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At least 1,099 records · Page 61

Co-Planning of Investments in Transmission and Merchant Energy Storage

We observe suitably located energy storage systems are able to collect significant revenue through spatiotemporal arbitrage in congested transmission networks. However, transmission capacity expansion can significantly reduce or eliminate this source of revenue. Investment decisions by merchant storage operators must, therefore, account for the consequences of potential investments in transmission capacity by central planners. This paper presents a tri-level model to co-optimize merchant electrochemical storage siting and sizing with centralized transmission expansion planning. The upper level takes the merchant storage owner's perspective and aims to maximize the lifetime profits of the storage, while ensuring a given rate of return on investments. The middle level optimizes centralized decisions about transmission expansion. The lower level simulates market clearing. The proposed model is recast as a bi-level equivalent, which is solved using the column-and-constraint generation technique. A case study based on a 240-bus, 448-line testbed of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council interconnection demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed tri-level model.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Evaluation of Energy Storage Potential of Unconventional Shale Reservoirs Using Numerical Simulation of Cyclic Gas Injection

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) stores energy as compressed air in underground formations, typically salt dome caverns. When electricity demand grows, the compressed air is released through a turbine to produce electricity. CAES in the US is limited to one plant built in 1991, due in part to the inherent risk and uncertainty of developing subsurface storage reservoirs. As an alternative to CAES, we propose using some of the hundreds of thousands of hydraulically fractured horizontal wells to store energy as compressed natural gas in unconventional shale reservoirs. To store energy, produced or “sales” natural gas is injected back into the formation using excess electricity and is later produced through an expander to generate electricity. To evaluate this concept, we performed numerical simulations of cyclic natural gas injection into unconventional shale reservoirs using cmg-gem commercial reservoir modeling software. We tested short-term (diurnal) and long-term (seasonal) energy storage potential by modeling well injection and production gas flowrates as a function of bottom-hole pressure. First, we developed a conceptual model of a single fracture stage in an unconventional shale reservoir to characterize reservoir behavior during cyclic injection and production. Next, we modeled cyclic injection in the Marcellus shale gas play using published data. Results indicate that Marcellus unconventional shale reservoirs could support both short- and long-term energy storage at capacities of 100–1000 kWe per well. The results indicate that energy storage in unconventional shale gas wells may be feasible and warrants further investigation.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Is spent nuclear fuel immune from delayed hydride cracking during dry storage? An IAEA coordinated research project - 2016-0048

Delayed hydride cracking (DHC) has been responsible for cracking in zirconium alloy pressure tubes and fuel cladding and is a concern for spent fuel storage. For cracking to start, sufficient hydrogen must be present for hydride to form at a flaw tip and the local tensile stress must be sufficiently large to crack the hydride (a crack will not extend if the threshold in the stress intensity factor, K{sub IH}, is not exceeded. A high-temperature limit exists when the yield stress of the cladding alloy becomes too low to crack the hydride. In this paper we describe measurements of K{sub IH} and the crack growth rate, V, in unirradiated Zircaloy-4 fuel cladding containing approximately 130 ppm hydrogen in the cold-worked stress-relieved condition representing pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and pressurized heavy-water (PHWR) reactors. Four methods are used to evaluate K{sub IH}. The test specimen and fixture used in these methods was the pin-loading tension configuration. The test temperature ranged from 227 to 315 deg. C. The mean value of K{sub IH} below 280 deg. C had little temperature dependence; it was about 5.5 MPa√m in the PWR cladding and slightly higher at 7 MPa√m in the PHWR material. At higher test temperatures, K{sub IH} increased dramatically to more than 12 MPa√m, whereas the crack growth rate declined toward zero. This behavior suggests that unirradiated Zircaloy-4 fuel cladding is immune from DHC above about 320 deg. C; this temperature may be increased to 360 deg. C by irradiation. The implications for spent fuel storage are that during early storage when the temperatures are high, any flaw will not extend by DHC, whereas at low temperatures, after many years of storage, flaws would have to be very large, approaching through wall, before being extended by DHC. To date, spent nuclear fuel is not known to have failed by DHC during storage, confirming the inference. (authors)

