PICo-Design: Protection-Inverter Co-Design for 100% Renewable Power Systems

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Program:
OPEN 2021
Award:
$3,250,000
Location:
Princeton, New Jersey
Status:
ACTIVE
Project Term:
09/30/2022 - 09/29/2025

Technology Description:

Siemens and its partners will develop innovative protection schemes consisting of fundamentally new control and protection (C&P) functions for inverter-dominated renewable systems. These new functions do not represent simple evolution of prior engineering practices when analyzing and optimizing system-level protection schemes. Rather, new Protection Inverter Co-Design (PICo-Design) tools will be developed that automatically analyze and optimize C&P functions to achieve higher protection reliability. These protection schemes will be validated and demonstrated in a small-scale hardware testbed and large-scale hardware-in-the-loop testbed of Hawai’i Island using high-fidelity simulations with up to 100% inverter-based generation. This project could significantly reduce carbon emissions and electricity prices while increasing energy efficiency.

Potential Impact:

Siemens innovative protection schemes for inverter-dominated power systems could enable greater renewable integration in the electric grid. The PICo-Design optimization tool will:

Security:

Allow protection engineers to quickly optimize the C&P functions of renewable energy and protection devices to maximize resilience, protection dependability, security, and speed.

Environment:

Allow grid operators to run their systems with lower emissions and lower electricity costs.

Economy:

Offer a cost-efficient solution for protection of renewable-dominated power systems based on new C&P functions and joint optimization of both protection devices and renewables.

Contact

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Mario Garcia-Sanz
Project Contact:
Dr. Ulrich Muenz
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
ulrich.muenz@siemens.com

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Release Date:
02/11/2021