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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

Integrating Variable Renewable Energy Into the Grid: Key Issues

To foster sustainable, low-emission development, many countries are establishing ambitious renewable energy targets for their electricity supply. The variability of solar and wind compared to traditional sources, coupled with growing demand for electricity, requires changes to power system planning and operations to meet these targets. Grid integration is the practice of developing efficient ways to deliver variable renewable energy (VRE), primarily wind and solar, to the grid. Good integration methods maximize the cost-effectiveness of incorporating VRE while maintaining or increasing system stability and reliability. To inform decarbonization strategies, policymakers, regulators, and system operators consider a variety of costs and opportunities associated with VRE integration, which can be organized into five topics: New renewable energy generation and transmission; Power system reliability; Transmission and distribution coordination; Cross-sectoral decarbonization opportunities; Energy equity and justice.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

High-Fidelity Analysis of EV Integration on Real Utility Feeders in Colorado

Residential electric vehicle (EV) charging has the potential to alter long-held assumptions on load characteristics impacting distribution grid planning, operations, and design standards. This study identifies analysis and control methods to increase the affordability of residential EV charging both for Xcel Energy and their customers. The project also provides solutions for more reliable grid interconnection that can support a reliable utility business model prepared for increasing EV charging load in the coming years. For this project, we referenced Level 2 alternating current (AC) onboard charging profiles for various vehicle models and high-fidelity charging data collected at the experimental setup established at the EV Research Infrastructure Laboratory at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Next, we developed EV adoption models for 2030 and 2040 for the Boulder and Aurora regions in Colorado. Moreover, we evaluated different smart charging control algorithms and compared their performance. We developed time-of-use (TOU)-based and grid-aware active EV charging control methods and integrated them within the study region to understand field impacts. Diving deeper, we selected 10 feeders in Boulder and Aurora for high-fidelity grid modeling down to the house level. We executed detailed grid analysis comparing the smart charge management (SCM) algorithms we developed. Finally, we created a novel tool, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure--Distribution System Integration Tool (EVI-DiST), to integrate all the approaches in a single software environment to provide easy integration, fast simulation, and detailed evaluation capability for utility engineers and other stakeholders.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

A Case Study in NREL DERMS Asset Management Implementation

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) plan to present a case study on their implementation of SGS' Strata Grid Distributed Energy Resource Management System at NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). The ESIF is one of the nation's premier energy systems integration laboratory facilities focused on development and deployment of clean energy technologies and resilient delivery systems. NREL looked for a DERMS to install at the ESIF that is capable of replicating real world scenarios to control and monitor distributed devices from small residential scale to the grid substation level. The DERMS system demonstrates the use cases of beneficial operation and coordination of modern grid devices, leverage DERs for improved grid planning and operation, demand-side management and customer engagement through bidirectional communication with utilities and energy market operations. The presentation will cover the delivery strategy of NREL and SGS, how the use cases help NREL's research, and NREL and SGS plan to expand the system and use cases.

ARIES↗

Performance evaluation of the NASA/KSC CAD/CAE and office automation LAN's

This study's objective is the performance evaluation of the existing CAD/CAE (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Engineering) network at NASA/KSC. This evaluation also includes a similar study of the Office Automation network, since it is being planned to integrate this network into the CAD/CAE network. The Microsoft mail facility which is presently on the CAD/CAE network was monitored to determine its present usage. This performance evaluation of the various networks will aid the NASA/KSC network managers in planning for the integration of future workload requirements into the CAD/CAE network and determining the effectiveness of the planned FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) migration.

Zobrist, George W.↗

An intelligent robotics control scheme

The problem of robot control is viewed at the level of communicating high-level commands produced by intelligent algorithms to the actuator/sensor controllers. Four topics are considered in the design of an integrated control and communications scheme for an intelligent robotic system: the use of abstraction spaces, hierarchical versus heterarchical control, distributed processing, and the interleaving of the steps of plan creation and plan execution. A scheme is presented for an n-level distributed hierarchical/heterarchical control system that effectively interleaves intelligent planning, execution, and sensory feedback. A three-level version of this scheme has been successfully implemented in the Intelligent Systems Research Lab at NASA Langley Research Center. This implementation forms the control structure for DAISIE (Distributed Artificially Intelligent System for Interacting with the Environment), a testbed system integrating AI software with robotics hardware.

