New Webinar Series Will Showcase Real-World Projects Powered By NREL’s Grid Planning and Analysis Tools

Learn How NREL Tools Can Answer Your Power Grid Questions

Feb. 9, 2024 | By Brooke Van Zandt | Contact media relations

Graphic of a cityscape with lit-up dots and lights connecting buildings and Powered By Webinar Series text overlaid.

Do you work in the clean energy space and want to learn about grid planning and analysis tools developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)? The new Powered By webinar series hosted by NREL's Grid Planning and Analysis Center (GPAC) can be your new go-to resource.

"We're excited to offer this new webinar series," said Jaquelin Cochran, GPAC director. "Rather than a traditional tool demonstration, the series will be a discussion of what questions these tools can answer and real-world examples of how they are being used."

The Powered By series launches in March and will take place from 12 to 1 p.m. ET the second Tuesday of every month. Each webinar will feature a different GPAC tool or set of tools in the context of a real-world project. When possible, sessions will include people from industry who have used GPAC tools and capabilities to inform their grid planning. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage directly with presenters to get their questions answered in real time.

"We get approached by all sorts of organizations with questions about the future of the grid," Cochran said. "Questions like, How can we maintain a reliable grid with lots of weather-based generation in a changing climate? How can we minimize investment risk on the distribution grid amidst so many uncertainties at the customer level? These types of 'what if' questions can be answered with our tools to characterize uncertainty in the power sector and move forward with greater confidence."

The Powered By series is designed to be relevant to anyone who works in the clean energy space and is interested in grid-related topics. State and local governments, regulators, nongovernment entities, research institutes, the renewable energy and utility industries, and more can gain useful information to help with their various grid-planning and analysis needs.

The series will kick off March 12, 2024, with the PREconfiguring and Controlling Inverter SEt-points (PRECISE) tool, which combines detailed distribution system modeling and analyses of grid conditions to perform fast, automated solar interconnection assessments. These assessments are currently being done manually, increasing demand on utilities' already-burdened planning engineers. The Powered By webinar will focus on how PRECISE is streamlining solar interconnection assessments at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, cutting down the processing time from weeks and months to a few minutes.

NREL's Adarsh Nagarajan, a founding researcher of the PRECISE tool that won a 2019 R&D 100 Award, will co-host the webinar and encourages people to join.

"Come and learn about a solution for automating distributed energy resource interconnections," Nagarajan said. "You'll also learn how you can apply the knowledge to your unique situation."

Webinars in the series will feature more tools like PRECISE and their impact for the people who are making the energy transition happen. The initial lineup of Powered By webinars includes:

March: PRECISE
April: DISCO: Distributed Integration Solution Cost Options
May: ReEDS: Regional Energy Deployment System model
June: Sienna modeling framework
July: dsgrid: Demand-Side Grid toolkit
August: Cambium data sets

Visit the Powered By page to view all the webinar topics and register for as many webinars as you want at once. You can also go back and register for more webinars at any time. Sign up for energy analysis news to receive quarterly updates about upcoming sessions.

Learn more about NREL's grid modernization research and energy analysis research powered by NREL's grid planning and analysis tools.