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DOE OSTI2016

A Study on Safety Evaluation of Safety Grade Smart Transmitter in Nuclear Power Plants

Smart transmitters contain microprocessors and the use of firmware and software in these microprocessors presents challenges to the nuclear industry, particularly when they are used in safety systems. Non-safety grade smart transmitters have been used for I and C systems of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Recently, smart transmitters have been used for safety grade I and C systems as well as non-safety grade I and C system for SKN 3 and 4 NPPs in Korea. Due to potential benefits of smart transmitter, it is anticipated smart transmitters will be widely used safety-related applications in NPPs. But there is currently no specific nuclear sector standard specifying the criteria for smart transmitter. Therefore, Smart transmitter's technology and characteristics need to be investigated and also develop review guideline of smart transmitter. For this reason, we performed a study on safety evaluation of safety grade Smart Transmitter in NPPs. This paper presents the results of study on safety evaluation of smart transmitter. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2013

NETL- AVESTAR

NETL's Advanced Virtual Energy Simulation Training and Research, or AVESTAR, Center is designed to promote operational excellence for the nation's energy systems, from smart power plants to smart grid. The AVESTAR Center brings together advanced dynamic simulation and control technologies, state-of-the-art simulation-based training facilities, and leading industry experts to focus on the optimal operation of clean energy plants in the smart grid era.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2017

Enabling the SMART Wind Power Plant of the Future Through Science-Based Innovation

This report describes the scientific challenges facing wind energy today and the recent scientific advancements that position the research community to tackle those challenges, as well as the new U.S. Department of Energy applied research program Atmosphere to Electrons that takes an integrated approach to addressing those challenges. It also ties these resulting scientific accomplishments to future technological innovation and quantifies the impact of that collection of innovations on 2030 wind power cost of energy.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Wind Supply Chain Security: Hardware Enumeration and Analysis

This project, undertaken by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for the Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO), focused on the enumeration and analysis of six key devices important to wind technologies. The devices analyzed included Beckhoff Bus Terminal Controllers (BK1120 and BC9000), a Beckhoff Economy Built-in Panel PC (CP6231), an N-Tron Managed Industrial Ethernet Switch (711FX3), a Bachmann M1 Gateway, and a Bachmann Smart Power Plant Controller. Device selection was driven by availability and budget constraints, with several components sourced from existing wind farms and others procured through a co-agreement with another WETO-funded project. The project's primary objective was to create a hardware bill of materials (HBOM) for each device, identifying and documenting all components to assess potential security and supply chain risks. A detailed analysis revealed over 750 unique components across the six devices, with 80% successfully identified and accompanied by datasheets. Notably, Texas Instruments emerged as the leading supplier, providing over 16% of the components, followed by ON Semiconductor at 11.3%, Analog Devices at 5.3%, and Renesas Electronics Corp at 4.1%. Other notable vendors included Toshiba Corporation, iC-Haus Corporation, Atmel, Vishay, and STMicroelectronics. The enumeration process involved thorough documentation of each component, including its designation, quantity, identifiers, pin package, description, vendor, model, and country of origin. This process provided valuable insights into the complexity and diversity of the electronic systems within these wind devices. It also highlighted the distinct separation of components between vendors, suggesting a trend of vendor-specific component usage. Key findings from the project emphasized the importance of broadening the scope of vendor analysis in future research to gain a comprehensive understanding of component distribution and commonality. The identification of vendor-specific component usage patterns offers new avenues for research and underscores the significance of continued investigation in this field. Overall, this project provides critical insights into the component composition of wind devices, aiding in the development of improved supply chain management and component sourcing strategies. The results contribute valuable knowledge to the wind technology sector, laying the groundwork for enhanced security and resilience in wind energy systems.