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A Biomimetic Approach to New Adsorptive Hydrogen Storage Metal-Organic Frameworks

In the past decades, there has been an escalation of interest in the study of MOFs due to their fascinating structures and intriguing application potentials. Their exceptionally high surface areas, uniform yet tunable pore sizes, and well-defined adsorbate-MOF interaction sites make them suitable for hydrogen storage. Various strategies to increase the hydrogen capacity of MOFs, such as constructing pore sizes comparable to hydrogen molecules, increasing surface area and pore volume, utilizing catenation, and introducing coordinatively unsaturated metal centers (UMCs) have been widely explored to increase the hydrogen uptake of the MOFs. MOFs with hydrogen uptake approaching the DOE gravimetric storage goal under reasonable pressure but cryo- temperature (typically 77 K) were achieved. However, the weak interaction between hydrogen molecules and MOFs has been the major hurdle limiting the hydrogen uptake of MOFs at ambient temperature. Along the road, we have realized both high surface area and strong interaction between framework and hydrogen are equally essential for porous materials to be practically applicable in Hydrogen storage. Increasing the isosteric heats of adsorption for hydrogen through the introduction of active centers into the framework could have great potential on rendering the framework with strong interaction toward hydrogen. Approaches on increasing the surface areas and improving hydrogen affinity by optimizing size and structure of the pores and the alignment of active centers around the pores in frameworks have been pursued, for example: (a) the introduction of coordinatively UMC (represents a metal center missing multiple ligands) with potential capability of multiple dihydrogen-binding (Kubas type, non-dissociative) per UMC, (b) the design and synthesis of proton-rich MOFs in which a + H3 binds dihydrogen just like a metal ion does, and (c) the preparation of MOFs and PPNs with well aligned internal electric fields. We believe the accomplishments of this DOE supported research will greatly benefit the future pursuit of hydrogen storage materials. The ultimate goal to increase the gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen storage capacity to meet DOE targets for Light-Duty Vehicles is achievable.

08 HYDROGEN↗

BWR Spent Nuclear Fuel Integrity Research and Development Survey for UKABWR Spent Fuel Interim Storage

The objective of this report is to identify issues and support documentation and identify and detail existing research on spent fuel dry storage; provide information to support potential R&D for the UKABWR (United Kingdom Advanced Boiling Water Reactor) Spent Fuel Interim Storage (SFIS) Pre-Construction Safety Report; and support development of answers to questions developed by the regulator. Where there are gaps or insufficient data, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has summarized the research planned to provide the necessary data along with the schedule for the research, if known. Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from nuclear power plants has historically been stored on site (wet) in spent fuel pools pending ultimate disposition. Nuclear power users (countries, utilities, vendors) are developing a suite of options and set of supporting analyses that will enable future informed choices about how best to manage these materials. As part of that effort, they are beginning to lay the groundwork for implementing longer-term interim storage of the SNF and the Greater Than Class C (CTCC) waste (dry). Deploying dry storage will require a number of technical issues to be addressed. For the past 4-5 years, ORNL has been supporting the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in identifying these key technical issues, managing the collection of data to be used in issue resolution, and identifying gaps in the needed data. During this effort, ORNL subject matter experts (SMEs) have become expert in understanding what information is publicly available and what gaps in data remain. To ensure the safety of the spent fuel under normal and frequent conditions of wet and subsequent dry storage, intact fuel must be shown to: 1.Maintain fuel cladding integrity; 2.Maintain its geometry for cooling, shielding, and subcriticality; 3.Maintain retrievability, and damaged fuel with pinhole or hairline cracks must be shown not to degrade further. Where PWR (pressurized water reactor) information is utilized or referenced, justification has been provided as to why the data can be utilized for BWR fuel.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

