Conversations in Energy Storage Day 1

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All right, we're started. Rebecca Martineau, National Renewable Energy  Laboratory: Thank you. Hello, everyone and   welcome to today’s webinar: Conversations in  Energy Storage Integration. This is day one of   this seminar, and introduction  to energy storage integration.   We have a great line-up of speakers here today to  discuss how collaborative research is critical to   addressing challenges in energy storage. Before  we get started, I’m just gonna go over these  

few housekeeping items. You’re probably  listening using your computer speaker system.   And if you want to dial in, I believe there is  an option for that. We’re taking questions today   via the Q&A function at the bottom of your  control panel. But we do encourage you to   focus on saving questions for the panel  discussion at the end of the session.

We are recording today’s webinar, and you will  receive a follow up e-mail within a few weeks with   a link to view the recording. With that, I’d like  to introduce today’s moderator Dr. Ahmad Pesaran.   Ahmad has worked at NREL on thermal  engineering of energy systems,   energy efficient technologies, and batteries  for electrified vehicles over the last 37 years.   Between 2007 and 2016, he was the NREL  energy storage group manager. He was on  

offsite assignment with DOE’s vehicle technologies  office in 2016 through 2018. He currently supports   vehicle technologies office battery R&D team  with battery processing, manufacturing solid   electrolyte and local alt cathode projects.  All right, Ahmad, I will turn it over to you. Dr. Ahmad Pesaran, National  Renewable Energy Laboratory:   Thank you, Erica. Thank you for your  introduction. This is Ahmad Pesaran,   as you mentioned. I would like to welcome  all of you from behalf of NREL, and also  

energy conversion and energy storage systems.  And I think the purpose of introduction   is to kind of – as you can see all the speakers  providing different perspective from different   organizations on the energy storage and how they  should be integrated or have the opportunity   to integrating them together so that that  some of them to be larger than each one. And I think the energy storage technologies, each  one, each technology like thermal or chemical has   made a lot of progress. And I think that we got  to the point that kind of maybe we can – if you   have _____ and integrate them, we get more out of  them, right, for the grid and decarbonization of   the grid, and achieving the climate change for  our future. So without further ado, I would like   to introduce Maggie Mann, _____ speaker. Erica, do  you have slides to share from this morning, or –? Rebecca Martineau: Yeah. Sorry. I thought you  had them. Let me pull them up. [Crosstalk]

Dr. Ahmad Pesaran: So Maggie is our manager for  Mobility Infrastructure and Impacts Analysis at   NREL. She has been at NREL for a while, for a  long time, and has been a good colleague of mine.   And she has background in chemical engineering,   and she now leads the _____ for analysis and _____  different technologies, particularly batteries. So   my introduction to energy storage  integration. So Maggie, go ahead.

Maggie Mann, National Renewable Energy  Laboratory: Thank you very much,   Ahmad. And good morning to everyone. It’s  quite snowy here. And I am super glad   to be working from home. [Laughter] Something I  don’t say everyday these days. But I hope you’re   well where you are, and I’m glad that  we were able to have this conversation.   I just wanted to confirm that what you’re seeing  is the presentation mode for my presentation? Rebecca Martineau: Yes.

Maggie Mann: Okay. And if I do that, does  it switch to the not presentation mode? Rebecca Martineau: Yep. Maggie Mann: Okay. So I won’t do that. [Laughter]  All right. Thank you. So Jen Kurtz asked me to   just show few slides to get us kicked off  and oriented toward the need for integrated   energy storage. We know that we have a  lot of goals that need to be met with our  

current challenges facing us, particularly  for decarbonization, energy efficiency,   demand for greater amount of power in  the integration of the transportation   sector with our electricity sector. We have great  resilience challenges. And of course we have the   growing needs for repairing and upgrading  our infrastructure around energy systems.   And we can’t reliably and consistently meet  these needs with our current energy system. So we know that there are multiple  technologies available for energy   storage at different timescales. There is  the short duration, very quick response,   batteries that are available all the  way to a very long timescale duration,   long duration energy storage technologies,  as well as many that are emerging.  

But what we also know is that isolated technology  development for not only the individual energy   storage technologies, but also for the clean  energy technologies we’re going to rely on,   won’t be enough, and that we need to integrate  these technologies and integrate energy storage   with these clean energy technologies in order  to solve the challenges that are in front of us. ARIES is a research platform at NREL that is  seeking to accelerate the transition to this   modern energy system located at our Flatirons  campus between Golden and Boulder. It has space   and power levels available to integrate systems  at scales that really matter in order to test them   in real world conditions, in integrated ways  that may be seen in multiple locations across   multiple timescales out there in the real world  as we move to this future modern energy system.   We also know that these challenges are important  in multi-dimensional. And then talking with the –   sorry, let me just get rid of that, making  sure conversations exist between government,   industry, and academia are critical for  making sure that the collaborative research   is formed and addressed to address these  challenges. And we think the ARIES as well   as platforms such as this seminar can facilitate  some of that engagement and collaboration.