17 - WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2016

A Literature Review: Smart Grids Impacts on Nuclear Power Plants Task 4: Project Final Report

This report describes the results of a literature review performed to study the current state of electric power industry efforts and research work regarding Smart Grid technologies, renewable energy integration, grid reliability standards, and USNRC electric grid regulations and guidance. The information gathered in the literature review is intended to: (1) Develop a better understanding of the impacts that Smart Grid implementation and the integration of renewable energy sources can have on the availability and reliability of the electric grid as a source of offsite power, (2) Provide an understand of the present grid reliability standards and how they will address the challenges of Smart Grid implementation, (3) Identify electrical system vulnerabilities and failure modes that may result from the implementation of Smart Grid technologies and cybersecurity threats, (4) Provide an understand of the actions being taken by FERC, NERC and others to identify, understand and address potential impacts, (5) Provide an understand of existing NRC regulation and guidance addressing requirements of grid design, operation and reliability supporting NPP design requirements, and (6) Recommend any additional actions or studies that should be undertaken by the NRC to ensure compliance of NPPs to GDC 17 and any other applicable regulations and guidance as the electric grid evolves into the Smart Grid.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Enabling the Next Generation of Smart Sensors in Coal Fired Power Plants using Cellular 5G Technology

An important need for coal fired power plants is the ability to monitor multiple systems with ease and accuracy. Common implementations of these monitoring systems come with drawbacks due to the nature of coal fired power plants. Harsh environments, High Temperatures, and lots of RF (Radio Frequency) noise can create issues for accurately recording and transmitting data across wireless signals. In addition, as renewable energy sources come online, existing fossil fueled plants will need to operate more flexibly with their maintenance schedules outside of standard conditions. Therefore, additional sensing and control mechanisms need placed in existing plants to provide operators with more information such that maintenance decisions can be made well in advance of failures. A solution to this problem is the Next Generation of Smart Sensors, which leverages the power of 5G cellular signals and machine learning to overcome the myriad of problems with current implementations

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Smart Planning Support for Nuclear Power Plant Work Planners

Operation and Maintenance costs of a nuclear power plant account for 60% of overall plant costs due to the nuclear industry?s risk-adverse culture (World Nuclear Association, 2020). The industry relies on highly conservative estimates to avoid risk and brute force reactions to manage the unexpected and keep a plant running safely. This approach has kept plants operating safer than any other power source available over the last six decades (Ritchie, 2020). However, these conservative methods have cost the nuclear industry in market competitiveness. The solution? Transform the conservative approaches to accurate, efficient, and still safe data-driven approaches that leverage advanced technologies available in the digital age of operation. This project endeavored to identify two key aspects to successfully incorporate historical work execution data. First, where in the work management process is that information most pertinent? Next, what variables are key to informing the best strategy for organizing the upcoming work? The Smart Planner uses data collected by dynamic work instructions to provide a basis for suggesting requirements of similar, upcoming work packages. Further, it curbs inefficiencies of the work management process by analyzing the likelihood of discovery work, offering suggestions to build a contingency package. All this taking place as the work planner builds work packages that meet the predetermined scope of work to be performed.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Enabling The Next Generation of Smart Sensors in Coal Fired Power Plants using Cellular 5G Technology

Ohio University (OHIO), West Virginia University (WVU), and American Electric Power (AEP) proposed to study and report on the benefits of 5G wireless cellular technologies for coal-fired power plants. The significant advantages, cost savings, and potential of 5G wireless data communications based sensors promised to usher in a new era of reliable, inexpensive, and powerful embedded systems that had not previously been available for coal-fired power plants. The team built upon existing experience with cellular-based systems, power plant water quality sensing, and high temperature sensors developed during past projects. Principal Investigator Wilhelm had been developing cellular-based sensor data systems with a commercial partner for 10 years, pioneering innovative solar-powered devices that began with 2G technology. The lessons and knowledge gained served as a foundation to demonstrate innovations and potential impacts specific to coal fired power plants enabled by 5G technology, along with integration with existing sensors and systems.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2017

From lithium-ion to sodium-ion battery

The review discusses the problems of development of sodium-ion batteries intended to replace lithium-ion batteries used in large power plants (electric transport, smart grids). The literature data, mainly for the last five years, devoted to electrode functional materials and electrolytes used in sodium-ion batteries are presented and analyzed.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2023

