Residential PV-Energy Storage Testing Collaboration with SunPower: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-14-569
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Residential scale energy storage devices have shown great promise to add value and improve the ability to integrate distributed and variable generation into the distribution grid. Battery energy storage systems combined with PV and advanced inverters can provide many services. These include extended backup power in case of grid failure, reductions in feeder and system level peak load, system level net load ramp reduction, grid management services both locally (e.g., voltage management) and bulk system (e.g., reserves) level, and improved grid reliability through grid voltage and frequency support. Even though the cost of the energy storage systems are decreasing, one of the main challenges related to the widespread deployment of energy storage, as found by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is utility acceptance of storage technologies. Various interconnection challenges exist when connecting distributed PV-energy storage into the electrical distribution grid in terms of safety, reliability and stability of the electric power systems. Some of the urgent challenges, as seen by the manufacturers and installers are: safety of the battery cells and the packs, performance of the power conversion systems, effect of bidirectional power flow on existing utility equipment and qualification of solutions such as volt-ampere reactive (VAR) support and frequency regulation. Under this project, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers will work with SunPower to address these challenges by research, testing and analysis at Energy System Integration Facility (ESIF) and energy storage testing laboratory at NREL. NREL's unique power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) capability will be utilized to evaluate system-level issues such as reverse power flow and VAR support (if available) for these PV-energy storage systems. Through the analysis of test results, the proposed project will demonstrate use of ESIF capabilities in a way that advances both the DOE and SunPower's goals of moving clean, renewable energy technologies onto the electrical grid.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Policy, Planning and Analysis (PE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1334401
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/TP-5D00-67463
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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