The Grid Modernization Initiative (GMI) represents a comprehensive Energy Department and partner collaboration, which accelerates the development of technology, modeling analysis, tools, and frameworks to help enable grid modernization adoption. The result of this work will enable grid planners and operators to measure, analyze, predict, protect, and control the grid of the future.
The Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) partially funds nine of GMI’s 2019 Grid Modernization Lab Call Awards. These projects are focused on addressing the reliability, resilience, and security challenges of the electric power system and improving the understanding of how the solar photovoltaic and distributed energy resources can be integrated affordably in both the distribution and bulk power systems. See a list of all the projects and learn more about the projects to which SETO contributes funding below.
Awards
Citadels
Lab Partners: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories
SETO Award Amount: $3,000,000
Principal Investigator: Kevin Schneider
Project Summary: This project enables networked microgrids, and their component distributed energy resources, to operate in a distributed manner using collaborative autonomy concepts implemented in an OpenFMB architecture.
Digital Twin Reinforcement Learning
Lab Partners: Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories
SETO Award Amount: $500,000
Principal Investigator: Jovana Helms
Project Summary: The project team is developing new artificial intelligence deep reinforcement learning approaches that use operational technology/distributed energy resources network and targeted physical process data to detect sophisticated, previously unknown threats and deploy appropriate response actions.
Firmware Command and Control
Lab Partners: Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories
SETO Award Amount: $4,500,000
Principal Investigator: Rita Foster
Project Summary: This project creates an agile embedded response capability foundational with baselined firmware and behaviors with bidirectional sharing of threat to upstream energy security operations.
Future Electric Utility Regulation
Lab Partners: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
SETO Award Amount: $900,000
Principal Investigator: Andy Satchwell
Project Summary: This project provides decision-makers with access to high-quality and impartial analyses, case studies, and decision-support tools to enlist utilities and customers as partners in grid modernization and consider alternative regulatory approaches.
GridSweeper: Frequency Response of Bulk Low-Inertia Grids
Lab Partners: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
SETO Award Amount: $1,400,000
Principal Investigator: Sascha von Meier
Project Summary: The project team is creating a new class of measuring instrument that reveals subtle dynamics of bulk grids. Probes inject a tiny signal and analyzes the response with ultra-high precision, applying novel devices and techniques.
Hierarchal Engine for Large-Scale Infrastructure Co-Simulation Plus: From a Facilitator to a Hub
Lab Partners: Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
SETO Award Amount: $2,000,000
Principal Investigator: Jason Fuller
Project Summary: The Grid Modernization Lab Consortium and the energy industry as a whole have been using Hierarchical Engine for Large-Scale Infrastructure Co-Simulation in their projects to comprehensively analyze and assess the increasing interdependency among critical infrastructures. This project addresses gaps in in scalable integration with diverse infrastructures and usability for co-simulation complexity.
Resilience Metrics for Grid Modernization
Lab Partners: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories
SETO Award Amount: $2,700,000
Principal Investigator: Robert Jeffers
Project Summary: This project is developing models that will calculate time-varying performance of Defense Critical Infrastructure during long duration bulk power system outages. The project team is vetting the resilience metrics and the models with the Department of Defense and industry stakeholders.
Technical Assistance for Public Utility Commissions
Lab Partners: Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
SETO Award Amount: $1,800,000
Principal Investigator: Peter Cappers
Project Summary: The project team aims to deliver in-depth technical assistance to 10-20 state public utility commissions for one to two year durations on any topic that can meaningfully and substantively support their grid modernization or energy infrastructure initiatives using a proactive-annual solicitation process.
Validation, Restoration, and Black Start Testing of Sensing, Controls, and Distributed Energy Resource Technologies at Plum Island
Lab Partners: Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
SETO Award Amount: $3,000,000
Principal Investigator: Emma Stewart
Project Summary: This project is transforming black start with distributed energy resources and storage, from foundational research based demonstrations, to a viable method for restarting and restoring the bulk power system after critical outages. This will dramatically increasing the toolbox for operators in the face of both physical and cyber incidents.
Learn more about SETO’s research areas, funding programs, and open funding opportunities.