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DOE OSTI2024

Spatially resolved land and grid model of carbon neutrality in China

China has committed to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2060 to combat global climate change, which will require unprecedented deployment of negative emissions technologies, renewable energies (RE), and complementary infrastructure. At terawatt-scale deployment, land use limitations interact with operational and economic features of power systems. To address this, we developed a spatially resolved resource assessment and power systems planning optimization that models a full year of power system operations, sub-provincial RE siting criteria, and transmission connections. Our modeling results show that wind and solar must be expanded to 2,000 to 3,900 GW each, with one plausible pathway leading to 300 GW/yr combined annual additions in 2046 to 2060, a three-fold increase from today. Over 80% of solar and 55% of wind is constructed within 100 km of major load centers when accounting for current policies regarding land use. Large-scale low-carbon systems must balance key trade-offs in land use, RE resource quality, grid integration, and costs. Under more restrictive RE siting policies, at least 740 GW of distributed solar would become economically feasible in regions with high demand, where utility-scale deployment is limited by competition with agricultural land. Effective planning and policy formulation are necessary to achieve China’s climate goals.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

NASA NTRS1997

A Performance Comparison of Pulsed Plasma Thruster Electrode Configurations

Pulsed plasma thrusters are currently planned on two small satellite missions and proposed for a third. In these missions, the pulsed plasma thruster's unique characteristics will be used variously to provide propulsive attitude control, orbit raising, translation, and precision positioning. Pulsed plasma thrusters are attractive for small satellite applications because they are essentially stand alone devices which eliminate the need for toxic and/or distributed propellant systems. Pulsed plasma thrusters also operate at low power and over a wide power range without loss of performance. As part of the technical development required for the noted missions, an experimental program to optimize performance with respect to electrode configuration was undertaken. One of the planned missions will use pulsed plasma thrusters for orbit raising requiring relatively high thrust and previously tested configurations did not provide this. Also, higher capacitor energies were tested than previously tried for this mission. Multiple configurations were tested and a final configuration was selected for flight hardware development. This paper describes the results of the electrode optimization in detail.

Arrington, Lynn A.↗

DOE OSTI2015

Control room consolidation at Hanford tank farms for improved conduct of operation - 15345

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) manages the underground waste storage tanks at the Hanford site in Washington State on behalf of the DOE Office of River Protection. There are 177 tanks distributed among 18 tank farms spread across an area of desert scrub covering about 20 square miles. A single evaporator facility supports the tanks to provide waste reduction activities. Farms and associated equipment, including exhausters, have been operated locally since installation. Upgrades over time introduced limited automation, but using inconsistent platforms, and providing isolated control locations around the farms. However, as the Tank Farms move from maintenance operations to production operations, with increased numbers of waste transfers and evaporator campaigns, and also prepare for integration with the adjacent Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, then operational improvements were planned and are being implemented. Infrastructure improvement projects included upgrades of control systems to a common platform, and installation of a fiber optic based local area network to the majority of farms, which together provided a distributed control system supporting tank farms. This new infrastructure provided the basis to propose consolidation of control and monitoring operations to a single location. More than a single location, the new Central Control Room was to increase effectiveness of operations by providing full status of all activities being performed across the Tank Farms and the Evaporator. The recent addition of productivity e-tools also would provide capability for management, supervisors and operators to make informed decisions regarding facility operations, through custom online applications designed to provide real time information derived from operational data. For example, tracking turnover activities between shifts, and maintaining compliance with limited conditions for operations. The Central Control Room would also have a single supervisor able to effectively manage the status of all assets and processes. The expected benefits of this arrangement include increased operator utility, increased situational awareness, improved response time for upset conditions, improvement in operator environment, and reductions in operating costs. The projected ROI for the Central Control Room when fully operational was projected to be about two years based on reduced costs from freeing up operations staff to perform other work plus the time and material savings realized by operations being performed with increased situational awareness. So the Central Control Room would become a hub for monitoring and controlling facility operations while responding to real time information affecting productivity and performance, from a centralized location customized to a fresh working environment. Over a 14-month period, WRPS developed the concept and engineering, procured over 500 items, modified and installed in renovated building, and completed transition and testing of this new Central Control Room, turning over the initial phase to Operations for 24/7 use in April 2014. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2020

