Energy Systems Integration News November 2014 nrel.gov/esi/esi-news-201411.html Photo of two men standing on a stage holding an award. NRELs Steve Hammond and HPs Nic Dube receive the R&D Magazine Editors Choice Award for their collaboration in developing the innovative HP Apollo 8000 System at the Energy Systems Integration Facility. Photo by David Warner, NREL Welcome to Energy Systems Integration News, NRELs monthly newsletter designed to keep industry partners, stakeholders, associations, and educational institutes up to date on the latest energy systems integration (ESI) developments at NREL and worldwide. Have an item for the next issue of Energy Systems Integration News? Email us at [email protected]. In This Issue ESI at NREL ESI in the U.S. and Around the World Whos Who at the ESIF ESI at NREL NREL ESI Director Talks Smart Homes on Colorado Public Radio NRELs Bryan Hannegan and Dane Christensen spoke to Northern Colorado public radio station KUNC about research at the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) to transform the home energy system. Get the full story from KUNC. Top Honors Go to NREL Supercomputing Achievements This month, NREL and partners were honored with Editors Choice Awards from R&D Magazine and HPCwire for supercomputing achievements at the lab. At the 2014 R&D 100 Awards ceremony on November 7 in Las Vegas, the R&D 100 award-winning team from HP and NREL were also honored with an R&D Magazine Editors Choice Award for their collaboration in developing the innovative high-performance supercomputing platform at the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF)—the HP Apollo 8000 System, which uses component-level warm-water cooling to dissipate heat generated by the supercomputer, eliminating the need for expensive and inefficient chillers. Learn more about NRELs 2014 R&D 100 award-winning technologies. At the 2014 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC14) on November 17 in New Orleans, Louisiana, NREL and Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at UT Austin received the HPCwire 2014 Editors Choice Award for Top Supercomputing Achievement for groundbreaking research in converting biomass to biofuels. This is significant because while NRELs new facility and high performance computing (HPC) system have been recognized recently for their advances in energy efficiency, this HPCwire award recognizes how these HPC resources are being used to advance important areas of science and technology. NREL Teams with SolarCity to Maximize Solar Power on Electrical Grids NREL and SolarCity are working together with the Hawaiian Electric Companies to analyze and enable higher penetrations of distributed solar energy systems in Hawaii. NREL and SolarCity have entered into a cooperative research agreement to address the operational issues associated with large amounts of distributed solar energy on electrical grids. The work includes collaboration with the Hawaiian Electric Companies to analyze high-penetration solar scenarios using advanced modeling and inverter testing at the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). The project is funded in part through an U.S. Department of Energy solar cost-share program. Testing with SolarCity and and the Hawaiian Electric Companies at the ESIF will cover the dynamics between inverter-based assets on a grid system, voltage regulation, and bi-directional power flows. NREL has completed load rejection overvoltage testing and will be completing ground fault overvoltage testing shortly. This testing has allowed the Hawaiian Electric Companies to reinstate PV deployments to all the customers who have been waiting for interconnection on these high-penetration solar circuits. New Video Series Explains the Basics of Energy Systems Learn the essential facts on energy systems in a new six-part educational video series sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative and hosted by Dr. Ravel Ammerman for NRELs Distributed Grid Integration group. NREL Reports on Energy Performance Testing of Asetek System at the ESIF Data Center NREL has reported results of the first tests of Aseteks RackCDU direct-to-chip liquid cooling system for servers at the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) data center. The focus of the study was to explore the total cooling energy savings and potential for waste-heat recovery of this warm-water liquid cooling system. Read the full reportPDF. NREL-Clemson Grid Simulator Workshop Presentations Available for Download Presentations from the Second International Workshop on Grid Simulator Testing of Energy Systems and Wind Turbine Powertrains are available for download. NREL and Clemson University hosted the workshop at the Duke Energy Electric Grid Research, Innovation & Development Center in North Charleston, South Carolina, on September 17–18, 2014. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the research and testing needs involved in grid compliance testing of utility-scale wind turbine generators. Presentations are now available for download, along with a list of workshop attendees and workshop discussion topics and responses. Simulator Training Enables NREL Engineers to Model Effects of Renewable Energy Systems on the Grid NREL held a training workshop this month at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) for a new real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulator. The system was purchased as part of the INTEGRATE project with the goal of allowing engineers and operators at both the NWTC and the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) to run near-real-time models of the electrical grid. The models will allow NREL researchers to simulate operation of the national electrical grid while introducing the effects of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. These simulations will help inform research on the introduction of large amounts of renewable generation into the grid while maintaining grid stability. The hardware has real-world input/output to field turbines and dynamometer test articles at the NWTC as well as test articles and simulations at the ESIF. Eventually, the systems at the NWTC and the ESIF will be able to communicate with the controllable grid interface and dynamometer test facilities at Clemson University in South Carolina and at Idaho National Laboratory to expand the scope of the U.S. Department of Energys grid modeling capability. Back to Top ESI in the U.S. and Around the World DOE Launches Grid Modernization Consortium with National Labs A new strategic partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its national labs will