So this seminar series has an objective of  increasing impact by not only sharing information,   research, technology information, but also making  those connections. And in informing our future   work, we hope to develop not only collaboration,  but also partnerships in order to bring together   the best minds, the best technologies, and  the best institutions. Thank you very much.   I look forward to participating in today’s  seminar and tomorrow’s discussion as well. Dr. Ahmad Pesaran:   Thank you, Maggie. I appreciate  it, putting the perspective right  

so that we can get in discussion. Our  next speaker that is going to talk is Eric   Hsieh. And sorry if I made _____ wrong. So he’s  the director of the Energy System and Component at   Office of Electricity in the Department  of Energy. Eric is project leader, also   manages the Energy Storage Grand Challenge that’s  operating across cross collaboration across DOE,   and _____ program _____ _____ optimization _____  utilization of energy storage technologies. And I  

think he has looked at all different technologies  under his Grand Challenge. Previously, he was a   member of _____ companies, and also Federal Energy  Regulatory Commission. Eric is gonna talk, I’m   sure, talk about Grand Challenge and long duration  storage energy _____. So Eric, please go ahead. Eric Hsieh, U.S. Department of Energy: Great.  Thank you for that invitation and thank you for  

the chance to share some thoughts about  how DOE is addressing the need for   sort of a step change improvement  in energy storage technologies.   Can you make sure my screen appears okay?  You got a full screen from my slide? Rebecca Martineau: Looks great. Eric Hsieh: Great. Thank you. Great. So just  continuing on the theme of collaboration that  

Maggie introduced for us. I’m gonna talk  about how DOE is looking at energy storage   and collaboration. So I think  this is not news to anyone   on this call, but I think it’s useful to help  set up some of the magnitude of the challenges   that we face. So if we look at the 2035 and 2050  decarbonization goals for the administration,   getting there will require massive amounts of  more storage or flexible, clean flexible capacity.  

So anywhere from 40 times to 100  times more than we have today.   And as Maggie mentioned, storage includes a  range of functions provided by many technologies. So DOE’s storage work is found across more than  half a dozen labs, and over a dozen – sorry,   half a dozen offices and over a dozen labs. And  successful storage deployment is going to require   the full range of R&D deployment manufacturing and  institutional support. All of these need to occur   as a package and coordinated with each  other in order for us to grow this   industry fast enough. And it’s really gonna  require, within DOE, collaboration across  

traditional DOE boundaries, across offices, and  across institutional boundaries with the industry.   So to give people sort of an idea of what this  magnitude is, if you look at what we have today,   it’s actually quite – give me  a second, it’s almost daunting. So this very thin blue dark blue line is to scale  the batteries that were deployed at the end of   2020. So that’s about 3.5 gigawatts, 8.7 gigawatt  hours, so on average they’re about three hours and   change in duration. And this longer blue line is  this pump storage deployed in the US as of 2020.   So 22 gigawatts, 550 gigawatt hours, so on average  about 25 hours. If you look at business as usual  

scenarios of what might be built in the  relatively medium-term future, 2030, you’d see a   fairly sizeable growth in batteries. So depending  on which analyst you’re looking at, you could have   65 gigawatts or 235 gigawatt hours of batteries  that represents almost a 30 times increase in   what we have now. And then if everything currently  in the pump storage development pipeline is built,   then we would get something on the order of   50 gigawatts and 1,300 gigawatts, so  2.5 times over what we have today. Depending on where, you know, who you are  looking at in terms of decarbonization scenarios,   we might need to anywhere from 300 to 800  gigawatts of storage. That represents 1,200   to 1,400 gigawatt hours. So that is fairly, fairly  – like many, many times more than we have today.   And then if you’re looking at  2050 when seasonal storage becomes   even more important, you know, some models  model this as a clean dispatchable technology.  

Others explicitly now model it as an energy  storage technology. You’re talking, again,   another several hundred gigawatt hours  of very, very long duration technology. Now the point of showing  these requirements is that   it’s really pointing to the technical need for  portfolio storage technology. So you have you have   a subset of the capacity that’s going to be cycled  daily. So less than 12 hours in duration, it’s  

going to address most of the diurnal variations  in the load shape, in that load shape. And when   you’re talking about this type of duration,  there will be a lot of benefits for being   located closer to load, especially for resilience  in that the vast majority of interruptions are of   a short enough duration that this kind of capacity  in duration would be better addressed then, and   then the faults would be cleared by the time you  would need to have the opportunity to recharge. When you’re looking at storage that is very long  in duration, you know, a hundred hours or hundreds   of hours, these are going to be cycled maybe  weekly or monthly, or even less. And when you   get to those kinds of operations, the resilience  benefits become a little bit less because you   don’t have quite as many outages in terms of  frequency that lasts that long. But you do have  

geographic extended benefits, so in terms of being  able to access different parts of the country to   take advantage of different availabilities or load  patterns throughout seasons. And so that starts to   point to different requirements for both scale  and geographic portability, and potentially even   efficiency. And so it’s sort of the envelope of  what you might tolerate would be very different. So what do we need to do to get there? There is a  DOE Energy Source Grand Challenge costs performs   report that’s in the process of being updated. So  it’s expanding its sort of business-as-usual cost   projections from about four storage technologies  today to about a dozen. Once the 2022 version   is released. And it sets up some, you know,  business-as-usual expectations for what   a storage system might cost in 2030. And a lot  of them show some performance improvements,  

but there will still be a gap between where we  think storage technologies might go independent   of R&D interventions, and where they really need  to get to in terms of levelized costs storage   in order for decarbonization to occur in a  way that minimizes rate impacts to end users. Despite the gap, you know, I think there are  many technologies for which the underlying   materials costs are so low that R&D  is a credible cost reduction strategy.   So with that, it gives me a chance to mention the  Long Duration Storage Shots. So the Long Duration   Storage Shot is one of the DOE’s Earthshots that  has been set up by this administration and it is   managed by the Energy Storage Grand Challenge.  And the target is intuitively easy to explain.   We are basically are trying to target the storage  levelized cost that would allow you to move energy   from time A to time B by adding less than five  cents a kilowatt hour. If we get to that point,  

then dependable clean energy becomes  competitive with existing energy sources. So the other shot really leverages the Energy  Storage Grand Challenge use case framework,   which was first unveiled a little more than a year  ago, where we began to put into place this use   case-based R&D coordination strategy. So instead  of saying we need to advance a certain technology   along a particular set of dimensions or metrics,  we instead set up a group of half a dozen use   cases, each with their own technology cost and  performance requirements, and then work backwards   from there to identify, to allow for any of the  technologies that have a shot of meeting them   to be part of the Storage Grand Challenge. So  what the Long Duration Storage Earthshot does   is elevates two of them. One is  facilitating grid decarbonization,   so that is the decarbonizing grid use case,  as well as serving remote communities. So  

communities that are weakly-connected or not  connected at all to the bulk power system,   and making sure that they also have  access to reliable clean energy. So some thoughts about DOE’s storage collaboration  and how we got there. So a little bit of   kind of history, but I think it illustrates how  an institution sort of organically recognizes an   issue and begins to sort of self-organize in a  way that is clear and more productive. So prior   to 2018, there had been informal storage working  groups within the department. So ARPA-E Energy  