Quantum Communication Networks for Energy Applications: Review and Perspective

Abstract The energy sector is expected to undergo significant changes in the coming decades with the advent of new technologies, including smart grid development, microgrid expansion, increasing electric vehicle and renewable energy usage, and enhanced measures to minimize greenhouse gas emission, among others. In tandem, these changes are expected to create new opportunities for the deployment of quantum technologies within the energy sector. Building on the authors' previous reviews on the current state of and future opportunities for quantum sensing, quantum computing and quantum simulations for energy sector applications, this work provides an overview of recent progress in quantum networking and communications for the energy industry, with a focus on platforms, devices, and protocols, including quantum teleportation and quantum key distribution. Specific areas of relevance to the energy sector are then analyzed, including the role of quantum networks for greenhouse gas monitoring, secure data collection and transmission in smart grids, nuclear power plants’ safety, facilitating oil and gas exploration, and other energy‐relevant applications. This review concludes with a brief overview of areas for future innovation, including the need for platforms for simulating quantum networks, quantum material and platform design, and computational approaches to accelerate quantum protocol discovery and development.

Paudel, Hari P.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Co-Simulation of Electric Power Distribution Systems and Buildings including Ultra-Fast HVAC Models and Optimal DER Control

Smart homes and virtual power plant (VPP) controls are growing fields of research with potential for improved electric power grid operation. A novel testbed for the co-simulation of electric power distribution systems and distributed energy resources (DERs) is employed to evaluate VPP scenarios and propose an optimization procedure. DERs of specific interest include behind-the-meter (BTM) solar photovoltaic (PV) systems as well as heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. The simulation of HVAC systems is enabled by a machine learning procedure that produces ultra-fast models for electric power and indoor temperature of associated buildings that are up to 133 times faster than typical white-box implementations. Hundreds of these models, each with different properties, are randomly populated into a modified IEEE 123-bus test system to represent a typical U.S. community. Advanced VPP controls are developed based on the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) 2045 standard to leverage HVAC systems as generalized energy storage (GES) such that BTM solar PV is better utilized locally and occurrences of distribution system power peaks are reduced, while also maintaining occupant thermal comfort. An optimization is performed to determine the best control settings for targeted peak power and total daily energy increase minimization with example peak load reductions of 25+%.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2017

Design and Evaluation of a Secure Virtual Power Plant.

For three years, Sandia National Laboratories, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign investigated a smart grid vision in which renewable-centric Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) provided ancillary services with interoperable distributed energy resources (DER). This team researched, designed, built, and evaluated real-time VPP designs incorporating DER forecasting, stochastic optimization, controls, and cyber security to construct a system capable of delivering reliable ancillary services, which have been traditionally provided by large power plants or other dedicated equipment. VPPs have become possible through an evolving landscape of state and national interconnection standards, which now require DER to include grid-support functionality and communications capabilities. This makes it possible for third party aggregators to provide a range of critical grid services such as voltage regulation, frequency regulation, and contingency reserves to grid operators. This paradigm (a) enables renewable energy, demand response, and energy storage to participate in grid operations and provide grid services, (b) improves grid reliability by providing additional operating reserves for utilities, independent system operators (ISOs), and regional transmission organization (RTOs), and (c) removes renewable energy high-penetration barriers by providing services with photovoltaics and wind resources that traditionally were the jobs of thermal generators. Therefore, it is believed VPP deployment will have far-reaching positive consequences for grid operations and may provide a robust pathway to high penetrations of renewables on US power systems. In this report, we design VPPs to provide a range of grid-support services and demonstrate one VPP which simultaneously provides bulk-system energy and ancillary reserves.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Security Evaluation of Smart Cards and Secure Tokens: Benefits and Drawbacks for Reducing Supply Chain Risks of Nuclear Power Plants

