Utility Commissions: Building Internal Technical Capacity and Recruiting Talent for Grid Resilience

This guide offers insight into how PUCs can strategically expand their technical workforce to meet evolving gird resilience demands. It outlines critical skill sets needed to support informed regulatory decision-making around resilience, such as modeling and weather forecasting, electric power systems analysis, and advanced data interpretation. In addition, it provides strategies for developing technical talent both internally and through additional recruitment efforts. Two appendices provide a list of grid resilience training resources and a compendium of sample job descriptions that reflect grid resilience technical expertise for PUC consideration.

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DOE OSTI2025

A resource adequacy assessment of correlated wide-area outages in the power grid

As the power grid is undergoing rapid transformations, numerous questions are emerging about its vulnerability to wide-area extreme events (WAEE), which could influence its operations. Relatively few analyses have been conducted to date regarding the impact of correlated outages during WAEEs on the grid’s ability to balance resources with demand. This study addresses this gap by conducting a resource adequacy analysis for a hurricane-inspired WAEE on a 2035 synthetic power grid system for the United States. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted to characterize the relative impact of weather on unserved energy. Our results indicate that although the magnitude and duration of the shortfalls vary depending on weather conditions, persistent shortfalls are observed in some regions. Initial explorations indicate a strong correlation between transmission-constrained regions and regions with persistent shortfalls. Future work could generate empirically-grounded representations for generator outages as well as conduct causal analyses of these shortfalls to improve understanding of drivers as well as possible mitigation strategies. Continued exploration of extreme weather impacts on the grid is important to develop more robust understanding of the reliability and resilience of our power systems, especially as they undergo rapid transformations.

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DOE OSTI2025

Virtual Power Plants: Pilots, Challenges, and Innovations Shaping Future Development

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) aggregate distributed energy resources (DERs) to provide grid services traditionally delivered by centralized power plants. This article reviews the current state of VPP deployment, highlighting business models, compensation mechanisms, and global pilot projects. While VPPs offer benefits such as grid flexibility, resilience, and cost savings, challenges remain in communication infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, market access, and customer engagement. To address these, we propose a scalable, privacy-preserving hierarchical VPP architecture that coordinates with distribution utilities and preserves customer data. We also present the Integrated T&D Control Room of the Future as a key test bed for validating and accelerating VPP adoption. These innovations can help transition VPPs from pilot programs to integral components of a modern, reliable power grid.

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DOE OSTI2025

Reliability Analysis of Power Grids Considering Component Failures of Variable Energy Resources

This paper proposes an improved model for the reliability assessment of power systems considering component failures of variable energy resources (VER). The inherent intermittency of VER such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind farms, along with their susceptibility to component failures, present significant challenges to reliable system operation. These issues, combined with power grid operation and network constraints, complicate the reliable operation of VER-integrated power systems. Here, to address these concerns, this paper introduces a reliability assessment framework that considers VER input variability, its impact on component availability, and their resulting impact on overall system reliability. Stochastic models based on discrete Markov processes are developed to incorporate variable irradiance, wind speeds, and their effects on PV and wind component failure rates. A next-event and state transition-based approach is then developed to integrate the stochastic models into a mixed-timing sequential Monte Carlo simulation framework for composite reliability assessment. Case studies on the RTS-GMLC system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in evaluating the reliability of VER-integrated systems.

Pandit, Dilip [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-N↗
NASA NTRS1990

A description of the Global Resources Information Database

This paper describes the Global Resources Information Database (GRID), which is part of the Global Environmental Monitoring (GEM) Program. The following four objectives were established for GRID: (1) to collect and disseminate geographical information; (2) to construct within developing countries a geographical information system (GIS); (3) to demonstrate the ability of GIS to fuse global and national data sets for resource and environment management and planning at the national level; and (4) to train individuals from developing countries in remote sensing technology. The activities of GRID are coordinated at the GEM center at Nairobi (Kenya).

Vermillion, Charles H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Polar lunar power ring: Propulsion energy resource

A ring shaped grid of photovoltaic solar collectors encircling a lunar pole at 80 to 85 degrees latitude is proposed as the primary research, development, and construction goal for an initial lunar base. The polar Lunar Power Ring (LPR) is designed to provide continuous electrical power in ever increasing amounts as collectors are added to the ring grid. The LPR can provide electricity for any purpose indefinitely, barring a meteor strike. The associated rail infrastructure and inherently expandable power levels place the LPR as an ideal tool to power an innovative propulsion research facility or a trans-Jovian fleet. The proposed initial output range is 90 Mw to 90 Gw.