Efficiency, OE, and the Office of Science were  major participants. And then there was also this   initiative called Beyond Batteries from EERE,  and to coordinate sort of storage-related, the   activities within EE. In early 2019, OE and  the Office of Electricity, my office, and EERE,   proposed the Advanced Energy Storage Initiative,  which is probably like the first sort of formally   proposed coordination structure in  that it appeared in our budget request. Sort of very closely following that, we’re  actually told by Congress through their Research   and Technology Investment Act to put together  crosscutting groups for major technology issues.  

And the first one of course that was chosen was  storage, and that became the Energy Storage Grand   Challenge in 2020. And that now encompasses all of  the offices that have anything to do with storage   from basic energy sciences in SD, to the more  deployment-focused activities in offices like   the Office of Tech Transition and the Loans  Programs Office. And in 2021, so last July,   the Energy Storage Grand Challenge was used  to launch the Long Duration Storage Shot. So a little bit more of a detail on what the  ESGC is. So instead of continuing to sort of   propagate the existing stovepipes within DOE, we  identified five main tracks for which there would   be crosscutting interests, and that were critical  to the advancement of the storage industry.  

So the first track is technology development,  and that’s to track _____. And here we want   to maximize the pace of storage innovation  through ambitious goals and rigorous metrics,   and focused on the use cases that I  had presented earlier. The second is   manufacturing and supply chain, looking to  lower manufacturing costs, accelerate the   scale-up of manufacturing innovations, and enable  the reliable source being of critical materials.

The next three move from technology-focused tracks  to very much more crosscutting issues. So for   example, technology transition includes enhancing  access to experts facilities and intellectual   property, industry and market analysis, like  the cost reduction graphs that you saw earlier,   and in collaboration and  engagement with the industry.   Policy evaluation while probably a smaller  resource activity especially critical for storage.  

You know, giving technical assistance to  support energy effective storage policies   or storage relevant policies has been one of  major enablers to storage deployment recently   as well, as providing assistance in planning and  regulatory processes. And finally recognized that   developing the broad workforce for R&D in  DOE manufacturing operation is going to be   necessary to scale this industry  to the levels that I showed   on the first graph, which is, you know,  showing orders of magnitudes of growth. And all of these tracks have their own  laboratory working groups, and we have   regular contributors from over a hundred  lab staff from nearly every lab doing work   in energy storage. And I very much appreciate  the expertise being contributed there. So   a little bit of a tour through why this kind of  coordination is necessary. So if you look at the   continuum of activities from foundational  efforts materials out to demo and evaluation,   and then to commercialization,  institutional, or market development,   we cover the gamut. But the need to be  well-coordinated is probably very important. So you have, you know, efforts from basic energy  science that are probably broadly applicable   to many technologies, and you kind of split off  into the technology-specific offices like nuclear   fossil, Office of Electricity, or EERE, trying  to get individual technologies to sort of the   first of a kind or applied demo stage. And  then things are joined back together as you  

get to commercialization, institutional, or get  more crosscutting activities. And finally market   development, trying to pave the way to make  sure that these two technologies really do have   commercial demand, and can be not just scaled  from a technical perspective, but scaled from   the perspective of the market  actually pulling them into adoption. So an example of where these kinds of  collaborations through the ESG structure   have been really fruitful is the AMO and the OE  flow battery FOA that was awarded late last fall.  

And this is an example of an opportunity that  really leverages the strengths of the different   offices. So there’s the advanced manufacturing  office within EERE that’s focused on innovative   manufacturing capabilities, technologies, and  practices, looking to scale-up new manufacturing   techniques, and looking to streamline and secure  our supply chains. And on the other hand, there’s   OE focused for a very long time specifically on  stationary grid energy storage, and has built up   a sizable capability in terms of  validating new technologies for   this specific application or set of applications. So what this funding does is leverages, you know,   it ultimately selected four companies to  work on sort this middle area of materials   to product assembly. And what it leverages is  the sort of, the prototypes that would come from  

these project performers, but then be validated  at scale at the DOE National Labs that OE has   supported to ensure that they would perform for  the entire intended application. So it, again,   leverages sort of AMO strengths in manufacturing,  and OE’s collaborative strengths in testing and   validation in a way that I think is efficient and  very – will be very effective for this industry. I’ll talk a little bit more about  another cross cutting activity,   storage technical systems and regulatory  support. This will also be a joint   office activity looking at regulatory market and  policy decisions to drive deployment. The barrier   here is often informational, so providing  advanced data tools and analysis will help   stakeholders identify, you know, what storage,  if any, would be optimal and beneficial for them.  