The supply chain attack pathway is being increasingly used by adversaries to bypass security controls and gain unauthorized access to sensitive networks and equipment (e.g., Critical Digital Assets). Cyber-attacks targeting supply chain generally aim to compromise the environments, products, or services of vendors and suppliers to inject, add, or substitute authentic software and hardware with malicious elements. These malicious elements are deemed to be authentic as they arise from the vendor or supplier (i.e., the supply chain). This research aims to leverage findings and assumptions made from the previous report to determine the security benefits and drawbacks of a smart card- based hardware root of trust. Smart cards can provide devices inside Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) with a secure environment to store keys in and perform sensitive operations such as digital signature generation. These abilities can be leveraged to increase supply chain cybersecurity by autonomously providing NPP Licensees with reports on device integrity, authenticity and measurements of executable and non-executable data.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

DOE OSTI2019

Highly Accurate Method for Real-Time Active Power Reserve Estimation for Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Power Plants

This paper applies a robust technique for determining the available power from a curtailed utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plant. The proposed technique does not require deploying any additional equipment or sensors and is based only on the addition of new control logic to the existing power plant controller. Also, the proposed method is universally applicable to PV plants with any type of smart inverters and PV modules. Accurate determination of available power is important for using curtailed PV generation as a resource for various types of active power controls, such as spinning reserves and primary and secondary frequency control. For PV plants to be able to maintain the desired regulation range, the plant controller must be able to estimate the available aggregate peak power that all the plant's inverters can produce at any point in time and ensure that the control error stays within the tolerance band at all times. In this paper, we explore a highly accurate control method that uses dedicated inverters within the plant as reference units and evaluates the available aggregate peak power for the whole plant under different cloud variability conditions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2019

Highly Accurate Method for Real-Time Active Power Reserve Estimation for Utility-Scale PV Power Plants: Preprint

This paper applies a robust technique for determining the available power reserve from a curtailed utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plant. The proposed technique does not require deploying any additional equipment or sensors and is based only on the addition of new control logic to the existing power plant controller. Also, the proposed method is universally applicable to PV plants with any type of smart inverters and PV modules. Accurate determination of available power is important for using curtailed PV generation as a resource for various types of active power controls, such as spinning reserves and primary and secondary frequency control. For PV plants to be able to maintain the desired regulation range, the plant controller must be able to estimate the available aggregate peak power that all the plant's inverters can produce at any point in time and ensure that the control error stays within the tolerance band at all times. In this paper, we explore a highly accurate control method that uses dedicated inverters within the plant as reference units and evaluates the available aggregate peak power for the whole plant under different cloud variability conditions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2016

A Game-Theoretic Approach to Modeling Attacks and Defenses of Smart Grids at Three Levels

As optimization, user capabilities, and data-taking abilities are incorporated into next-generation power grids, or smart grids, they face cyber threats. The traditional electrical grid could only be damaged by physical attacks; however thesmart grid can suffer remote/cyber attacks, which have not been studied extensively in the literature. The electrical grid forms the backbone of the modern society and its security has significant implications in military settings. This paper applies game theory to model three-levels (power plants, transmission, and distribution networks) of defenses and attacks in smart grid network security. We characterize both the attacker and the defender (who interact at three network levels: distribution, transmission, and power plants) best responses and equilibrium strategies. We find that the defender's best response is not only a function of direct attacks but also of the spread from connected networks. Sensitivity analyses of the equilibrium strategies show that when success probability of an attack against power plantsreaches a threshold, the defender increases defending efforts for power plants. In contrast, the attack eort at all levels is not affected by this probability. This paper provides some novel insights to modeling and analyzing the emerging threats to the growing smart grid networks.