Catalina Repower Feasibility Study: NREL Phases I & II Summary Report

Engineers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) supported Southern California Edison (SCE) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by conducting technical and economic analyses for energy systems at Santa Catalina (Catalina) Island, which is located 22 miles off the coast of Long Beach, California. This effort was part of a broader Repower Catalina Feasibility Study that was also supported by NV5, an engineering consulting firm and project partner to NREL for this analysis. This document describes NREL’s techno-economic modeling and optimization analysis for the first two phases of this project which focus on supply-side generation and energy storage options for Catalina. SCE’s goal for this analysis is to determine a strategy for electricity generation on Catalina Island that results in lower energy costs, improved energy resiliency, and reduced air emissions. EPA goals for this effort are to reduce emissions of air pollution and encourage renewable energy development on contaminated and formerly contaminated lands when such development is aligned with the community’s vision for the site. Currently, an on-island SCE power plant serves the Catalina Island electrical load with 6 reciprocating diesel generators totaling 9.4 MW; 23 propane-fueled microturbines totaling 1.5 MW; and a 1-MW, 7.2-MWh sodium sulfur battery energy storage system (BESS). In 2017, the electricity consumption on the island was 29.1 GWh, with an average load of 3.3 MW and peak load of approximately 5.5 MW. Considering new environmental standards on diesel generator emissions from California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District, a 60% renewable energy target for 2030 laid out in California’s Senate Bill 100, SCE’s Clean Power Electrification Pathway, and the characteristics of the island’s existing diesel generators, SCE is seeking to evaluate the technical and economic implications of different energy technology options to determine a path forward. Phases I and II of the Repower Catalina Feasibility Study, summarized in this document, evaluated the following: Interconnection with the mainland via an undersea cable; On-island fossil fuel generation, including diesel, propane, and/or liquified natural gas (LNG); On-island renewable energy (RE) technologies, including solar photovoltaics (PV), wind turbines, and wave energy devices; BESS to support the above generation technologies; Initial analysis of the potential impacts of implementing energy efficiency measures. Results indicate strong techno-economic potential for a mix of on-island diesel and/or propane generators, solar PV, BESS, and energy efficiency measures to help SCE and Catalina achieve their goals compliant with California’s emissions and clean energy standards while minimizing electricity life cycle costs (LCC) over the 30-year analysis period. This document summarizes the considerations and findings of Phases I and II, focusing on high-level takeaways from Phase I and more detailed results from Phase II, and discusses a potential path forward for Phase III.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

NASA NTRS1995

Integrated planning and scheduling for Earth science data processing

Several current NASA programs such as the EOSDIS Core System (ECS) have data processing and data management requirements that call for an integrated planning and scheduling capability. In this paper, we describe the experience of applying advanced scheduling technology operationally, in terms of what was accomplished, lessons learned, and what remains to be done in order to achieve similar successes in ECS and other programs. We discuss the importance and benefits of advanced scheduling tools, and our progress toward realizing them, through examples and illustrations based on ECS requirements. The first part of the paper focuses on the Data Archive and Distribution (DADS) V0 Scheduler. We then discuss system integration issues ranging from communication with the scheduler to the monitoring of system events and re-scheduling in response to them. The challenge of adapting the scheduler to domain-specific features and scheduling policies is also considered. Extrapolation to the ECS domain raises issues of integrating scheduling with a product-generation planner (such as PlaSTiC), and implementing conditional planning in an operational system. We conclude by briefly noting ongoing technology development and deployment projects being undertaken by HTC and the ISTB.

Boddy, Mark↗

DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-J-194: Development of Dose-Based Image Guided Proton Therapy Workflow

Purpose: To implement image-guided proton therapy (IGPT) based on daily proton dose distribution. Methods: Unlike x-ray therapy, simple alignment based on anatomy cannot ensure proper dose coverage in proton therapy. Anatomy changes along the beam path may lead to underdosing the target, or overdosing the organ-at-risk (OAR). With an in-room mobile computed tomography (CT) system, we are developing a dose-based IGPT software tool that allows patient positioning and treatment adaption based on daily dose distributions. During an IGPT treatment, daily CT images are acquired in treatment position. After initial positioning based on rigid image registration, proton dose distribution is calculated on daily CT images. The target and OARs are automatically delineated via deformable image registration. Dose distributions are evaluated to decide if repositioning or plan adaptation is necessary in order to achieve proper coverage of the target and sparing of OARs. Besides online dose-based image guidance, the software tool can also map daily treatment doses to the treatment planning CT images for offline adaptive treatment. Results: An in-room helical CT system is commissioned for IGPT purposes. It produces accurate CT numbers that allow proton dose calculation. GPU-based deformable image registration algorithms are developed and evaluated for automatic ROI-delineation and dose mapping. The online and offline IGPT functionalities are evaluated with daily CT images of the proton patients. Conclusion: The online and offline IGPT software tool may improve the safety and quality of proton treatment by allowing dose-based IGPT and adaptive proton treatments. Research is partially supported by Mevion Medical Systems.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2018