Orlando, N. E.↗

Planning and Resource Management in an Intelligent Automated Power Management System

Power system management is a process of guiding a power system towards the objective of continuous supply of electrical power to a set of loads. Spacecraft power system management requires planning and scheduling, since electrical power is a scarce resource in space. The automation of power system management for future spacecraft has been recognized as an important R&D goal. Several automation technologies have emerged including the use of expert systems for automating human problem solving capabilities such as rule based expert system for fault diagnosis and load scheduling. It is questionable whether current generation expert system technology is applicable for power system management in space. The objective of the ADEPTS (ADvanced Electrical Power management Techniques for Space systems) is to study new techniques for power management automation. These techniques involve integrating current expert system technology with that of parallel and distributed computing, as well as a distributed, object-oriented approach to software design. The focus of the current study is the integration of new procedures for automatically planning and scheduling loads with procedures for performing fault diagnosis and control. The objective is the concurrent execution of both sets of tasks on separate transputer processors, thus adding parallelism to the overall management process.

Morris, Robert A.↗

Coordinating complex decision support activities across distributed applications

Knowledge-based technologies have been applied successfully to automate planning and scheduling in many problem domains. Automation of decision support can be increased further by integrating task-specific applications with supporting database systems, and by coordinating interactions between such tools to facilitate collaborative activities. Unfortunately, the technical obstacles that must be overcome to achieve this vision of transparent, cooperative problem-solving are daunting. Intelligent decision support tools are typically developed for standalone use, rely on incompatible, task-specific representational models and application programming interfaces (API's), and run on heterogeneous computing platforms. Getting such applications to interact freely calls for platform independent capabilities for distributed communication, as well as tools for mapping information across disparate representations. Symbiotics is developing a layered set of software tools (called NetWorks! for integrating and coordinating heterogeneous distributed applications. he top layer of tools consists of an extensible set of generic, programmable coordination services. Developers access these services via high-level API's to implement the desired interactions between distributed applications.

Adler, Richard M.↗

Integrating International Space Station payload operations

The payload operations support for the International Space Station (ISS) payload is reported on, describing payload activity planning, payload operations control, payload data management and overall operations integration. The operations concept employed is based on the distribution of the payload operations responsibility between the researchers and ISS partners. The long duration nature of the ISS mission dictates the geographical distribution of the payload operations activities between the different national centers. The coordination and integration of these operations will be assured by NASA's Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC). The prime objective of the POIC is the achievement of unified operations through communication and collaboration.

Noneman, Steven R.↗

PR100 Final Results

This presentation includes a summary of the final results from the Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transition to 100% Renewable Energy Study (PR100). Led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Grid Deployment Office and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the PR100 Study was a two-year effort resulting in stakeholder-driven pathways for Puerto Rico to meet its clean energy goals. For Spanish version see https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/88975.pdf.

100% renewable energy target↗

Applications of Remote Sensing for Land Use Planning Scenarios with Suitability Analysis

In regions undergoing rapid urbanization, such as West Africa, land use planning (LUP) is vital to accommodate growing population and manage natural resources. Suitability analysis modeling is a widely used tool in LUP to determine the extent to which a land area is suitable for a designated purpose, but there is a gap in the integration of remote sensing time series data into land use decisions. The goal of this study was to incorporate remote sensing time series information with suitability analyses to inform LUP decisions in urban areas. In the study area of Kumasi, Ghana, land cover trends and land surface temperature (LST) from 2000 to 2019 were used to understand climate change trends. Suitability analyses determined the fitness of land areas for predetermined uses. These background processes informed a genetic algorithm to project plausible futures for three land use scenarios. One scenario represented current land use planning practices for addressing population growth, another scenario prioritized minimizing climate change impacts while also accommodating population growth, and the final scenario focused on both of these climate and population goals in addition to high density urban development. Each of these scenarios was successful in achieving population accommodation and respective climate change mitigation goals. The results for these scenarios provide insight into plausible land use distributions in 2050 based on different planning approaches. The genetic algorithm was able to effectively develop results for each scenario through the integration of remotely sensed trends and suitability models, providing a novel approach to land use decision-making.

remote sensing time series↗

Predicting Crew Time Allocations for Lunar Orbital Missions Based on Historical ISS Operational Activities

As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration continues to define candidate architectures for the planned lunar “Gateway”, it will be necessary to have a detailed understanding of how the crew will inhabit, operate, and maintain the spacecraft. The nature of the Gateway vehicle systems configuration and operations will have a direct impact on the scope of work activities required of the crew. Crew work schedules are sensitive to variations in spacecraft architecture, visiting vehicle activities, and logistics operations – particularly within short duration missions as initially planned for the lunar Gateway. These system and operational configurations must be taken into account when planning for crew time availability to conduct science activities on Gateway missions. This paper presents a methodology that is used to predict crew time distributions for lunar Gateway missions, as applied in NASA’s Exploration Crew Time Model (ECTM). The process utilized for evaluating crew time distributions is based on the categorization of all crew activities into a standardized ontology. Historical ISS daily crew timeline data from July 20, 2011 (post STS retirement) to present day was captured via the Operational Planning Timeline Integration System (OPTimIS) database and characterized according to the standardized ontology. This process enabled correlation and statistical analysis of the ISS data according to common mission parameters such as crew size, ECLSS system design, vehicle traffic operations, and logistics delivery operations. The results of the statistical analysis are a set of crew time distributions for each activity category. These distributions are then utilized within the ECTM to examine crew time allocations based on mission parameter inputs, which serve to characterize the Gateway mission configurations. Results for predicted crew time allocations for representative short duration Gateway missions are presented. These results can be used to evaluate crew schedule availability for science and utilization activities. Variations in expected mission architectures and mission operations are accounted for to correct crew time predictions. The analysis is being leveraged to plan utilization capability objectives that are achievable on the Gateway missions, as well as inform the viability of various mission architecture options.