bring together our leading experts and resources to collaborate on the goal of modernizing the nations grid. DOEs Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium employs an integrated approach to ensure that DOE-funded studies and research and development are efficiently coordinated to reap the greatest return for the taxpayer dollar. It will also allow DOE to become a resource and convener for the diverse and fragmented set of stakeholders across industry, the scientific community, and all levels of government. One of the many undertakings of the Consortium will be to develop a multi-year program plan for grid modernization. The plan will outline an integrated systems approach to transforming the nations grid by incorporating numerous program activities within DOE as well as activities undertaken by national stakeholders. As a first step, the leaders of the Consortium are focused on coordinating all of DOEs grid-related activities to ensure connectivity, avoid redundancies, and identify gaps in research and development needs of a modern grid. Look for more information on NRELs involvement in the Consortium in future issues of Energy Systems Integration News. IEA-PVPS Releases New PV Grid Integration Reports NREL contributed to two new reports from the Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA-PVPS) Task 14 on High Penetration PV in Electricity Grids. Task 14 focuses on collaborating with utilities, industry, and leading research organizations to develop the technologies and methods needed to enable the widespread deployment of distributed PV into the electricity system. Task 14 works to address integration challenges and technologies on two main levels of the power system: local distribution grids and the overall power transmission system. The two new reports specifically cover aspects related to distribution integration, presenting a worldwide selection of best-practice case studies and the latest findings from the working period from 2010 to 2013. The reports present the main features of the evolution from uni-directional grids to bi-directional grids under the pressure of PV development. NRELs Barry Mather and Ben Kroposki contributed input and expertise to the reports, which are available for download on the IEA-PVPS website: Transition from Uni-Directional to Bi-Directional Distribution Grids Report High Penetration of PV in Local Distribution Grids Subtask 2: Case Study Collection Report Learn more about NRELs distributed grid integration research. HOMER Energy Launches Next-Generation Microgrid Optimization Software Originally developed at NREL, the HOMER software for economic optimization of microgrids has been rebuilt and released as HOMER Pro. HOMER is different from other tools in the renewable energy analysis space in its focus on hybrid renewable microgrids—those that combine multiple energy and storage sources, such as wind with solar photovoltaics and batteries. It is a chronological simulation, optimization, and decision analysis tool that bridges the gap between financial spreadsheet and complex engineering tools. Read more in the HOMER Pro press release. Asia iiESI Workshop Held in Japan November 17 The International Institute for Energy Systems Integration (iiESI) hosted a workshop this month as part of the International Conference on Integration of Renewable and Distributed Energy Resources in Kyoto, Japan. Presentation materials will soon be available for download on iiESI.org, where you can also find materials from past iiESI events. Watch for upcoming issues of Energy Systems Integration News for more iiESI updates. DOE to Host Offshore Wind Transmission Planning Webinar December 2 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will host a live webcast next month to discuss recent planning and interconnection developments related to offshore wind. Economic Transmission Planning & Interconnection for Offshore Wind will be held Tuesday, December 2, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Charlton Clark from DOE will moderate, and several industry speakers will present. Get more information and register here. Back to Top Whos Who at the ESIF Energy Thought Leader Speaks at the ESIF November 11 S. David Freeman, one of Americas most celebrated public power executives and renewable energy thought leaders, spoke about his vision for a 100% renewable energy future at the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) on November 11. The author of Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy Insider, David is a strident spokesperson about the need for utilities to eliminate fossil-fuel-generated electricity with renewables and efficiency. At NREL, Freeman underscored this point before an audience of approximately 30 NREL staff. See Who Visited the ESIF in October Several organizations visited NRELs Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) last month. Visitors included: Adaptive Canadian Solar Inc. Cray Inc. DirecTV EDF Energy Geli Energy Hawaiian Electric Company Hydro-Quebec Latin American and Caribbean Council on Renewable Energy Marriott NEAC Parker Ranch/Paniolo Power Company Sandia National Laboratories SolarCity Touchstone Energy Cooperatives U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environment, Health, Safety, and Security U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office Vehicle Systems Analysis Technical Team United Netherland University of Colorado Boulder Viridity Energy Giner and NREL Team Test Largest PEM Fuel Cell Stacks at the ESIF Giner Inc. and NREL achieved an important milestone in successfully operating an electrolysis system using the largest mass-produced polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) stacks on the market today. In combination, the three Giner stacks tested at the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) produced hydrogen at a rate of 90 Nm3/h or 100 kg in a 12-hour period, which is the platform to be used in the hydrogen refueling stations for fuel cell electric vehicles under construction in California with the support of the California Energy Commission. Giner is developing a portfolio of platforms for high-efficiency PEM stacks ranging from 1 Nm3/h (5 kW) to 200 Nm3/h (1 MW). The efficiencies, based on the hydrogens high heating value, range from 95% to 75% at current densities exceeding 30 kA/m2. These unprecedented efficiencies correspond to an energy consumption of less than 50 kWh per kilogram of hydrogen produced and are essential for on-site hydrogen generation.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 18:03:57 +0000
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