Effective restoration strategies of interdependent power system and communication network

The power system is continuously evolving towards a smarter grid by adding intelligent electrical devices that leverage communication technologies to provide visualisation, control and automation. The integration of power system and communication network has brought challenges into the resilience of interdependent networks. Following an outage or blackout, system operators cannot only restore one network while simply ignoring the interconnection with the other network. Effective restoration strategies that involve co‐ordination between power system and communication network have become critical in enhancing the resilience. An optimisation‐based restoration strategy is developed to coordinate the restoration actions between two networks. The problem is modelled as a mixed integer linear programming problem, with the objective of activating every node in both networks with the minimum number of activation/energisation of branches. The developed strategies are tested on the modified IEEE 14‐bus system incorporating communication network. Simulation results demonstrate that the coordinated restoration strategies are effective and critical in the successful recovery of interdependent networks. The developed model could also provide insights in network design and planning to enhance the resilience of interdependent power system and communication network.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2018

Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading in a Prosumer-Based Community Microgrid: A Game-Theoretic Model

This paper proposes a novel game-theoretic model for peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading among the prosumers in a community. The buyers can adjust the energy consumption behavior based on the price and quantity of the energy offered by the sellers. There exist two separate competitions during the trading process: 1) price competition among the sellers; and 2) seller selection competition among the buyers. The price competition among the sellers is modeled as a noncooperative game. The evolutionary game theory is used to model the dynamics of the buyers for selecting sellers. Moreover, an M-leader and N-follower Stackelberg game approach is used to model the interaction between buyers and sellers. Two iterative algorithms are proposed for the implementation of the games such that an equilibrium state exists in each of the games. The proposed method is applied to a small community microgrid with photo-voltaic and energy storage systems. Simulation results show the convergence of the algorithms and the effectiveness of the proposed model to handle P2P energy trading. The results also show that P2P energy trading provides significant financial and technical benefits to the community, and it is emerging as an alternative to cost-intensive energy storage systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2015

Fort Carson Building 1860 Biomass Heating Analysis Report

As part of the Army Net-Zero Energy Installation program, the Fort Carson Army Base requested that NREL evaluate the feasibility of adding a biomass boiler to the district heating system served by Building 1860. We have also developed an Excel-spreadsheet-based decision support tool--specific to the historic loads served by Building 1860--with which users can perform what-if analysis on gas costs, biomass costs, and other parameters. For economic reasons, we do not recommend adding a biomass system at this time.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2018

Analyzing the Impacts of Variable Renewable Resources on California Net-Load Ramp Events: Preprint

This paper characterizes the ramping features of multiple renewable resources, load and net-load in California using 2016 measured data. The goal of this analysis is to understand the interactions between variable renewable resource ramps and net-load ramps, and delineate the positive and negative impacts. The findings indicated that although the frequency and uncertainty in the system level net-load ramp occurrences increased due to variable renewable integration, there was also a decrease in the average ramp up and down magnitudes by about 20% and 30% respectively, along with decreases in their respective standard deviations by 40% and 20%. At the zonal level, the analyses also indicated a 4-5% decrease in the net-load standard deviations due to wind integration alone at various market scheduling periods. The paper finally concludes with future research needs to better integrate variable renewable ramp forecasts into system operations and planning for economic utilization of resources.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2021

Energy Security and Resilience (ESR) Initiative

Central to achieving reduced carbon emissions and sustained economic recovery from the COVID pandemic is a national energy system based on low-carbon technologies and resistant to disruption from severe weather events and human attacks. NREL’s Energy Security and Resilience (ESR) Initiative applies NREL’s expertise in the design and operation of clean, highly distributed energy systems to the most pressing security and resilience challenges.

cybersecurity↗

DOE OSTI2020

Maximizing Distributed Energy Resource Value for All Stakeholders

To fully understand the potential value of distributed energy resources (DER) in supporting a power system transformation, it requires engagement with diverse stakeholders. In May 2019, NREL brought together people across the DER community to collaborate and identify questions, needs, and an action plan to integrate DER and maximize their value for the entire energy community. This paper reflects the process and dialogue that took place and can be used as a framework for maximizing DER value for all stakeholders.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2017