And then help them identify how storage would  be beneficial to their broader energy system. So   roughly three stages of developing resources, then  engaging in analytical and technical assistance,   and finding ways to help specific groups  of stakeholders increase their capabilities   and also learn from each other through  the dissemination of best practices. And then I want to give a note to establishing  connections throughout the labs. And we heard  

earlier about ENREL’s new ARIES  facility, and I think it’s an important   part of the overall portfolio of lab capabilities  that have been built up over the past decades   that will really accelerate energy  storage development. So if you go from   solution creators, academia, early  stage innovators, material suppliers,   there are a whole host of capabilities from  MERF at Oak Argonne, to Grid C at Oak Ridge,   to the new grid storage launchpad at PNNL, that  are designed to solve the known and unknown   problems in terms of getting a concept from  a paper or benchtop scale to the next stage. And I think ARIES and other labs sort of it at  this integration stage is perfectly positioned   to make sure a lot of the – more of these concepts  can perform as designed and will work well when   integrated into larger systems so that they will  be ready for the deployment enablers at the end,   like automakers, or utilities, investors,  and others. I also do want to mention that   the Energy Storage Grand Challenge is working to  further the ability of the labs so that they’re   connected with industry. So if we have a concept  or prototype, can you be matched with the   most appropriate DOE and lab capability  to accelerate that to deployment? So earlier – sorry in back in September of  last year, we launched the Energy Storage   Grand Challenge specific portal on the Office of  Technology transition’s lab partnering service.  

So, you know, the preliminary database is up  there, but we hope to augment and increase   them this year. There are literally hundreds of  listings of individual experts and facilities,   and other capabilities, and it is designed to make  it as seamless as possible for someone who has an   idea, but maybe also a barrier in this industry  to find someone who can help them work through it   and get them to market as quickly as  possible. I’m gonna stop. I am gonna   end with just a note on the formal storage  collaboration points sort of throughout DOE. So if think of our DOE sort of pseudo venture  capitalist cycle as going from outreach to   strategy development out to funding  and program project reviews,   there are many opportunities for collaboration.  You know, there’s for example, program strategy,   development that’s often derived from DOE  level goals so that we’re all on the same page.   There are DOE-wide crosscut coordination. So  Energy Storage Grand Challenge is one of them, but  

there are also other ones are related to the grid  as well as AI. Of course all of you are aware of   the collaborations that go on especially through  project reviews, and that offices help each other. And then I will also note that the Congress  requires the DOE Electricity Advisory Committee   to perform a review of the performance storage  activities every two years. So that’s another   opportunity for external sort of formal feedback  on the way we’re doing things. And I’ll close   with an illustration of the cast of hundreds  that supports this effort. So currently,   we have set up a laboratory coordination effort  for Energy Storage Grand Challenge that’s led   by four labs, but includes participation, again,  as we mentioned from all the ones leading energy   storage innovation efforts. And without them,  none of this could work as effectively as it does.  

So with that, thank you for the opportunity to  speak, and I’ll turn it back to our moderator. Dr. Ahmad Pesaran: Thank you, Eric. It was great  providing this perspective on DOE and all the   activities going on. It’s a lot going on. I  think would be good to continue _____ doing   that. Collaboration is important as you  mentioned, especially the challenges ahead of   us with the categorization of the grid. Our next  speaker is Jen Kurtz. She’s my center director and   my boss. So it’s a very pleasure to introduce her.  She led this effort of these conversations for  

energy storage seminar series, this first one, and  gonna continue future ones. We’ll let you know. Jen leads the Energy Conversion and Storage  Center, which look at many different aspects   of the disciplinary technologies, and she’s  gonna talk about that. I think more than that,   she is also involved in the ARIES Advanced  Research on Integrated Energy Systems. She   is actually leading that, and she has two hats and  two big hats, a big job. And before that, Jen was   involved in Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Systems. So  Jen, please go ahead. Pleasure to have you here.

Jen Kurtz, National Renewable Energy Laboratory:  Yeah, thanks so much. Let me just share my screen   here. And if you could just let me know  that you’ve got the presentation of slides? Dr. Ahmad Pesaran: Yep.  Yep, I see that. Thank you.

Jen Kurtz: All right. Very good. Well, thanks for  joining us today. We’re so excited to have you   here. Eric, it was a really great kind of set-up  of what the DOE vision is around Energy Storage,   the Grand Challenge, the wide range of aspects  of that Grand Challenge that you’re tackling. So  

thanks so much for giving us that perspective.  What I’d like to do is just share with you   how ENREL’s Energy Conversion and Storage  Systems Research Center is tackling some of these   challenges around energy storage solutions. One  of the things that we – one of our touchstones is   this phrase “Clean and affordable energy when and  where it is needed” is something in in terms of a   vision that we connect with and look to see how  we as a research center can support that vision.   We recognize we’re just one small piece into  all of the opportunities here and challenges.

And then throughout the presentation, I’ve got  some images here. So I just want to let you know   one of the – this particular image is actually  looking at the streamlines representing lithium   ions and the electrolyte phase as ions travel  through pores between the solid active material   particles. That’s just setting the stage a little  bit for some of the research that we’re doing that   that connects, Eric, as you were talking  about, with that wide range of activities   all the way from the basic material science to  the commercialization and application of this.  