Galloway, Graham Scott↗
DOE OSTI2024

Chapter 7: Learning Stable Local Volt/Var Controllers in Distribution Grids

This chapter describes a framework to synthesize provably stable local Volt/Var controllers for distributed energy resources (DERs) in power distribution grids (DGs). The goal is to control the reactive power injections of DERs to improve the system performance as quantified by a generic optimal reactive power flow (ORPF) problem. To achieve this, we jointly design for each DER the control function, which prescribes the reactive power update rule, and the equilibrium function, which approximates the ORPF solutions from local measurements of voltages and powers. We provide conditions on the equilibrium functions and the control parameters ensuring the stability of the closed-loop system. In particular, we discuss the trade-offs between each set of conditions accounting for practical considerations, like fully exploiting the DERs' generation capabilities and reducing the optimality gap. These conditions are then translated into learning constraints on the neural networks' parameters that are enforced in the training phase. We validate our framework with numerical simulations on the IEEE 37-bus network and through a comparison with an optimized version of standard piece wise linear control rules.

closed-loop asymptotic stability↗
DOE OSTI2024

Wholesale Electricity Analysis via Simulation & Learning Experiments (WEASLE): Platform Development and Pilot Competition

This document reports the development of the Wholesale Electricity Analysis via Simulation and Learning Experiments (WEASLE) platform and the pilot competition that was conducted to test the platform. Due to the increasing reliance on variable renewable energy resources for bulk power, the pilot competition, called the Energy Storage Participation Algorithm Competition (ESPA-Comp), was used to test the effect of various market designs on storage utilization and market efficiency. Basic details of the platform are provided, including an overview of the market clearing engine, the battery dispatch and degradation models, electric grid topology and resource mix, and software architecture. Two market designs were tested: a two-settlement market analogous to typical ISO design today, and a multi-settlement market that allows additional forward-trading periods during the real-time market. Results from the pilot competition show that the storage bidding problem is nontrivial and is well suited for future challenges. We find that: 1) all four teams utilized different approaches to the bidding problem, 2) different methodological approaches led to substantially different offer behaviors, 3) resource profits are clustered by team and methodological approach, 4) simulated offers reduced market surplus by about 0.5%, 5) substantially different prices between two-settlement and multi-settlement markets albeit minimal difference in overall market surplus.

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DOE OSTI2026

The Hawaii Meteorology, Energy and Transmission (MET) Toolkit

Reliable long-term resource adequacy and grid planning in Hawaii require precise, multi-decadal meteorological records. This paper introduces the Hawaii Meteorology, Energy and Transmission (MET) Toolkit, a 26-year (2000-2025) high-fidelity atmospheric dataset developed by the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR). We present a validation study of the underlying WRF model configurations, comparing the legacy MYNN PBL scheme against an alternative YSU formulation. Using vertical lidar profiles and surface buoy data, our analysis identified a foundational geometric distortion in the legacy NOW-23 Hawaii dataset caused by an incorrect grid projection. When evaluated on a corrected, zero-distortion grid, the YSU scheme demonstrated superior performance in bias and cRMSE compared to the legacy setup. To address these findings, the MET Toolkit has been re-produced as a unified 26-year record using the optimized YSU setup and corrected geometry. This dataset offers the Hawaii power sector a robust, validated, and homogenous reference for future grid resilience and energy integration.

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DOE OSTI2025

Plug-in Electric Vehicle Charging Response Characterization for Grid Integration: Implications for Smart Charge Management

The rapid expansion of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) has created a unique challenge for electrical grids due to their significant power demand. At the same time, PEVs also create a unique opportunity to ease their own burden on the power grid, as they create a growing fleet of distributed energy resources capable of providing grid services such as demand response, frequency regulation, and renewable balancing. For aggregators and grid operators to effectively integrate PEVs into grid management, it is essential to first understand and characterize how they would respond in such situations. This study examines 25 models of PEVs across 25 makes, spanning model years from 2013 to 2025, to characterize their responses to the basic controls used in vehicle-grid integration (VGI): stopping, starting, and modulating the charge rate. Each vehicle was tested in a controlled laboratory setting to evaluate its performance in response to varying the maximum allowable current via the SAE J1772 control pilot signal, as well as its response to wake-up commands outlined in SAE J1772. Results show measurable differences across vehicle makes in the accuracy, latency, and precision with which PEVs respond to changes in ampacity, as well as varying sleep and wake-up behavior. The test results show that all vehicles respond to changes in ampacity, though with varying accuracy, precision, latency, and resolution. Wake-up behavior also differs across makes and models. These findings indicate that effective grid integration strategies must account for these differences. The results provide a foundation for understanding current vehicle behavior and advancing smart-charging methods while also highlighting the need for further testing, broader standardization, and manufacturer collaboration to ensure the successful integration of PEVs into the electrical grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Deep Reinforcement Learning for Microgrid Cost Optimization Considering Load Flexibility