USAID Grid-Scale Energy Storage Technologies Primer

This work provides an overview and compares key operating characteristics of select energy storage technologies. This work explores how these storage technologies may be used to improve the flexibility and reliability of power systems given their technical characteristics. The report covers various electrochemical (lithium-ion, lead-acid, flow, sodium-sulfur), chemical (hydrogen), mechanical (pumped hydro storage, compressed air energy storage, flywheels, gravity) and electrical (supercapacitors) storage mediums.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Enhanced Long-Duration Energy Storage Modeling [Slides]

As our power grid evolves toward a more renewable future, energy storage is poised to take a larger role in meeting growing energy needs. Energy storage could help keep the power system reliable even through potential outages, periods of extreme weather, and when generation from variable renewable technologies like wind and solar is low. Given the different durations of these stressors, grid analysts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are working to better understand the role and benefits of long-duration energy storage - or storage technologies with 8-24 hours of storage capacity - in high variable renewable energy systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Salt Hydrate Eutectic Thermal Energy Storage for Building Thermal Regulation (Final Technical Report)

Thermal energy storage is anticipated to play an important role in developing the power grid of the future - a power grid that meets increasing demands of users, is resistant to disruptions, but also allows for greater penetration of renewable resources. Specifically, thermal energy storage materials can be integrated into HVAC systems and building envelopes, where they can be used to shift power demands for building climate control from periods of peak demand to periods of low demand. Phase change materials (PCMs) are compelling as low-cost, high energy density thermal energy storage materials for building thermal management. However, there is a lack of high performance low-cost PCMs within the specific temperature ranges which would most effectively allow for power load shifting. Inorganic salt hydrates represent a promising class of PCMs, but their inherent limitations cause them to be currently unavailable for reliable building applications. The overarching goals of this research effort are to: 1) Discover low-cost, high volumetric density salt hydrate eutectic PCMs to store low-quality heat (10 to 40 °C); 2) Introduce a high thermal conductivity matrix to reduce the time constant for energy storage to ~0.1 to 1 hr, incorporate nucleation catalysts to decrease undercooling, and utilize microencapsulation and shape stabilization approaches, minimizing moisture loss/gain, mitigating phase separation, and maintaining stable melting behavior over the lifetime of the compounds; 3) Evaluate the impact these systems have on peak load shifting, and the potential for overall energy savings under different climatic scenarios and building configurations. These goals will be achieved by an integrated research program consisting of six cohesive research subtasks: 1) Materials discovery of eutectic salt hydrate PCMs by using computationally predicted thermodynamic equilibria, coupled with high-throughput experimental validation, 2) Rapid experimental screening of nucleation catalysts identified through robust computational databases, 3) Embedding salt hydrate PCM into a low cost and scalable high conductivity matrix, 4) Microencapsulation of salt hydrate microspheres using hybrid inorganic-polymer microencapsulation approach, 5) Shape stabilization by thermoreversible salt hydrate salogels, and 6) Analysis of end-use using thermal simulations, and characterization of mock-up energy storage finished components.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Solar and Storage Integration in the Southeastern United States: Economics, Reliability, and Operations

Solar energy has the potential to be a core energy resource for the southeastern United States. To better understand the implications of higher levels of solar PV (27%-43% of total generation capacity) and electricity storage (13%-49% of peak load) would affect electricity system reliability, costs, and operations in the U.S. Southeast, this study sought to address two main questions. First, how would higher levels of solar PV and electricity storage impact the costs, reliability, and operations of electricity systems in the Southeast in 2035? Second, at different levels of solar PV and electricity storage, what are the benefits of operational coordination among utilities in the Southeast, through more efficient regional dispatch and sharing operating reserves? To answer these questions, the study used detailed capacity expansion and dispatch modeling to develop and examine 15 scenarios with different levels of solar PV, electricity storage, and operational coordination, focusing on the year 2035. The study also evaluates the benefits of operational coordination among utilities through more efficient regional dispatch and reserve sharing, at different levels of solar and storage. The study focuses on five balancing regions that cover Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and parts of Mississippi and Missouri.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

