Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) (2020 Transition)

Book 2 - Issue Papers
Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020

Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) is a research platform at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that can match the complexity of the modern energy system and conduct integrated research to support the development of groundbreaking new energy technologies. ARIES represents a substantial scale-up in experimentation capability from existing research platforms, allowing for research at the 20- MW level. The scale of the platform is amplified by a virtual emulation environment powered by NREL’s 8-petaflop supercomputer.

ARIES will make it possible to understand the impact and get the most value from the millions of new devices—such as electric vehicles, renewable generation, hydrogen, energy storage, and grid-interactive efficient buildings—that are being connected to the grid daily. The scale of the platform will also make it possible to consider opportunities and risks with the growing interdependencies between the power system and other infrastructure like natural gas, transportation, water, and telecommunications.

ARIES unites research capabilities at multiple scales and across sectors to create a platform for understanding the full impact of energy systems integration. ARIES addresses the risks and opportunities of widescale integration across five research areas: energy storage, power electronics, hybrid energy systems, future electric infrastructure, and cybersecurity.

Background

ARIES is a new initiative that will leverage capabilities at NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF)^[1], the Integrated Energy Systems at Scale (IESS) capabilities at the Flatirons Campus^[2], and a virtual emulation environment, matching those not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so. This will support hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experimentation with up to millions of virtual power grid and cyberinfrastructure devices.

ARIES aims to build on the capabilities at the ESIF by linking ESIF research assets to those at NREL’s Flatirons Campus. Research at the ESIF can go up to 2 MW, which covers distribution-level testing.

NREL is developing its Flatirons Campus to allow for research at the 20 MW scale and beyond, representing the interface between the distribution and bulk-power levels. Technologies to be investigated through partnerships between DOE, NREL, and industry will include storage technologies with new battery chemistries; innovative thermal storage systems such as phase-change materials; innovative electrolyzer and hydrogen storage technologies; extreme fast charging of multiple vehicles simultaneously; new medium voltage power electronics with wide band gap semiconductors; and a whole host of other emerging technologies that will need to be validated at-scale.

Using a 100 Gbps fiber optic link as its backbone, researchers can leverage capabilities at the Flatirons Campus and ESIF, including high-performance computing. This communications link will make it possible to explore breakthrough solutions for optimizing the integration of renewables, buildings, energy storage, and transportation—helping to modernize our energy systems and ensure a secure and resilient grid. A virtual emulation environment between the two campus sites will virtually connect with other research laboratories and industry to enable further leverage of research and capabilities. Network connectivity and fiber-optic connections will further enable data transfer from field experiments and provide data communications and dynamic closed-loop experimentation among the IESS component systems, ESIF, and other National Laboratories to enable experiments involving local and remote hardware, with machine-learning being an integral piece.

Energy Storage

ARIES connects multiple individual energy storage applications with a system-level perspective. The coupling of at-scale storage technologies—such as batteries + thermal, or batteries + hydrogen— will support essential steps toward validating energy system models and controls. As storage technologies graduate from the laboratory to the multi-megawatt level, ARIES will help systems stay ahead of performance and interfacing challenges associated with scaling.

Power Electronics

The continued growth in power electronics is creating a new paradigm in power system operation. ARIES helps address the fundamental differences between power electronic-based equipment and traditional devices and the limits that must be overcome to enable higher levels of renewable generation. By integrating new power electronic technologies and system architectures, ARIES will support a future grid with resilient and flexible operation.

Hybrid Energy Systems

With future energy systems expected to incorporate millions of distributed energy assets, the ARIES research platform is uniquely able to reproduce the diverse time scales, physical scales, and technologies of these hybrid energy systems. ARIES introduces a near-real-world environment with high-fidelity, physics-based, real-time models that facilitate the connection between hundreds of real hardware devices and tens of millions of simulated devices. This research area will advance the foundational science for real-time optimization and control of large-scale energy systems.

Future Energy Infrastructure

ARIES supports the innovation necessary for next-generation energy infrastructure solutions. The future energy infrastructure research area involves transmission and delivery networks on a variety of advanced fuel types and infrastructures, which undergird the power, transportation, buildings, and industrial sectors. ARIES will enable testing on grid designs that span from the level of microgrids up to high-voltage direct current transmission grids. Testing will also include management and control systems that optimally integrate power delivery for diverse fuel and technology types.

Cybersecurity

ARIES helps close the system-level security gaps that emerge from distinct hardware and software becoming integrated. The ARIES platform involves visualization, monitoring, and data processing for ARIES research assets and the connections between them. By creating a digital twin of clusters of research hardware, ARIES has the ability to simulate and detect attacks on communications and control systems that are still evolving, with an effect of reducing overall vulnerabilities in energy systems.

Issue(s)

The pace of innovation is occurring faster than the pace of grid modernization. Providing the energy industry with a place to conduct research and development on integrated energy systems at real-world scale and innovate new methods to monitor and control the growing number of diverse technologies that will interact with the grid is essential.

ARIES will enable the development of advanced energy solutions from generation, storage, and efficient, dynamic loads to serve as a foundation for the future bi-directional grid network, and their potential benefits are captured and valued. ARIES will provide data and results to simulate, validate, and enable integrative solutions for the transformational grid.

ARIES capabilities will support integration research that addresses the physical size and the growing number of interconnected devices as well as integration at the interface between the bulk and distribution power levels. ARIES will integrate emulation (e.g., representing dynamic building loads) with actual experimental hardware and use controllable grid interface equipment to inject faults and anomalies to test how equipment responds.

Status

Building off seven years of successful research and development at the Energy System Integration Facility (ESIF), the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is in the process of finalizing a research and development plan for ARIES based on feedback from a Request for Information (RFI) posted in February 2020. Secretary Dan Brouillette officially announced the opening of ARIES in August 2020, and NREL and EERE followed up on the announcement by holding an industry workshop in September 2020. More than 330 industry representatives participated in that workshop. Based on feedback from the kickoff meeting, NREL plans to hold a meeting specifically addressing energy storage.

Milestones

ARIES Request for Information: This was sent out to stakeholders for comment in February 2020.
ARIES Kickoff: Secretary Brouillette announced the kickoff of ARIES in August 2020.
ARIES Industry Workshop: Over 330 stakeholders attended the first ARIES industry workshop in September 2020.
Finalizing an ARIES R&D plan: This is planned for completion in October 2020.

References

↑ NREL’s South Table Mountain Campus in Golden, Colorado, is home to the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). The ESIF is a state-of-the-art research facility which provides a unique contained and controlled platform on which partners and users can identify and resolve the technical, operational, and financial risks of integrating emerging energy technologies into today’s environment.
↑ NREL’s recently renamed Flatirons Campus is located near Boulder, Colorado. The campus is also home to the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) that provides unique capabilities that support experiments, innovation and technology validation that advances U.S. leadership in wind technology.

[1] NREL’s South Table Mountain Campus in Golden, Colorado, is home to the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). The ESIF is a state-of-the-art research facility which provides a unique contained and controlled platform on which partners and users can identify and resolve the technical, operational, and financial risks of integrating emerging energy technologies into today’s environment.

[2] NREL’s recently renamed Flatirons Campus is located near Boulder, Colorado. The campus is also home to the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) that provides unique capabilities that support experiments, innovation and technology validation that advances U.S. leadership in wind technology.

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