This paper proposes a novel Soft-Actor-Critic (SAC) based Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) method for optimizing the cost of microgrid operation by leveraging load flexibility. The proposed SAC-DRL method is designed to coordinate the control of distributed energy resources (DERs) and flexible load, addressing practical energy billing formation by power distribution utilities. Key contributions include an innovative reward function to mitigate sparse reward challenges and a mixed control strategy for discrete and continuous variables, ensuring radial network topology and minimizing power loss. We evaluate the proposed method on the model of a real microgrid located in Southern California, U.S.. The SAC-DRL model is tested to demonstrate its efficacy in reducing grid dependence, optimizing resource use, and minimizing costs. The results highlight the potential of DRL in modern energy systems, offering a sustainable and economically efficient solution for energy management in microgrids.

deep reinforcement learning↗
DOE OSTI2024

Geothermal Power Systems Analysis: Outcome of Industry Stakeholders Workshop: Preprint

Geothermal cost and performance evaluation implemented via technoeconomic assessment (TEA) modeling is critical for the Department of Energy (DOE) and other geothermal industry stakeholders in assessing the current state of geothermal technologies and to identify existing hurdles to commercially viable geothermal development. The Geothermal Electricity Technology Evaluation Model (GETEM) is a major TEA tool used in estimating the economic feasibility and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of conventional hydrothermal systems and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). Since 2021, GETEM has been transitioning from an intricate spreadsheet model to a user-friendly tool within the System Advisor Model (SAM) developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Apart from enabling an expanded visibility of the geothermal model among other renewable resources, having GETEM in SAM has the advantage of simulation automation, better usability, updates tracking, active user inputs/feedback, and extended financial modeling. GETEM is used in developing supply curves for the Annual Technology Baseline (ATB). The ATB data are inputs to the Renewable Energy Potential (reV) and the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) models. The geothermal module in NREL’s reV model assesses the geothermal energy potential in the conterminous United States by defining the geospatial intersection of geothermal resources with existing grid infrastructure within the constraint of land use characteristics. The ReEDS model is a capacity expansion model used for simulating the long-term build-out and operation of the US generation and transmission system based on current energy costs and policies. To ensure enhanced representation of current industry trends in our model transitions and development, we organized a two-day virtual workshop to elicit geothermal industry stakeholder input and recommendations on our current approaches and assumptions on technoeconomic, resource assessment, and deployment scenarios modeling of geothermal technologies. Participants included developers, operators, investors, regulatory agencies, system modelers, national laboratory researchers, consultants, and other stakeholders. In this workshop, we gained stakeholder insights on current geothermal plant performance (i.e., capacity factors), updated drilling costs and learning curves, and next generation technologies such as closed loop and superhot rock geothermal. Other outcomes from this workshop and its impact on future geothermal development feasibility, resource availability, and capacity expansion studies are compiled and discussed.

Annual Technology Baseline↗
DOE OSTI2025

Geothermal Power Systems Analysis: Outcome of Industry Stakeholders Workshop

Geothermal cost and performance evaluation implemented via techno-economic assessment (TEA) modeling is critical for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and other geothermal industry stakeholders in assessing the current state of geothermal technologies and to identify existing hurdles to commercially viable geothermal development. The Geothermal Electricity Technology Evaluation Model (GETEM) is a major TEA tool used in estimating the economic feasibility and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of conventional hydrothermal systems and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). Since 2021, GETEM has been transitioning from an intricate spreadsheet model to a user-friendly tool within the System Advisor Model (SAM) developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Apart from enabling an expanded visibility of the geothermal model among other renewable resources, having GETEM in SAM has the advantage of simulation automation, better usability, updates tracking, active user inputs/feedback, and extended financial modeling. GETEM is used in developing supply curves for NREL's Annual Technology Baseline (ATB), which provides inputs to the Renewable Energy Potential (reV) and the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) models. The geothermal module in NREL's reV model assesses the geothermal energy potential in the conterminous United States by defining the geospatial intersection of geothermal resources with existing grid infrastructure within the constraint of land use characteristics. The ReEDS model is a capacity expansion model used for simulating the long-term build-out and operation of the U.S. generation and transmission system based on current energy costs and policies. To ensure enhanced representation of current industry trends in our model transitions and development, we organized a two-day virtual workshop to elicit geothermal industry stakeholder input and recommendations on our current approaches and assumptions on techno-economic, resource assessment, and deployment scenarios modeling of geothermal technologies. Participants included developers, operators, investors, regulatory agencies, system modelers, national laboratory researchers, consultants, and other stakeholders. In this workshop, we gained stakeholder insights on current geothermal plant performance (i.e., capacity factors), updated drilling costs and learning curves, and next-generation technologies such as closed-loop and superhot rock geothermal. Other outcomes from this workshop and its impact on future geothermal development feasibility, resource availability, and capacity expansion studies are compiled and discussed.

annual technology baseline↗