So we’re thinking about this clean and  affordable energy when and where it’s needed,   and coming to the challenge, Eric really   laid this out so well. But we need energy  storage solutions, and we need them quickly. We have ambitious decarbonization goals.  We have ambitious goals that are looking at   just energy systems no matter where you are,  who you are, and what your background is.   Those are our pushing us with a sense of urgency.  Right? And so our priority within our research  

center and connecting across multiple labs and  partners is how do we advance, how do we support   this challenge through research activities?  And so we’re thinking to set the stage for this   conversation today and tomorrow is that isolated  technology advancements aren’t going to be fast   enough. Right? They’re not gonna help us drive  towards these big ambitious goals soon enough. Twenty thirty-five, Eric mentioned for  decarbonized grid. That means that we need to have   solution sets that are ready to be  deployed into the marketplace much   sooner than 2035 if we’re going to hit that  goal. And so we’re coming from the perspective   that, sure, there’s technology advancements,  and if we just let it take its course,   it would it would certainly solve challenges,  just not at the rate that we need them to be   addressed at. Right? So we’re working on R&D for  technology advancement that span electrochemical,   molecular thermal, and mechanical energy  storage systems and conversion opportunities. So within the water research space, we’re looking  at hydro, marine energy, and water systems. And  

then there’s thermal research looking that  concentrated solar power and thermal – solar   thermal fuels and storage, geothermal process  heat. And there’s batteries and study materials   to manufacturing the durability and reliability  of batteries like solid state ion batteries.   And then we also have hydrogen production  and integration, and fuels cell safety and   storage. And what we’re looking at here, this is  just one of those things that helps remind us of   some of our goals, right, our vision. And this  is a hot springs blue pool in Aspen, Colorado.   So really connecting in with the geothermal  place. So as I started, or as I stated,  

isolated technology advancement, we  don’t think it’s going to be fast enough. This slide is an illustrative example of  our approach of our strategy to tackle   the kind of ENREL’s contribution into supporting  advancements in energy storage and conversion.   And I’m thinking about it from the integration  perspective, thinking about it from   a holistic systems view. Understanding  the different technologies, different   sectors, and also readiness levels of where we  are with technology. So we’re looking at this   cohesive approach to help us develop solution sets  that can also – that can work with both legacy   and new technologies, and also  help us build and accelerate any   advancements that are happening in kind of  the national lab space into the marketplace.

And with this, you know, here’s an example  where we may be looking at electrochemical   storage and also factoring in the duration of  energy storage needs, whether we’re looking at   stationary applications, mobile applications, how  we factor in controllable loads, and other energy   storage solutions that help us, especially when  we get a future energy system with really high   levels of renewables. And so we think that from  a systems view there are a lot of opportunities.   And I want to break down a little bit,  provide you a couple of examples of the   research space that we’re working in right  now, and how we’re tackling these problems. So first off, as we’re thinking  about integration, we recognized   that are the requirements are going to drive  our R&D priorities. We’re connected, of course,  

closely with the DOE activities and the  priorities. So I think you’ll see some   consistency with setting up from what Erica  showed us with the Energy Storage Grand Challenge.   And these requirements hit on the temporal and  spatial needs. Right? Do we need the short-term or   the long-term energy storage? Where does that need  to be geographically located? And then of course   low cost and available to all, and then without  sacrificing any of the safety or reliability for   these systems. And then as I think about this  that a major part of our vision that’s helping   to set our research strategy and priorities is how  this can get applied into the marketplace. And so   we have to be thinking about the demonstration and  deployment aspects of energy storage technologies.

So in the context of our thinking about  the different pieces of requirements,   what are some of the holistic system needs  that drive some of the research opportunities   that we’re looking at for energy storage and  conversion? Scalable and flexible. This is   necessity. I think, Eric, one of your first slides  really hit on the challenge, right, [laughter] of   how big and how long we need to store and shift  energy between generation and demand. We need to   be thinking about the individual homes, apartment  buildings, small communities, all the way up to   a bulk generation. And so some examples of what  research activities that we have going on right   now connecting in for thermal and electrochemical  energy storage is Behind-the-meter Storage   Research Project. Integrating  commercial buildings, energy storage,   electric vehicles to understand, evaluate, and  optimize how different loads can provide flexible   energy flow to the grid, and also balance with  other things like renewable generation onsite.

And then like the image that we see here,  this is an old sawmill in Maine, and it’s been   retrofitted with the hydro turbine fish-friendly  opportunity by Natel Energy. And so this hits on   the partnerships and the hydropower research  that we have thinking about and studying the   dispatchable aspects of the operation for  hydropower, and how we can quickly a pull   the stored energy back to where we need it.  One of the next things that we think about,   or a set of requirements that we think about  is the safety and resiliency. So what we have   active research in right here with the safe  and resilient set of requirements is looking at   things like understanding the science of safety  for advanced energy storage technologies.   Batteries and hydrogen come to mind right away  with our research activities that we have there.  

And for instance, studying the  mechanisms and monitoring systems   in a wide range of performance characteristics  – or performance conditions, excuse me. We’re also looking at how integrated  energy storage could actually provide   a multi-layered line of defense to support  grid resiliency. Again, energy storage,   we’re coming at it from the perspective  that it can complement whole system   performance benefits and ride out through  disruptions, through catastrophic events,   whether it be an extreme weather event  like we saw in Texas, or wildfires,   that safe and resilient is such a key aspect of  the research activities that we have going on. And   so we also are looking at how the different energy  systems, energy storage systems can be operated in   such a way to help with the enhanced resiliency of  our grid, especially our future decarbonized grid. And then durable and reliable.  These two requirements really have,   you know, work hand-in-hand. And we are  working on research to understand the  

material and the component performance in  particular stressors, understanding those   factors that lead to the degradation. And that’s  through different research projects where looking   at predictive durability models. And then also  understanding how different operating conditions   can either drive issues with durability or  opportunities in the hybridization. And so,   you know, we’re looking on the thermal side, for  example, looking at dynamics thermal cycling,   and the response of the cycling units and where we  have some failures based on the dynamic cycling. And then we’re also looking at, you know,  characterization of things like lithium   ion batteries, and understanding where those  degradation mechanisms are and how to avoid those   particular challenges. Affordable and  accessible are two things that we have to have.  