Stromgren, Chel↗

Performance evaluation of NASA/KSC CAD/CAE graphics local area network

This study had as an objective the performance evaluation of the existing CAD/CAE graphics network at NASA/KSC. This evaluation will also aid in projecting planned expansions, such as the Space Station project on the existing CAD/CAE network. The objectives were achieved by collecting packet traffic on the various integrated sub-networks. This included items, such as total number of packets on the various subnetworks, source/destination of packets, percent utilization of network capacity, peak traffic rates, and packet size distribution. The NASA/KSC LAN was stressed to determine the useable bandwidth of the Ethernet network and an average design station workload was used to project the increased traffic on the existing network and the planned T1 link. This performance evaluation of the network will aid the NASA/KSC network managers in planning for the integration of future workload requirements into the existing network.

Zobrist, George↗

A Resilient Integrated Resource Planning Framework for Transmission Systems: Analysis and Optimization

This article presents a resilient Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) framework designed for transmission systems, with a specific focus on analyzing and optimizing responses to High-Impact Low-Probability (HILP) events. The framework aims to improve the resilience of transmission networks in the face of extreme events by prioritizing the assessment of events with significant consequences. Unlike traditional reliability-based planning methods that average the impact of various outage durations, this work adopts a metric based on the proximity of outage lines to generators to select HILP events. The system’s baseline resilience is evaluated by calculating load curtailment in different parts of the network resulting from HILP outage events. The transmission network is represented as an undirected graph. Graph-theoretic techniques are used to identify islands with or without generators, potentially forming segmented grids or microgrids. This article introduces Expected Load Curtailment (ELC) as a metric to quantify the system’s resilience. The framework allows for the re-evaluation of system resilience by integrating additional generating resources to achieve desired resilience levels. Optimization is performed in the re-evaluation stage to determine the optimal placement of distributed energy resources (DERs) for enhancing resilience, i.e., minimizing ELC. Case studies on the IEEE 24-bus system illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. In the broader context, this resilient IRP framework aligns with energy sustainability goals by promoting robust and resilient transmission networks, as the optimal placement of DERs for resilience enhancement not only strengthens the system’s ability to withstand and recover from disruptions but also contributes to efficient resource utilization, advancing the overarching goal of energy sustainability.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Integration of New Technology Considering the Trade-Offs Between Operational Benefits and Risks: A Case Study of Dynamic Line Rating

Electric grid operators are adept at handling complexity and uncertainty. However, with increasing introduction of renewable generation, distributed energy resources, and more frequent severe weather events, operators will experience new workload and challenging decision scenarios. Here, this paper quantifies risks and benefits from an operator's perspective of introducing weather based forecast Dynamic Line Ratings (DLR) using variable wind conditions in addition to ambient temperature to relieve transmission congestion and facilitating more offshore wind (OSW). A concept of operations (CONOPS) applied to a forecast DLR implementation and its integration with OSW is defined. A method for evaluating tradeoffs of derating to make the rating more conservative but decreasing the benefit was developed and applied to a case study for two existing overhead transmission lines on Long Island, New York. The CONOPS uses historical day-ahead and hour-ahead High Resolution Rapid Refresh weather forecasts and weather station data to support planning and real-time operations. The analysis determines the risk of downgrades in real-time operational rating compared to the forecast and quantifies the frequency and severity of last-minute downgrades. The risk is compared against the benefits in increased capacity to provide insights on the additional amount of uncertainty DLR and OSW will add to the operator's workload.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Master Services Agreement - Flexible Feeder/Distribution System Support: Cooperative Research and Development (Final Report)

PGE will engage NREL on a broad range of projects related to the integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) into the utility's operations. This portfolio of work could include projects focused on DER adoption models, advanced distribution management system (ADMS) and distributed energy management system (DERMS) design, DER dispatch strategy development, and DER valuation framework development. Additional topics could include long-term energy planning, renewable energy, energy efficiency and demand-side management. As well as technology evaluations and design guidance for building retrofits and new construction projects, energy and energy infrastructure planning, policies, and markets (and their analysis), energy storage, energy security and resilience (including energy system-related cybersecurity), transportation and mobility, technology integration analysis. Additionally, other assistance as requested by PGE consistent with NREL’s expertise.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