National Lab to Assist Distributed Energy Projects Awarded $50 Million in U.S. Energy Department Funding

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will provide technical guidance to three projects the U.S. Energy Department selected for its Distributed Energy Systems Demonstrations Program, according to a Nov. 6 press release.

In September 2023, the department launched a $50 million funding opportunity for three projects to deploy distributed energy resource management systems, or DERMS. The three project selections based in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Virginia, will develop DER systems for more resilient and responsive electrical grids.

The project demonstrations will utilize the NREL’s facilities like the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems, or ARIES, research platform to validate control systems with large numbers of interconnected devices. The lab’s Advanced Distribution Management Systems Test Bed allows researchers to test out advanced grid controls for utility systems.

The first selected project is the Grid Integration and Demonstration of Flexible Energy Resources based in Suffolk, Virginia. Overseen by the Virginia Electric and Power Company, the project aims to use software to optimize control of the region’s DER systems and minimize the need for upgrades. The company will use the 150 MW of clean energy from current DERs to deliver resilient, safe grid capacity that can withstand peak loads.

The second project is Eversource Energy’s Outer Cape Microgrid Optimization based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Residential customers in this area are vulnerable to power disruptions from extreme weather and being surrounded by large bodies of water. The project aims to reinforce the current microgrid in the area by synchronizing customer-owned DERs with Eversource Energy’s existing 24.9-MW battery energy storage system.

The final selection is Xcel Energy’s Prime Time Virtual Power Plant based in Boulder, Colorado. The project seeks to construct and deploy a virtual power plant in the area to deliver clean energy to customers and use customer DER systems to effectively manage electrical loads.