And this is something that we are talking  about on a pretty regular basis. Right?   If we come up with a great technological solution  in the lab, and it still doesn’t have the   ability to fit into a system to be used by  all, and have that accessibility for all   people to participate and benefit from it,  we still haven’t really pushed far enough   into the solution set that we need for  energy storage and conversion technologies. So a part of our research strategy in  supporting DOE and partners is looking at   what are those metrics? So certainly there’s cost  research metrics. How do we drive down costs and   kind of from the national lab perspective.  And sometimes it’s material. Sometimes it’s   related to understanding higher opportunity,  economic opportunities for different technologies.  

I’m thinking about some research that we’re doing  right now in geothermal, where we’re reducing,   looking to reduce field development costs through  increasing drilling efficiency and drilling rates   for instance. Also connecting in with hydrogen  research and a long duration storage financial   analyst tool that helps us understand that full  range of technoeconomic opportunities. And with   the research like this, it’s driving us towards  high opportunity, system configurations, and   operating conditions that help us really connect  and consider this affordable and accessible.  There’s certainly a scale-up that that  matters here with affordability too,   and how do we drive down costs not only through  some of the basic science work in materials and in   individual technologies, but how can we pull  them together, how can we operate them together   in such a way that we get a benefit from the  integration, the hybridization of these systems.  

And what we’re looking at with this particular  images is actually marine energy, and I think,   you know, it’s something like a very high  percentage of people in the US live very   close to coastal areas. And so it  helps with that accessibility and   paying attention to the geographical  resource opportunities that we have. I want to hit on sustainability. And, Eric, I saw  that you had hit, you had manufacturing and supply   chain in a few of your slides, and connecting them  with Energy Storage Grand Challenge and the Long   Duration Energy Storage Earthshot. It’s something  that’s, you know, really important to help set the   stage and priorities for research activities.  What we see in this image is looking at   resell. And this is where we’re looking at second  life or recyclability, and understanding the  

supply chain modeling for lithium ion batteries  in particular. So I didn’t mention at the start,   but NREL has three critical objectives that we are  fitting into as a research center. And it includes   advancements, technology, and increased scientific  understanding of integrated energy pathways,   electrons to molecules in the circular economy.  Understanding the recyclability. Understanding   the impact of the new energy technologies  that we are looking at has to be part of a   successful set of energy systems that are going  to support the decarbonized grid for instance. I mentioned that we can’t hit on the, you know,  trying to accelerate technologies into the   marketplace without thinking about demonstration  and deployment. As a national lab and at NREL,  

one of the ways that we’re doing that is  through ARIES, the Advanced Research on   Integrated Energy Systems, where we’re looking  to have a safe environment that is coming   from the perspective of the whole system, and  looking to prove things out. We want to avoid   adding risk into our communities, into our  marketplace, into providers and end users   when are we know that there  will be some vulnerabilities. Let’s use a research platform partnering with  national labs and other industry so that we can   push and de-risk, optimize, and help drive towards  secure controls of future energy systems that will   help us accelerate – or excuse me, help us get  these to the marketplace sooner than what we   would do if we weren’t thinking about how energy  storage, how energy conversion technologies fit   into a whole system, and without the ability to  demonstrate and prove out some of the operations.  

We’re really pushing towards understanding  some challenges here with this platform   around physical size of energy technologies,  especially the variability in the wide range   of energy systems that we’re gonna look at  from small-scale distributed to the bulk. We’re also looking at the secure control of large  numbers, millions to tens of millions of devices,   of interconnected devices, and how rapidly that’s  changing. And then certainly integrating multiple   diverse technologies, how we can pull in multiple  energy storage technologies to help support   overarching goals. I wanted to wrap up with  the market readiness and impact that is   driving us. And we think that the partnership  and commercialization, Maggie, you had touched   on this too, is important to do that. And that’s  part of why I’m most excited for this seminar  

talks after me, today and tomorrow,  to see what people are thinking about.   How can we really come together and accelerate  and push forward so that we can hit these big   ambitious decarbonization goals, and make  sure that that system and the technologies,   and what we’re looking at really can  be able to handle the diverse needs,   whether it be from my community and also  a just perspective for these technologies. So we’re thinking about things like how do we  partner? Who are the right partners? How can we   help support? Because we’re just a piece of this  whole picture, and we’re really looking forward to   pushing and understanding how to do our role  in that grand scheme a little bit better.   And so I had the great advantage of representing  a large number of research folks in just a quick   hit on our research capabilities today. And so  I’m thankful and grateful to our staff at NREL  

and our partnerships across National Labs, DOE,  and with partners. And with that, I’ll wrap up   and just say thank you for being here, and I’m  excited to see where this conversation goes. Dr. Ahmad Pesaran: Thank you, Jen, for  providing that overview and hitting all the   high marks of what’s needed for the conversation  with energy storage, and also the capabilities   that NREL has. Just we are almost halfway, I  just wondered before going to next speaker,   I’ll ask out to the audience  and also other speakers to start   thinking about questions for each speaker,  and also in general subject of integration of   energy storage technologies and all of the  challenges ahead of us for decarbonization of the   grid and transportation. So if you just put your  questions on the way, and we can collect them.

And then we can, at the end of the speaker’s  discussion, we’re gonna have a panel discussion   from at 11:00 Mountain Time, and go from there.  So thank you, Jen. So now I think next speaker is   Erin Minear. And she is a senior project manager  project of Electric Power & Research Institute,   and she’s gonna probably provide a perspective of  utilities on energy storage. It’s just kind of an   important area that’s coming up. And so Erin is  a registered professional engineer in the state   of California, and has a BS and MS in Electrical  Engineering from Cal Poly. Erin, if you’d like  

to start uploading your presentation, and would  be happy to hear from you. That would be great. Erin Minear, Electric Power & Research Institute:   Thanks. Let me upload the presentation.   Is that in giant presentation mode now? Dr. Ahmad Pesaran: Not yet. Erin Minear: Not yet? Dr. Ahmad Pesaran: And you’re on second slide.

