Sandia's Grid Modernization Program Newsletter | December 2017
Covering topics that include energy storage, renewable energy integration,
transmission planning and operations, defense energy, cybersecurity and more, Sandia's
quarterly Grid Modernization Program Newsletter features research highlights, upcoming
events, technical achievements, and new publications and patents. News stories are
also available on Sandia's Grid Modernization website. Enjoy!
In this Issue:
Sandia to Lead Next Generation Cybersecurity Projects to Strengthen Energy Infrastructure
Sandia has been
selected to lead two projects and support three others funded by the U.S.
Department of Energy Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems program to enhance cyber security for the grid and oil
and natural gas infrastructure.
The first project, Containerized Application Security for Industrial Control
Systems, will increase the availability and resiliency of control systems by
dynamically migrating, updating, and restoring critical computer applications
in real time. The second Sandia-led project, Survivable Industrial Control Systems,
will proactively detect and appropriately respond to threats to power system
equipment while sustaining critical energy delivery functions.
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Sandia to Lead New GMLC Project to Enhance Community Resiliency
As a result from the recent Resilient Distribution Systems Lab Call with
the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC), the DOE Grid Modernization Initiative has chosen
Sandia to lead a 3-year project, “Designing Resilient Communities,” beginning
in December. Together with electric utilities and other partners, Sandia will
work to solidify a framework for community resilience planning focused on grid
modernization and investment involving key stakeholders in the community. In
addition, Sandia will play a key role in two other GMLC demonstration projects:
“Resilient Alaskan Distribution System Improvements using Automation, Network
Automation, Network Analysis, Control, and Energy Storage (RADIANCE)” and the “Laboratory
Valuation Analysis Team”.
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Real-time Superlab
Demonstration Connects Labs across the Globe
Sandia joined a team
of DOE national labs and universities in the U.S. and Europe to demonstrate the
use of power hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) capabilities located at each
institution to conduct a distributed
real-time simulation of a power systems. During this exercise, Sandia
simulated the behavior of a distribution network with a large amount of
embedded photovoltaics (PV). The PV generation was represented with actual
power hardware (e.g., an inverter) located at Sandia’s Distributed Energy
Technologies Laboratory. The Real-time Superlab Demonstration was led by Idaho
National Laboratory and included the National Renewable Energy Laboratory,
Colorado State University, University of South Carolina, Washington State
University, RWTH Aachen University in Germany, and Politecnico di Torino in
Italy. This linkup demonstrated the feasibility of a multi-site, real-time
simulation of the electrical grid, by exchanging secure high-speed data among
research institutes. This ability creates new capabilities, increases
opportunities for collaboration, and makes research infrastructure investment
more cost-effective.
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Tech Transfer Project
will Help Move Membranes to the Marketplace
As one of five Technology
Commercialization Fund projects awarded to Sandia, WattJoule will test Sandia’s membranes for use
in vanadium redox flow batteries. Previous lab scale experiments at Sandia have shown
that a new membrane has better performance and the
potential for much lower cost. This large-scale test by WattJoule will evaluate
performance at scale, thereby giving industry verification so commercialization
can accelerate. Vanadium redox flow batteries are best suited for applications
that require storing large amounts of energy, such as time-shifting renewable
generation or load.
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New 250kW Battery System Installed
at Sandia Expands Capabilities
A new 250kW/1MWH vanadium redox flow battery has been
installed at Sandia’s Energy Storage Test Pad site to expand research
capabilities in energy storage and controls. The battery system is an addition to
Sandia’s Distributed Energy
Technologies Laboratory to research microgrid solutions, controls,
cybersecurity, and the feasibility of grid scale energy storage. Sandia will
also work with battery vendors to evaluate and refine their controls based on
how they perform at the site.
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Virtual Power Plant Reports Now Available
Under a 3-year laboratory
directed research and development project, Sandia established virtual power
plant (VPP) software—a cyber-resilient, real-time communications system—to
provide utilities with greater capability to perform voltage/frequency
regulation and respond to grid disturbances. The concept of the VPP refers to a
collection of resources and power circuits that are under a coordinated control
as an entity that can respond to commands and behave as a controllable and
dispatchable resource. The first report describes
the design and evaluation of a secure VPP, while the second report details
full state feedback control.