High-Density, Low-Hysteresis Storage Using Hydrated Salts in Surface-Functionalized Hydrogels (Final Technical Report)

Nearly 70 years ago, Glauber’s salt was identified as a leading phase change material (PCM) in terms of its heat storage density (~2x paraffin), thermal conductivity (~1W/m·K), safety, availability and cost (~$\$$100/ton). However, the complex issues of supercooling and incongruent melting due to phase separation have prevented realization of the promise. The addition of thickeners and nucleating agents such as borax solve these issues but only over few cycles. This work aims to (a) resolve long-standing challenges with Glauber’s salt as a thermal storage material through a unique materials approach, (b) to characterize the new material’s properties that are relevant to performance and (c) to explore its incorporation into commercial water heaters. The materials concept involves encapsulating the salt in custom-designed, large-mesh hydrogels that enable breakthrough advances. Specifically, (1) the choice of mesh size and polymer chemistry control diffusion of salt/water and help to eliminate phase segregation. With the hydrogel itself occupying <10% volume, there is little loss in storage density compared to another encapsulation. (2) Specific nucleation centers that covalently tether to the hydrogel trigger heterogeneous nucleation, eliminating supercooling-associated hysteresis losses. The fact that they are spatially tethered, prevents the loss in performance over multiple freeze/thaw cycles (>100). We report extensive characterization of the hydrogel complex in terms of its storage density, freezing/melting temperature, cycling losses, rheological properties, aging and thermal conductivity. The novel material developed in this work is a significant advancement over the state-of-art. Finally, we investigate its potential as a thermal storage material for commercial/residential water heating and identify scenarios in which its deployment is advantageous.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Low-cost buffer storage for solar industrial steam applications

Motivation and importance: Many industrial process heat consumers operate throughout the day, and deep decarbonization with solar energy requires thermal energy storage. Thermal energy storage provides an additional operational benefit of firm delivery of steam – essential to reducing the risk of costly production interruptions. The group of process heat consumers that use steam for biofuels production for the California transportation fuels market is incentivized through the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) to reduce their carbon intensity through the use of solar steam. Examples include ethanol and dimethyl ether production. The production of these and other fuels involves distillation driven by steam reboilers with steam pressures in the range 100-280 psig. These pressures can be delivered from the type of thermal energy storage that has been the focus of this project – a steam accumulator Sunvapor, Inc. (SVI) calls a “Bullet Steam Accumulator” or “BSA TM ”. Our project adds to the understanding of the design and integration of steam accumulators charged by solar thermal energy in a biofuels production facility, and similar facilities that consume process steam. The fuel application requires a demanding level of Process Safety Management not found in other steam applications. The type of steam accumulator SVI engineered and built integrates steam generation and storage in one vessel to reduce cost. Achieving a first of a kind permit to operate such a first device has also added to the understanding of the industrial application of such systems. Goals: The overall goal of the project has been to demonstrate the advantages that a “Bullet Steam Accumulator” (BSA™) can provide to solar steam integration with a manufacturing process. The industrial host has already been convinced of the potential of the available solar steam to lower than carbon intensity score. They have been interviewed for a number of publications such as that tout the advantages SVI’s system brings to their operations. Accomplishments: At the end of 2023 Sunvapor placed in service the country’s first industrial solar boiler with thermal energy storage. At the same time, this placement in service represents the first pilot commercial system to decarbonize biofuels production through the use of solar thermal energy. While the full technical effectiveness will be shown as soon as the customer’s plant is able to consume the available steam, the economic feasibility was indicated early in the project when the combination of costs and steam pricing required to meet investor expectations was determined. The project represents a reference pilot from which a full-scale commercial system may be expanded. This pilot is a necessary first step in providing the full potential benefits to the public, including decarbonization of transportation fuels. The decarbonization of the separation steps in fuels production may be the most cost-effective and nearest term solar fuel. Co-benefits include a reduction of air pollutants such as NOx and particulate matter, and job creation for the construction, operation and maintenance of industrial solar facilities.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Storing Affordability: Battery Storage as an Asset to Reduce Data Center Cost Shifts