[Side conversation about setting up slide] Erin Minear: All right. How does that look? Dr. Ahmad Pesaran: Good. Great. Erin Minear: Good. Great. Yeah. Thanks for  inviting me to speak. I’m with the Electric   Power Research Institute, EPRI. And today I want  to focus the discussion on the Energy Storage   Integration Council, which is one portion of  EPRI’s program. And what we’re trying to do   with the Energy Storage Integration Council is  to facilitate an open discussion between all   the different stakeholders. You know, EPRI has a  strong utility perspective given our membership  

and our annual research portfolio. But the utility  members thought it was really important to bring   together all the different stakeholders to talk  about the issues. And to this discussion will be   a little bit different. It’ll  be focused on more near-term  

challenges, and how we can collaboratively  work together to address those. So we do that collaboration through coming  together and creating publicly-available   tools and guides. ESIC has been around since  2013, and is able to evolve and adapt with   the changing needs of the industry. So here is a  snapshot of some of the stakeholders. I mentioned   utilities, which EPRI has that strong perspective,  but really important to engage all the different   stakeholders so that we can align a lot of,  you know, what you’ll hear about ESIC is that   we want to align common approaches, terminology  in order to reduce soft cost and help to advance   storage deployment. So really bringing together  all the different parties. And it’s actually  

evolved over time. As the needs and challenges  have changed, we’ve brought in new stakeholders,   new subject matter expert, which I’ll share  through some examples of the work we’ve done. And so our collaborative process, really coming  together, identifying the gaps, and again, more   focused on near-term. So what are the challenges?  We meet in strategy meetings twice a year and just   say, you know, what top of mind? What are people  trying to work through? And a lot of time but we   hear is that different stakeholders are going  through the same challenge but they’re coming   at it in different ways. And so we can align  on, we can come together and look at tools or  

guides that we can create to help to close those  gaps, and make sure we can move forward on those. And so, you know, what are the gaps? What  can we do to help address them together?   And then creating those through on  taskforce where we get the subject   matter experts together. We discuss what the  issues, what the industry best practices are.   And then we take those and put them through  a review process with the broader group after   the subject matter experts have put together some  work. And EPRI will manage that editorial process   of – and this is a process that’s ongoing. And  so all of our resources are living documents.   And the goal is to put something out there to  have the industry use it as much as possible,   provide that feedback back in, and then  update it. And it’s ongoing conversation and   a documentation of how the industry is evolving,  and improving on the way we execute projects.

We have three main focus areas or working  groups. The first one is focused on grid   services and analysis. How do we quantify energy  storage value, costs, and impacts? Can we create   tools? So EPRI has an open source tool called  DER-VET, and facilitating the discussions. So   understanding what it means for modeling of energy  storage, how can we incorporate that in a way that   can be used as a communication tool  to talk about storage evaluation.   The second group is focused on testing and  characterization, so understanding how to   measure energy storage, express its  performance, test it in a consistent way,   especially when you have a  broad range of technologies,   and even within manufacturers, and  how systems are integrated arranged.   Can you test it in a consistent manner so that  when you’re looking at different test results,   you have a good understanding of how  to compare them against each other.

The third area is focused on a grid integration,  safely and reliably deploying storage. And this   encompasses a lot of topics. In addition  to safety and reliability, cyber security   controls. Commissioning. So there’s  lot of stuff that goes into, you know,   once it’s been in the field, how do we get  it up and running and operating safely?   And so going into an example to show how  ESIC can adapt and focus on that the current   needs at the time. This example is a little bit  dated, but really still drive home the message   of why we need to continuously have these  discussions as a group, and be adaptable and look   at focusing and changing our – as the industry  evolves, making sure that we can keep up with it.

So this is some surveying work done in our  strategy meeting. And all these are related   to safety. And it looks at what is the industry  doing? What should ESIC be doing? Is this a gap?   If it’s a gap, is being addressed by others, or is  it something that ESIC should focus on? So as you   can see, like these are all related to safety.  In 2018, there was a lot of codes and standards  

developed. So I think that the consensus was like  we’ve got a good handle. We’re are catching up.   We just need to track that the codes and  standards and make sure they’re implemented,   and that will help ensure the safety of the  system, and then you saw shift and perspective. So in April 2019, there was the  incident in Arizona and several   fires have been reported in Korea that were  battery-related. And so it immediately became   a priority. And so ESIC being focused on more near  term collaboration was able to ship and create  

some tools to support that safety discussion.  And then 2020, still a big focus on safety,   but you know, some different stakeholders  had different thoughts on whether or not   it should be prioritized. And it’s good to get a  sense of, you know, if things are being covered by   other efforts, we don’t want to reinvent the  wheel. What we want to do is leverage them, point   the industry to the correct resources that they  can leverage. So continuing to evolve over time,   and safety remains a priority.

So now we’re in 2022. In the first month, there  have been two safety energy storage incidents.   There was a couple more if you count one that was  a system in transport, and then one at a recycling   facility. And so it it’s still an issue, and we  need to look at that and still come together.   And the safety topic was one where we brought in –  able to bring in new stakeholders. And so bringing   in first responders, that fire perspective,  fire department perspective, and gain those,   and then open up the discussion. And so there’s  still challenges around codes and standards  

adoption, information about safety, benchmarking,  but really what we’re trying to do is facilitate   that conversation, identify the high priority  needs, and then work towards addressing them.  So what we did in – so this graphic  kind of illustrates the need   for bringing in all the different stakeholders,  and why safety as an example is important,   you know, across its full lifecycle, but  also, you know, thinking about from the   design of the technology up to the integrated  system level. And you know, thinking about battery   energy storage in particular, we can say, you  might hear some people say, “Well, this technology   is safer than this because of x, y, and z,” but  that’s maybe not underlying technology. And so   when you go up to the integrated system level, you  need to add layers of protection across that you. For example, with LFP, some say it’s a  safer ethnology than NFC for lithium ion   battery technology. But we’ve seen  many fires and explosions of LFP,  

and it has to do with the fact that it  needs to be integrated at the system level,   and you need all these protections in place. And,  you know, also across the whole lifecycle. So   just these examples this year with,  you know, a system in transportation,   and then some operational, and then some  at a recycling facility. We need to look at   the full spectrum, and therefore, again, you  know, being aware of all the different needs   and the different stakeholder perspectives across  the life, and different scales of energy storage.

