Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: January 2021

In this edition, NREL and Centrica partnership aims to optimize battery energy storage systems, NREL's latest Electrification Futures Study models energy systems through the year 2050, NREL launches its new Cybersecurity Program Office, and more.

Centrica Partnership Shows Optimal Strategies for Hybrid Storage Systems

A new tool will help customers design optimal battery energy storage systems that combine multiple battery types, including low-energy or second-life batteries. NREL and partner Centrica collaborated on the design tool, which targets cost savings and energy security for customers by resourcefully selecting optimal battery systems from hybrid battery technologies.

The collaboration brought Centrica's design tool into the lab, where combined battery types were evaluated on a range of applications. The researchers found that besides improving the sustainability of battery energy storage systems solutions by reusing batteries, hybrid battery systems could potentially outperform single-battery designs.

Read the full story about Centrica and NREL's partnership around hybrid battery energy storage systems solutions.

Five Key Findings from the Latest Phase of the Electrification Futures Study

In the latest phase of NREL's multiyear Electrification Futures Study, NREL analysts used a scenario framework to model U.S. electricity and energy systems through the year 2050 with increased electrification. This allowed researchers to identify key trends across generation and transmission infrastructure investments, fuel use, system costs, and emissions. Five key trends emerged:

1. Electrification drives the sustained deployment of renewable energy and natural gas generators in all regions of the United States.
2. Electrification increases the reliance of demand sectors (buildings, transportation, and industry) on electricity, which could expand opportunities for flexible loads.
3. There are abundant resources in the United States with similar costs to meet potential electrification-driven growth in electricity demand.
4. The system cost impact of electrification on the entire energy sector depends strongly on future advancements in the cost and efficiency of electric end-use technologies.
5. Widespread electrification leads to reductions in direct energy consumption and emissions from the energy system.

Read more about the five key findings or try the scenario data viewer to take a deeper dive.

NREL Launches New Program Office To Expand Research on Cybersecurity for Renewables

To accelerate its leadership in securing renewable energy technologies and distributed energy systems, NREL recently announced the launch of its new Cybersecurity Program Office. Led by Jonathan White, former manager of NREL's Secure Cyber-Energy Systems Group, the office will guide NREL's cybersecurity research strategy and provide recommendations for future staffing, capabilities, and facilities necessary to support a leading, internationally recognized cybersecurity program.

Read more about the Cybersecurity Program Office and NREL's cybersecurity research.

Q&A with David Narang and Dick DeBlasio: A Look at the Revised IEEE Standard 1547

Developing a flagship standard used across the United States and around the globe that provided the first technical standards for interconnecting distributed energy systems onto the electric grid was no easy task in 2003. Neither was revising this same Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard 1547 in 2018. Just ask the two electrical engineers who led these efforts.

Richard (Dick) DeBlasio, research fellow emeritus at NREL and creator of the original IEEE Std 1547, and David Narang, chairperson of the revised IEEE Std 1547-2018, talked with us about the standard's origin story and revision.

Check out our full conversation with DeBlasio and Narang.

Xcel Energy To Launch Initial Deployment of Wireless Private Broadband Pioneered by NREL, Anterix

Anterix, the largest holder of licensed spectrum in the 900-MHz band, announced that Xcel Energy will be the first to use a 900-MHz private broadband network that was developed out of a collaboration between NREL and Anterix. The network, which was evaluated using NREL's advanced distribution management system test bed, can help Xcel respond more quickly to local outages and support advanced grid smart meters that can provide additional information to customers about their energy use. The network will also allow Xcel Energy to provide cyber protection to critical infrastructure and expanded support for automated technology.

Read the full announcement for more about Xcel's deployment of the private LTE broadband network.

NREL Reviews Reliability Barriers to a Renewable Future in U.S. West

Solar photovoltaics (PV) continue to grow in the U.S. West, raising new questions about reliability for an electric grid in transition. As part of a collaboration with the Western Interstate Energy Board, NREL published a series of reports that consider near-term and long-term reliability issues that could affect operations and PV growth on the Western Interconnection.

The reports include detailed scenarios and analyses of future energy systems as well as technical and policy barriers to PV growth on those systems. Individual reports focus on power system flexibility, resource adequacy, transmission-distribution system interactions, behind-the-meter solar accounting, and power inverter influences on stability. These reports cap NREL's contribution to the Western Interstate Energy Board project and deliver useful insight for energy system planning.

NREL Updates System Advisor Model To Include New Data, Improved Model Integration

The latest version of NREL's System Advisor Model is now publicly available for free. Designed to help project developers, engineers, policymakers, equipment manufacturers, and researchers make decisions about renewable energy system design and economics, the latest version includes updated data downloads and seamless integration with other NREL energy analysis models.

Read more about the updates and new capabilities of the System Advisor Model.

JISEA Explores Opportunities for Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid Energy Systems, Hydrogen Production

Since 2011, the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) has explored the potential for increased integration of nuclear and renewables in the evolving electric grid. In particular, JISEA has studied nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems: physically coupled facilities that include both nuclear and renewable energy sources to produce electricity and other commodity products, such as hydrogen. The group released a series of reports that examine the economics of nuclear-renewable hybrid systems, the potential for hydrogen production, and the future of nuclear research.

Read more about this series of reports.

NREL Researcher Elina Spyrou Provides Career Advice to Fellow Researchers in Nature Energy Article

What is the expected impact of addressing the research gap in question? How can I expand my knowledge and skills through ongoing work to help my future self? How can I gratefully welcome and generously offer support, advice, and feedback?

These are the three questions that NREL researcher Elina Spyrou regularly asked herself to help her grow as a researcher and prepare for opportunities. In a recent article in Nature Energy, Curiosity Saves the Researcher, Spyrou recounts her professional journey and offers advice for fellow researchers on how to build a successful research career. In her time at NREL, Spyrou has led research on delivery risk associated with distributed energy resources, a power system planning framework for fragile and conflict-affected states, and work on NREL's Regional Energy Deployment System model.

Publications Roundup

Strategies and Savings for Insurance in Solar Operations

Insuring against product damage or liability is a large share of operation-and-maintenance costs for commercial and utility PV systems, but the landscape is complicated by variations in risk types, insurance parameters, and their relation to different varieties of PV systems.

An NREL technical report titled Insurance in the Operation of Photovoltaic Plants clarifies the options and considerations for solar system operators to ensure adequate coverage at the best price. This report summarizes results from an analysis of 6 years of insurance claims for PV equipment, and it derives insurance decisions that optimize a balance of insurance costs with benefits to finance, permitting, and interconnection. The report also discusses the roles of various insurance organizations and the buying decisions that operators face, effectively navigating the complex and relatively new transactional space that affect solar system costs.

Final Report for ARPA-E NODES Real-Time Optimization and Control of Next-Generation Distribution Infrastructure Project

Following years of in-lab research and development, landmark demonstrations, and product commercialization, the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Network Optimized Distributed Energy Systems (NODES) project Real-Time Optimization and Control of Next-Generation Distribution Infrastructure has concluded, with NREL summarizing the project's successes in a final technical report.

As the project lead, NREL designed control algorithms and controller solutions that optimize distributed energy resources for renewable-dominant grids. This technical report describes the progress of the NODES project from pure theory to commercial product, including the many demonstrations that happened along the way. Starting in 2016, the NODES project set an objective for control solutions that could safely manage majority-renewable grids that contain a variety of controllable devices and power dynamics. As this report describes, a solution not only exists but also is now available commercially—completing a success story for ARPA-E and launching a new research direction at NREL and beyond.