| Technology 12 3 4 5


Turbine


Generator


Field data from actual hydro plants


Hydropower


representation using machine learning algorithms


Digtal real-time


simulation platform and assets


Variable-speed


hydropower generator emulation test bed


Hydropower integration with megawatt-scale


renewable and energy storage at ARIES


ever before. As the US transitions to a 100% clean energy power grid, hydropower’s flexible, reliable energy – and energy storage – will play a big role in keeping that grid running smoothly. And while researchers have studied how solar power and wind energy technologies integrate into the grid, how hydropower could support a future clean energy grid is not as well understood. “It’s a significant addition to our emulation platform” said Rob Hovsapian, a senior research advisor at NREL, who helped build the emulation platform. “Hydropower needs to live with the changing grid, and we want to make it a better resource in terms of flexibility and reliability.” To provide that flexible, reliable energy, the


hydropower industry is using more power electronics, which give them finer control over their plants’ energy output. Greater control means plants can quickly respond to cyber and natural threats, like the severe winter storm that knocked out power in the Midwest. “Hydropower plants need to essentially reinvent the way they’re operated and controlled,” Panwar said.


ARIES


In the initial Seedlings project, Panwar and his colleagues collected field data from hydropower plants operating in the remote Alaskan city of Cordova. Then, using machine learning, they designed software representations that could realistically imitate a hydropower plant, including its electronic controls, turbines, hydraulic and mechanical circuits, and even water flows – all in real time. “If a phenomenon that happens in your system takes 10 seconds in the real world, then the computation of this system also produces the solution by the wall clock time,” Panwar said. But how do you realistically imitate a real-life grid?


To learn how these new hydropower designs might integrate into various grid systems, Panwar and his team turned to NREL’s Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES). With ARIES, one of the US Department of Energy’s largest digital grid simulation platforms, the hydro emulation platform could mimic how hydropower plants might pair up with energy storage and other renewable energy technologies to provide more reliable energy to a grid. ARIES also provides an opportunity to connect the team’s software to actual hardware, like rotating


machines that represent a hydropower plant’s rotating turbine, to get as close as possible to replicating a real- life plant in the safety of a controlled lab environment. Next, Panwar and his team plan to scale up their


emulation platform to mimic plants that can generate megawatts of energy (right now the platform is capped at 2.5 megawatts). Along the way, they will continue to check in with their industry advisory board to learn what challenges hydropower plants are facing and how the hydropower emulation platform could help. Eventually, Panwar hopes the industry sees his platform as their go-to test bed. If Panwar gets his wish, hydro-rich utilities across the


United States, could quickly learn how to reconfigure their local hydropower plants and grid to better serve their customers – keeping the heat and lights on even during severe winter storms and well into a 100% clean energy future.


Partnerships


Hydropower Industry: Siemens, General Electric, Stantec, and Cordova Electric Cooperative


International Collaboration: University of South-Eastern Norway under a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Research Council of Norway


Acknowledgement


Report by Caitlin McDermott- Murphy, Senior Writer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory


Above: Combined with NREL’s Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (or ARIES), Panwar’s hydropower emulation platform can mimic how hydropower plants might pair up with energy storage and other renewable energy technologies to provide more reliable energy to a grid Illustration by Tara Smith, NREL


Capabilities


The megawatt-scale hydropower emulation will incorporate several ARIES infrastructure assets, including: A large cluster of digital real-time simulation for regional-level power system dynamics and controllable grid interface (19.9 MVA) for electrical power hardware-in-the-loop and controller hardware-in-the-loop experiments. Actual hardware grid controllers, digital governors, variable-speed hydropower emulation, and power electronic interfaces. A megawatt-scale (2-by-1.25-MW) variable-speed hydropower emulation platform for mechanical power hardware-in-the-loop experiments. Renewable energy assets (such as wind turbines and solar photovoltaics). Energy storage and conversion technologies (such as batteries and hydrogen electrolyzers). A low-power advanced power electronics building block test bed.


www.waterpowermagazine.com | August 2023 | 41


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