So an example of how we can come together,  and really, you know, emphasizing that   we’re trying to have a discussion – or trying to  create tools that improve the discussion and make   it clear and transparent about what we’re trying  to do. And so one thing we did was put together   a reference hazard mitigation analysis to  facilitate that discussion instead of just   saying my technology is safer because of x, y, or  z. Really talking about it within the context of   what different threats there are that  could result in that particular hazard,   and what’s the consequence of what that  hazardous is, and strategies that would   prevent and mitigate those as the incidents were  happening. So really laying it out and saying  

how different features would address different  issues, and providing a holistic solution. And, you know, this is another, also an example  of that iterative process where we look at,   we published something in 2019. EPRI worked  with their members and did And so EPRI has   a battery safety roadmap, and that’s just one  topic. So we need to continue the discussion  

and look at ways that we can collaborate. So this  is just a snapshot, and I’ll leave it here as a   leave behind so that you can see the different  efforts that we’re working on within EPRI.   And then another example would be, you know,  performance and reliability, and this is   really important for utilities to be able to  invest in storage. And the track record for   commercial assets is short, and we need to be able  to verify this, and independently verify this. And especially you know we’re  focused on near-term issues,   but with all these emerging  technologies, and really being able to   characterize these systems and get the  data on them in order to make assessment,   so that we’re ready to make the investments in the  technologies and features, there’s a confidence   in how the systems will perform, how they  can be operated to reliably support the grid.  

And understanding all the different aspects of  that in order to minimize the risk of the project.   And again, looking at, you know, this is  a specific example of data, but really   it requires thinking at all different levels   and getting all the different stakeholders  integrated into the discussion. So you may have, you know, manufacturers  where you want to get certain data, or   manufacturers where you need to understand certain  characteristics of the technology. Integrators,  

where you need to make sure you have all the  different data streams so that you can test them,   and you have the operators who need to  understand how to operate the system,   interpret the data in order to make informed  decisions on the way they manage the system. And   so there’s a lot of different stakeholders coming  together, and you layer on different policies on,   you know, reporting and aggregation, things  of that sort. And so it’s a dynamic field,   but really trying to clarify that and communicate  that between all the different parties.   And again, just some examples of tools to  help that support performance or liability   analysis including data guidelines,  test manuals, and when tracking.

So those are just a few highlights, you know,  examples that that really drive home the need   for collaboration, and what we need for, you  know, coming in from the utility perspective,   it’s really important that we align  with all the different, the parties so   that the systems are safe, and reliable, and  affordable, and environmentally-responsible.   So here’s another leave behind of all the other  different resources that we put together and   contact information. We really encourage you to  – I jumped at this opportunity to talk about the   Energy Storage Integration Council because  we also want to bring in new stakeholders,   new perspectives, and know what  the issues of the industry are.   And so hopefully we’ll get some  additional participation there. And  

that’s what I have for today. Dr. Ahmad Pesaran: Thank you, Erin. I appreciate  that presentation that we’re providing   perspectives from utilities. We  have one question for you, I think,   that came up regarding that the fires with  the lithium batteries. And the questions is:   “Has it caused utilities at your organizations  and others to move away from lithium batteries,   and to some other kind of potentially safer  technologies, like flow batteries or some   other storage?” Whatever. Of course cost is a big  issue. But if you can speak to that, that’d be   great. whether or not of course cost is big issue  but if you can speak to that that would be great.

Erin Minear: Yeah, I think there is a  need for a better understanding of the   utility, of lithium ion technology. And so we have  a large collaborative project with many utilities,   and we bring in the experts to really understand  that, so understanding the risk associated with   that. But at the same time, it is true that  looking at other technology alternatives   is important, especially when you think about  there might be different settings or location if   you’re in a rural area versus in a highly-densely  populated area, you might think about your   approach to technology different. So we also have  an emerging technology project that looks at all  

those different alternatives, but at the same  time, that project will also look at the different   safety aspects of those. So there may be less fire  risk with those, but other things that need to be   evaluated. So I think that utilities are looking  at risk from the different perspectives of safety. Dr. Ahmad Pesaran: Thank you very  much, Erin. I appreciate that.   So Rebecca, if we can go to our next speaker,   Esther Chitsinde. She’s a project manager  with Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.   So it kind of brings the perspective of end  user basically. She leads the Dallas Fort  

Worth Digital Twin and Morpheus Building Energy  Optimization Partnership with NREL and DOE.   And she has a BS and MS in environmental  science from Texas Christian University.   Esther, you can go ahead with the  slides up, that would be great. Esther Chitsinde, Dallas Fort Worth International  Airport: Good morning, everyone. So I don’t have   slides today, but I’m just going to  have more of a conversation with you,   walk you through our journey at DFW International  Airport and what we see as the opportunities   around behind the meter storage and what we need  to make that successful, and how behind the meter   storage aligns with DFW’s vision and needs for the  near future. So I’ll start with the background of   Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. As Ahmad  said, my name

2022-02-21

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