Jennie Jorgenson

Grid Integration of Aggregated Demand Response, Part 1: Load Availability Profiles and Constraints for the Western Interconnection

Grid Integration of Aggregated Demand Response, Part 1: Load Availability Profiles and Constraints for the Western Interconnection Daniel]. Olsen, Nance Matson, Michael D. Sohn, Cody Rose, Junqiao Dudley, Sasank Goli, and Sila Kiliccote Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Marissa Hurnmon, David Palchak, Paul Denholm, and Jennie Iorgenson National Renewable Energy Laboratory September 2013

Grid Integration of Aggregated Demand Response, Part 2: Modeling Demand Response in a Production Cost Model

NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. Foreword This report is one of a series stemming from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Demand Response and Energy Storage Integration Study. This study is a multinational laboratory effort to assess the potential value of demand response (DR) and energy storage to electricity systems with different penetration levels of variable renewable resources and to improve our understanding of associated markets and institutions. This study was originated, sponsored, and managed jointly by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. Grid modernization and technological advances are enabling resources, such as DR and energy storage, to support a wider array of electric power system operations. Historically, thermal generators and hydropower in combination with transmission and distribution assets have been adequate to serve customer loads reliably and with sufficient power quality, even as variable renewable generation like wind and solar power become a larger part of the national energy supply. While DR and energy storage can serve as alternatives or complements to traditional power system assets in some applications, their values are not entirely clear. This study seeks to address the extent to which DR and energy storage can provide cost-effective benefits to the grid and to highlight institutions and market rules that facilitate their use. The project was initiated and informed by the results of two DOE workshops; one on energy storage and the other on DR. The workshops were attended by members of the electric power industry, researchers, and policymakers, and the study design and goals reflect their contributions to the collective thinking of the project team. Additional information …

Fundamental Drivers of the Cost and Price of Operating Reserves

Operating reserves impose a cost on the electric power system by forcing system operators to keep partially loaded spinning generators available for responding to system contingencies variable demand. In many regions of the United States, thermal power plants provide a large fraction of the operating reserve requirement. Alternative sources of operating reserves, such as demand response and energy storage, may provide more efficient sources of these reserves. However, to estimate the potential value of these services, the cost of reserve services under various grid conditions must first be established. This analysis used a commercial grid simulation tool to evaluate the cost and price of several operating reserve services, including spinning contingency reserves and upward regulation reserves. These reserve products were evaluated in a utility system in the western United States, considering different system flexibilities, renewable energy penetration, and other sensitivities. The analysis demonstrates that the price of operating reserves depend highly on many assumptions regarding the operational flexibility of the generation fleet, including ramp rates and the fraction of fleet available to provide reserves.

Estimating the Performance and Economic Value of Multiple Concentrating Solar Power Technologies in a Production Cost Model

NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. Any errors or omissions are solely the responsibility of the authors.

Particle morphology characterization and manipulation in biomass slurries and the effect on rheological properties and enzymatic conversion.

An improved understanding of how particle size distribution relates to enzymatic hydrolysis performance and rheological properties could enable enhanced biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic feedstocks. Particle size distribution can change as a result of either physical or chemical manipulation of a biomass sample. In this study, we employed image processing techniques to measure slurry particle size distribution and validated the results by showing that they are comparable to those from laser diffraction and sieving. Particle size and chemical changes of biomass slurries were manipulated independently and the resulting yield stress and enzymatic digestibility of slurries with different size distributions were measured. Interestingly, reducing particle size by mechanical means from about 1 mm to 100 μm did not reduce the yield stress of the slurries over a broad range of concentrations or increase the digestibility of the biomass over the range of size reduction studied here. This is in stark contrast to the increase in digestibility and decrease in yield stress when particle size is reduced by dilute‐acid pretreatment over similar size ranges.

Low Carbon Grid Study: Analysis of a 50% Emission Reduction in California

The California 2030 Low Carbon Grid Study (LCGS) analyzes the grid impacts of a variety of scenarios that achieve 50% carbon emission reductions from Californias electric power sector. Impacts are characterized based on several key operational and economic metrics, including production costs, emissions, curtailment, and impacts on the operation of gas generation and imports. The modeling results indicate that achieving a low-carbon grid (with emissions 50% below 2012 levels) is possible by 2030 with relatively limited curtailment (less than 1%) if institutional frameworks are flexible. Less flexible institutional frameworks and a less diverse generation portfolio could lead to higher curtailment (up to 10%), operational costs (up to

Impact of Wind and Solar on the Value of Energy Storage

800 million higher), and carbon emissions (up to 14% higher).

Final Technical Report: Integrated Distribution-Transmission Analysis for Very High Penetration Solar PV

This analysis evaluates how the value of energy storage changes when adding variable generation (VG) renewable energy resources to the grid. A series of VG energy penetration scenarios from 16% to 55% were generated for a utility system in the western United States. This operational value of storage (measured by its ability to reduce system production costs) was estimated in each VG scenario, considering provision of different services and with several sensitivities to fuel price and generation mix. Overall, the results found that the presence of VG increases the value of energy storage by lowering off-peak energy prices more than on-peak prices, leading to a greater opportunity to arbitrage this price difference. However, significant charging from renewables, and consequently a net reduction in carbon emissions, did not occur until VG penetration was in the range of 40%-50%. Increased penetration of VG also increases the potential value of storage when providing reserves, mainly by increasing the amount of reserves required by the system. Despite this increase in value, storage may face challenges in capturing the full benefits it provides. Due to suppression of on-/off-peak price differentials, reserve prices, and incomplete capture of certain system benefits (such as the cost of power plant starts), the revenue obtained by storage in a market setting appears to be substantially less than the net benefit (reduction in production costs) provided to the system. Furthermore, it is unclear how storage will actually incentivize large-scale deployment of renewables needed to substantially increase VG penetration. This demonstrates some of the additional challenges for storage deployed in restructured energy markets.

Comparing the net cost of CSP-TES to PV deployed with battery storage

Transmission and distribution simulations have historically been conducted separately, echoing their division in grid operations and planning while avoiding inherent computational challenges. Today, however, rapid growth in distributed energy resources (DERs)--including distributed generation from solar photovoltaics (DGPV)--requires understanding the unprecedented interactions between distribution and transmission. To capture these interactions, especially for high-penetration DGPV scenarios, this research project developed a first-of-its-kind, high performance computer (HPC) based, integrated transmission-distribution tool, the Integrated Grid Modeling System (IGMS). The tool was then used in initial explorations of system-wide operational interactions of high-penetration DGPV.

Methods for Analyzing the Economic Value of Concentrating Solar Power with Thermal Energy Storage

Concentrated solar power with thermal energy storage (CSP-TES) is a unique source of renewable energy in that its energy can be shifted over time and it can provide the electricity system with dependable generation capacity. In this study, we provide a framework to determine if the benefits of CSP-TES (shiftable energy and the ability to provide firm capacity) exceed the benefits of PV and firm capacity sources such as long-duration battery storage or conventional natural gas combustion turbines (CTs). The results of this study using current capital cost estimates indicate that a combination of PV and conventional gas CTs provides a lower net cost compared to CSP-TES and PV with batteries. Some configurations of CSP-TES have a lower net cost than PV with batteries for even the lowest battery cost estimate. Using projected capital cost targets, however, some configurations of CSP-TES have a lower net cost than PV with either option for even the lowest battery cost estimate. The net cost of CSP-TES varies w...