Carbon footprint as an environmental sustainability indicator for the particleboard produced in Pakistan

This study quantified the carbon footprint of particleboard production in Pakistan using a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment approach. The system boundary comprised raw materials acquisition, transport, particleboard manufacture and finished product distribution. Primary data were collected through surveys and meetings with particleboard manufacturers. Secondary data were taken from the literature. Greenhouse gas emissions from off-site industrial operations of the particleboard industry represented 52% of the total emissions from the production of 1.0 m{sup 3} of particleboard in Pakistan. The on-site industrial operations cause direct greenhouse gas emissions and accounted for 48% of the total emissions. These operations included energy consumption in stationary sources, the company-owned vehicle fleet, and the distribution and marketing of the finished product. The use of natural gas combustion in the stationary and mobile sources, raw material transport and urea-formaldehyde resin production chain accounted for the highest emissions from the particleboard production chain in Pakistan. The identification of the major hotspots in the particleboard production chain can assist the wood panel industry to improve their environmental profile. More efforts are needed to investigate the urea-formaldehyde resin production chain and substitution of roundwood with wood and agri-residues to assess the potential improvements. In addition, renewable energy sources should be encouraged to avoid greenhouse gas emissions by substituting fossil energy. This study also provides a benchmark for future research work to formulate comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions reduction plans, because no previous research work is available on the carbon footprint of particleboard production in Pakistan. - Highlights: • We conducted the first carbon footprint assessment of particleboard produced in Pakistan. • System boundary comprised raw materials acquisition, particleboard manufacture and distribution. • Off-site industrial operations were accounted for highest emissions (52%) followed by on-site operations (48%). • Natural gas, materials transport and UF resin use accounted for highest emissions. • Identified potential strategies for GHG emissions reductions from PB production in Pakistan.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2017

System Engineering Analysis For Improved Scout Business Information Systems

The project uses system engineering principles to address the need of Boy Scout leaders for an integrated system to facilitate advancement and awards records, leader training and planning for meetings and activities. Existing products to address needs of Scout leaders and relevant stakeholders function to support record keeping and some communication functions but opportunity exists for a better system to fully integrate these functions with training delivery and recording, activity planning along with feedback and information gathering from stakeholders. Key stakeholders for the sytem include Scouts and their families, leaders, training providers, sellers of supplies and awards, content generators and facilities that serve Scout activities. Key performance parameters for the system are protection of personal information, availability of current information, information accuracy and information content that has depth. Implementation concepts considered for the system include (1) owned and operated by Boy Scouts of America, (2) Contracted out to a vendor (3) distributed system that functions with BSA managed interfaces. The selected concept is to contract out to a vendor to maximize the likelihood of successful integration and take advantage of the best technology. Development of requirements considers three key use cases (1) System facilitates planning a hike with training needed satisfied in advance and advancement recording real time (2) Scheduling and documenting in-person training, (3) Family interested in Scouting receives information and can request follow-up. Non-functional requirements are analyzed with the Quality Function Deployment tool. Requirement addressing frequency of backup, compatibility with legacy and new technology, language support, software update are developed to address system reliability and intuitive interface. System functions analyzed include update of activity database, maintenance of advancement status, archive of documents, and monitoring of content that is accessible. The study examines risks associated with information security, technological change and continued popularity of Scouting. Mitigation is based on system functions that are defined. The approach to developing an improved system for facilitating Boy Scout leader functions was iterative with insights into capabilities coming in the course of working through the used cases and sequence diagrams.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRS1981

Avionics test bed development plan

The plan is for a facility for the early investigation and evaluation of new concepts for the control of large space structures, orbiter attached flex body experiments, and orbiter enhancements. This plan outlines a distributed data processing facility that will utilize the current JSC laboratory resources for the test bed development. The future studies required for implementation, the management system for project control, and the baseline system configuration are described.

Harris, L. H.↗

NASA NTRS2003

International Cooperation of Payload Operations on the International Space Station

One of the primary goals of the International Space Station (ISS) is to provide an orbiting laboratory to be used to conduct scientific research and commercial products utilizing the unique environment of space. The ISS Program has united multiple nations into a coalition with the objective of developing and outfitting this orbiting laboratory and sharing in the utilization of the resources available. The primary objectives of the real- time integration of ISS payload operations are to ensure safe operations of payloads, to avoid mutual interference between payloads and onboard systems, to monitor the use of integrated station resources and to increase the total effectiveness of ISS. The ISS organizational architecture has provided for the distribution of operations planning and execution functions to the organizations with expertise to perform each function. Each IPP is responsible for the integration and operations of their payloads within their resource allocations and the safety requirements defined by the joint program. Another area of international cooperation is the sharing in the development and on- orbit utilization of unique payload facilities. An example of this cooperation is the Microgravity Science Glovebox. The hardware was developed by ESA and provided to NASA as part of a barter arrangement.