Rao, Nageswara S.↗

DOE OSTI2015

Significance of Dynamic and Transient Analysis in the Design and Operation of Hybrid Energy Systems

Energy systems were historically designed and operated with a specific energy conversion objective, while managing loads and resources. In the recent years, the increased utilization of non-dispatchable renewable sources such as wind and solar has played a role in power quality and the reliability of power systems. In order to mitigate the risk associated with the non-dispatchable resources an integrated approach, such as Hybrid Energy Systems (HES), has to be taken, integrating the loads and resource management between the traditional thermal power plants and the non-dispatchable resources. As our electric energy becomes more diverse in its generation resources, the HES with its operational control system, its real-time view and its dynamic decisions making will become an essential part of the integrated energy systems and improve the overall grid reliability. The operational constraints of the energy sources on both the thermal power plants and the non-dispatchable resources in HES, plays a vital role in the planning and design stage. It is an established fact that the choice of energy source depends on the available natural resources and possible infrastructure. A critical component of decision-making depends on the complementary nature and controllability of the energy sources to supply the load demands with high reliability. Controllability of complex HES to achieve desired performance and flexibility is implemented via coordinated control systems while simultaneously generating electricity and other useful products such as useful heat or hydrogen. These systems are based on instrumentation, signal processing, control theory, and engineering system design. The entire HES along with the control systems are characterized by widely varying time constants. Hence, for a well-coordinated control and operation, we propose physics based modeling of the subsystems to assist in a dynamic and transient analysis. Dynamic and transient analysis in real and non-real time domain of the potential sources is capable of providing satisfactory results at the feasibility analysis stage. A simplified HES consisting of complementary energy sources is used to demonstrate the proposed approach. Suitable real time simulations to perform dynamic and transient analysis will be performed to verify results from the non-real time analysis. The role of such analyses, especially the real time dynamic and transient analysis for manual controls is elaborated. It is also discussed that faster than real time simulation will pave the future for controller rooms and hence manual control procedures. Multiple tools such as Real Time Simulator, Matlab®, Simulink®, PSCAD®, MOOSE, etc. are expected to be used for the HES analysis.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2015

Decentralized control of units in smart grids for the support of renewable energy supply

Due to the significant environmental impact of power production from fossil fuels and nuclear fission, future energy systems will increasingly rely on distributed and renewable energy sources (RES). The electrical feed-in from photovoltaic (PV) systems and wind energy converters (WEC) varies greatly both over short and long time periods (from minutes to seasons), and (not only) by this effect the supply of electrical power from RES and the demand for electrical power are not per se matching. In addition, with a growing share of generation capacity especially in distribution grids, the top-down paradigm of electricity distribution is gradually replaced by a bottom-up power supply. This altogether leads to new problems regarding the safe and reliable operation of power grids. In order to address these challenges, the notion of Smart Grids has been introduced. The inherent flexibilities, i.e. the set of feasible power schedules, of distributed power units have to be controlled in order to support demand–supply matching as well as stable grid operation. Controllable power units are e.g. combined heat and power plants, power storage systems such as batteries, and flexible power consumers such as heat pumps. By controlling the flexibilities of these units we are particularly able to optimize the local utilization of RES feed-in in a given power grid by integrating both supply and demand management measures with special respect to the electrical infrastructure. In this context, decentralized systems, autonomous agents and the concept of self-organizing systems will become key elements of the ICT based control of power units. In this contribution, we first show how a decentralized load management system for battery charging/discharging of electrical vehicles (EVs) can increase the locally used share of supply from PV systems in a low voltage grid. For a reliable demand side management of large sets of appliances, dynamic clustering of these appliances into uniformly controlled appliance sets is necessary. We introduce a method for self-organized clustering for this purpose and show how control of such clusters can affect load peaks in distribution grids. Subsequently, we give a short overview on how we are going to expand the idea of self-organized clusters of units into creating a virtual control center for dynamic virtual power plants (DVPP) offering products at a power market. For an efficient organization of DVPPs, the flexibilities of units have to be represented in a compact and easy to use manner. We give an introduction how the problem of representing a set of possibly 10{sup 100} feasible schedules can be solved by a machine-learning approach. In summary, this article provides an overall impression how we use agent based control techniques and methods of self-organization to support the further integration of distributed and renewable energy sources into power grids and energy markets. - Highlights: • Distributed load management for electrical vehicles supports local supply from PV. • Appliances can self-organize into so called virtual appliances for load control. • Dynamic VPPs can be controlled by extensively decentralized control centers. • Flexibilities of units can efficiently be represented by support-vector descriptions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