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EPB Energizes
Grid-Scale Battery
Earlier this Fall, EPB
energized a 100kw/400kWh Vanadium Redox Flow Battery as part of a GMLC project
led by Sandia. The battery will be used for solar integration, voltage
regulation, back-up power, advanced microgrid operations, and energy
management. Sandia will analyze the data generated from the system to identify the
value streams for each potential application to optimize utilization.
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Webinar Available: Energy
Resilience in the Americas
Sandia’s Abraham Ellis, manager
of Renewable and Distributed Systems Integration, provided an overview of
energy resilience research during the webinar
“Energy Resilience in the Americas: Frameworks, Tools, Applications and
Experiences in Reinforcing Energy Systems in the Americas”. This event, which
took place on August 29, was organized by the Clean Energy Solutions Center and
the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) Technical
Coordinating Unit at the Organization of American States. It was part of a
U.S.-led effort to disseminate critical infrastructure resilience best tactics. Representatives from Argonne National
Laboratory and energy agencies in Mexico and the Dominican Republic also
participated in the webinar.
Webinar Available: Energy Storage Solutions for Disaster Recovery and Resilience
Sandia's Dan Borneo, program lead for Energy Storage Demonstration Projects, participated in a webinar on October 24 to discuss solar+storage solutions for short-term resilience and recovery in natural disasters, including current efforts in Puerto Rico and past efforts in Florida and the Northeast. The webinar was hosted by the Clean Energy States Alliance and included panelists from the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, SunTree Consulting, Solar Energy Industries Association, and Sonnen.
Recap: DOE Energy Storage
Peer Review and Electrical Energy Storage Applications and Technologies
Conference
During the week of October 9th, 150 attendees
gathered at the Annual DOE Energy Storage Peer Review and 10th
Biennial Electrical Energy Storage Applications and Technologies (EESAT) Conference
in San Diego, CA. The Peer Review evaluated 47 posters of projects funded by
the program while EESAT celebrated 20 years of the international conference
bringing together researchers and professionals from national laboratories,
universities, and industry. On Friday the 13th, a tour of the University
of California San Diego Microgrid guided attendees through the 47MW peak load
microgrid at the Center for Energy Research. Presentations and posters
from the event are available on the event website.
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Upcoming Events
Join Sandia's grid experts at the following external engagements
in the coming months:
David Schoenwald is Recognized by 2017 IEEE Outstanding Engineer
The IEEE Albuquerque Section has recognized David Schoenwald
as a 2017
Outstanding Engineer for his contributions to the development and
realization of next-generation smart grid technologies. David is the principal
investigator for a project on wide-area damping control for Bonneville Power
Administration—a project aimed at reducing wide-area power oscillations to help
prevent blackouts and provide more cost-effective options for utilities. The
technology used for this project was one of the three R&D 100 award winners
listed above.
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Publications
Barkholtz, H.M., Fresquez, A., Chalamala, B.R., and
Ferreira, S.R., “A
Database for Comparative Electrochemical Performance of Commercial 18650-Format
Lithium-Ion Cells,” J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 164, no. 12, pp.
A2697-A2706, September 2017.
Byrne, R.H.; Nugyen, T.A.; Copp, D.A.; Chalamala, B.R.; Gyuk,
I. “Energy
Management and Optimization Methods for Grid Energy Storage Systems,” IEEE
Access, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1-30. August 2017.
Guo, Z.M.; Chen, R.L.Y; Fan, N.; Watson, J.P. “Contingency-Constrained
Unit Commitment with Intervening Time for System Adjustments,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 32, Issue: 4, pp 3049-3059, July 2017.
Safta, C.; Chen, R.L.Y.; Najm, H.N.; Pinar, A.; Watson, J.P.
“Efficient Uncertainty
Quantification in Stochastic Economic Dispatch,” IEEE Transactions on Power
Systems, vol. 32, Issue: 4, pp 2535-2546, July 2017.
Small, L.J.; Eccleston, A.; Lamb, J.; Read, A.C.; Robins,
M.; Meaders, T.; Ingersoll, D.; Clem, P.G.; Bhavaraju, S.; Spoerke, E.D., “Next
Generation Molten NaI Batteries for Grid Scale Energy Storage,” Journal of
Power Sources. 360, 569-574, August 2017.
Stenclik, D., Denholm, P., and Chalamala, B. "Maintaining Balance: The
Increasing Role of Energy Storage for Renewable Integration," in IEEE
Power and Energy Magazine, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 31-39, November - December 2017.
Patents
Patent Application filed: Aqueous Na-ion Redox Flow Battery with Ceramic NaSICON
Membrane
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