This report examines how battery energy storage systems (BESS) can help utilities accommodate large load growth while protecting affordability for existing ratepayers. Rapid growth in electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers is straining the U.S. grid. Furthermore, many new data centers are entering rural markets, which could offer economic benefits but may also pose implementation challenges for smaller utilities. At the same time, retail electricity prices are increasing faster than inflation, elevating customer affordability as a key challenge. While data centers have not been the primary driver of increases in residential prices to date, they have pushed wholesale energy and capacity prices higher in several markets. Fundamental utility cost-allocation principles show that data center growth can be rate-positive for existing customers only if new peak demand grows faster than the costs a utility must incur to serve it. Several factors, including a utility’s degree of wholesale market exposure, forecast uncertainty and stranded-asset risk, and tariff design can determine the outcome of load growth on retail rates. Energy storage can make several affordability contributions in the face of this landscape of uncertainty and market volatility, including deferral of higher-cost grid investments through improved utilization of existing assets and flexibility of new large loads, insulation from volatile wholesale prices through peak shaving, and reliability support to address grid risks stemming from the behavior of AI data center loads. Different potential BESS deployment pathways—utility-scale front-of-the-meter systems, aggregated small-scale storage installations, and data center-sited behind-the-meter storage—are compared against each other and against conventional capacity alternatives. This framework is intended as a conceptual resource to utilities, particularly smaller public utilities with rural service territories, who may be considering the role that energy storage can play in insulating existing ratepayers from data center cost shifts.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Insights into Methodologies and Stochastic Optimization of Thermal Energy Storage-Coupled Advanced Reactor Systems: A Comparison of Methods for Accessing Long-Term Sub-System Sizing Adequacy

This paper investigates the potential of coupling Thermal Energy Storage (TES) with Advanced Reactors (ARs) to address uncertainties posed by climate change in deep decarbonized power systems. The TES Use-case Team at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has examined the potential of storing thermal energy from ARs during low demand periods and optimizing discharge during peak-priced hours, in both steady-state and transient conditions. Building on this groundwork, this study bridges the gaps in optimal sizing of the sub-system of TES-coupled AR systems using Risk Analysis Virtual Environment (RAVEN) and Holistic Energy Resource Optimization Network (HERON), INL?s framework for grid optimization. By applying this framework, we present statistically-robust optimal charge, discharge including balance of plant (BOP), and storage sizing for the High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) with 203 MWth output. To this end, we generated synthetic price samples for 30 years using 2018 ? 2021 real-time market data from ERCOT, PJM and MISO. Our results reveals that the TES-coupled HTGR system is highly effective in maximizing revenue from electricity sales. We observed a substantial increase of 40 % in ERCOT and a noteworthy 15 % increase in PJM and MISO when compared to the conventional BOP without TES. This improvement is achieved through regionally-tailored sub-system sizing, which ranges from 398 to 416 MWth for the discharge system and 610 to 1029 MWth for the TES. We find that the average electricity price directly impacts the overall economics, while price volatility influences storage size. Additional sensitivity analyses were performed to access the impact of key assumptions on system economics and sizing, differentiating the optimization window (i.e., 24 ? 219 hours of chronological observations) and by imposing storage continuity condition in tracking TES cycles. We observed that at the 120-hour of the optimization window, a reasonable balance between computation time and accuracy was achieved. Our analysis also highlights the significance of conducting multi-day cycle analysis (> 120-hour) for TES to capture interaction between electricity prices and storage dynamics, providing a comprehensive understanding of TES behavior that AR developers should integrate into their plant designs.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Application of Mobile Energy Storage for Enhancing Power Grid Resilience: A Review