Melton, Tina↗

NASA NTRS2019

Constraining the Earth System with EOS-Aura Observations

NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model and data assimilation system is a flexible, modular global system that is used for applications that range from weather prediction to climate analysis. Resolving scales ranging from a few kilometers to several tens of kilometers, with scale-aware parametrization settings, the GEOS system offers NASA scientists and their partners a flexible system that is attuned to bringing in observations from all components of the Earth System. The GEOS system thus serves as a tool that enhances the value to NASA of observations from individual instruments, by bringing them into context with the full suite of "operational" observations and other research datasets. This presentation will emphasize how the GEOS system has been used to extend the value of observations from EOS-Aura, in conjunction with other NASA and non-NASA observations. One example is atmospheric ozone from the OMI and MLS instruments, that has been used extensively in GEOS systems for both weather (GEOS-FP) and the MERRA-2 reanalysis. The presentation will emphasize the value of these ozone datasets for studying long-term changes of ozone since 2004 and will discuss prospects of continuing such analyses in the post-Aura era. A new configuration of GEOS, the Composition Forecasting (CF) system has recently gone in to production: this uses a full troposphere-stratosphere chemistry mechanism (GEOS-Chem) to analyze and predict global constituent distributions, including surface air quality. While constituent observations are not yet assimilated into GEOS-CF, EOS-Aura data are used substantially to evaluate the system and plans are in place to introduce assimilation at a later stage. Examples from GEOS-CF will be shown to illustrate the value of EOS-Aura observations. Discussions will focus on the likely value of long-term analyses of EOS-Aura observations in context of understanding potential impacts on the health of humans and the biosphere, including the importance of sustaining long-term, global observing systems such as that pioneered by EOS-Aura.

Pawson, Steven↗

DOE OSTI2016

MO-A-201-01: A Cliff’s Notes Version of Proton Therapy

Proton therapy is a rapidly growing modality in the fight against cancer. From a high-level perspective the process of proton therapy is identical to x-ray based external beam radiotherapy. However, this course is meant to illustrate for x-ray physicists the many differences between x-ray and proton based practices. Unlike in x-ray therapy, proton dose calculations use CT Hounsfield Units (HU) to determine proton stopping power and calculate the range of a beam in a patient. Errors in stopping power dominate the dosimetric uncertainty in the beam direction, while variations in patient position determine uncertainties orthogonal to the beam path. Mismatches between geometric and range errors lead to asymmetric uncertainties, and so while geometric uncertainties in x-ray therapy are mitigated through the use of a Planning Target Volume (PTV), this approach is not suitable for proton therapy. Robust treatment planning and evaluation are critical in proton therapy, and will be discussed in this course. Predicting the biological effect of a proton dose distribution within a patient is also a complex undertaking. The proton therapy community has generally regarded the Radiobiological Effectiveness (RBE) of a proton beam to be 1.1 everywhere in the patient, but there are increasing data to suggest that the RBE probably climbs higher than 1.1 near the end of a proton beam when the energy deposition density increases. This lecture will discuss the evidence for variable RBE in proton therapy and describe how this is incorporated into current proton treatment planning strategies. Finally, there are unique challenges presented by the delivery process of proton therapy. Many modern systems use a spot scanning technique which has several advantages over earlier scattered beam designs. However, the time dependence of the dose deposition leads to greater concern with organ motion than with scattered protons or x-rays. Image guidance techniques in proton therapy may also differ from standard x-ray approaches, due to equipment design or the desire to maximize efficiency within a high-cost proton therapy treatment room. Differences between x-ray and proton therapy delivery will be described. Learning Objectives: Understand how CT HU are calibrated to provide proton stopping power, and the sources of uncertainty in this process. Understand why a PTV is not suitable for proton therapy, and how robust treatment planning and evaluation are used to mitigate uncertainties. Understand the source and implications of variable RBE in proton therapy Learn about proton specific challenges and approaches in beam delivery and image guidance Jon Kruse has a research grant from Varian Medical Systems related to proton therapy treatment plannning.; J. Kruse, Jon Kruse has a research grant with Varian Medical Systems related to proton therapy planning.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