Natural disasters can lead to large-scale power outages, affecting critical infrastructure and causing social and economic damages. These events are exacerbated by climate change, which increases their frequency and magnitude. Improving power grid resilience can help mitigate the damages caused by these events. Mobile energy storage systems, classified as truck-mounted or towable battery storage systems, have recently been considered to enhance distribution grid resilience by providing localized support to critical loads during an outage. Compared to stationary batteries and other energy storage systems, their mobility provides operational flexibility to support geographically dispersed loads across an outage area. This paper provides a comprehensive and critical review of academic literature on mobile energy storage for power system resilience enhancement. As mobile energy storage is often coupled with mobile emergency generators or electric buses, those technologies are also considered in the review. Allocation of these resources for power grid resilience enhancement requires modeling of both the transportation system constraints and the power grid operational constraints. These aspects are discussed, along with a discussion on the cost–benefit analysis of mobile energy resources. The paper concludes by presenting research gaps, associated challenges, and potential future directions to address these challenges.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Representing Carbon Dioxide Transport and Storage Network Investments within Power System Planning Models

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) capture and storage (CCS) is frequently identified as a potential component to achieving a decarbonized power system at least cost; however, power system models frequently lack detailed representation of CO 2 transportation, injection, and storage (CTS) infrastructure. In this paper, we present a novel approach to explicitly represent CO 2 storage potential and CTS infrastructure costs and constraints within a continental-scale power system capacity expansion model. In addition, we evaluate the sensitivity of the results to assumptions about the future costs and performance of CTS components and carbon capture technologies. We find that the quantity of CO 2 captured within the power sector is relatively insensitive to the range of CTS costs explored, suggesting that the cost of CO 2 capture retrofits is a more important driver of CCS implementation than the costs of transportation and storage. Finally, we demonstrate that storage and injection costs account for the predominant share of total costs associated with CTS investment and operation, suggesting that pipeline infrastructure costs have limited influence on the competitiveness of CCS.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Behind-the-Meter Storage Policy Stack

A variety of studies and disparate data sets track state energy storage policies, but these datasets do not cover all BTM-related storage policy. Moreover, these databases do not align policies with the policy stacking framework. Thus, it is unclear which BTM storage policies are adopted across the country, what should comprise a complete storage policy framework or stack, or how states policies compare with that stack. This first-of-its-kind BTM storage policy stack includes 11 parent policy categories and 31 policies across the market preparation, creation, and expansion policy components.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Do We Really Need Storage to Operate the Renewable Grid of the Future?

While it may seem obvious that wind and solar 'need' energy storage to be successfully integrated into the world's electricity grids, both detailed integration studies and real-world experience have shown that storage is only one of many options that could enable substantially increased growth of these renewable resources. This talk will discuss the potential role of energy storage in the integrating wind and solar, demonstrating that in the near term perhaps less exciting -- but often more cost-effective -- alternatives will likely provide much of the grid flexibility needed to add renewable resources. The talk will also demonstrate that the decreasing value of PV and wind and at increased penetration creates greater opportunities for storage. It also demonstrates the fact that 'the sun doesn't always shine and the wind always doesn't blow' is only one reason why energy storage may be an increasingly attractive solution to the challenges of operating the grid of the future.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

GLIDES – Efficient Energy Storage from ORNL

The research shown in this video features the GLIDES (Ground-Level Integrated Diverse Energy Storage) project, which has been under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) since 2013. GLIDES can store energy via combined inputs of electricity and heat, and deliver dispatchable electricity. Supported by ORNL’s Laboratory Director’s Research and Development (LDRD) fund, this energy storage system is low-cost, and hybridizes compressed air and pumped-hydro approaches to allow for storage of intermittent renewable energy at high efficiency. A U.S. patent application for this novel energy storage concept has been submitted, and research findings suggest it has the potential to be a flexible, low-cost, scalable, high-efficiency option for energy storage, especially useful in residential and commercial buildings.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