54 research outputs found
Integrated Deployment and the Energy Systems Integration Facility: Workshop Proceedings
This report summarizes the workshop entitled: Integrated Deployment and the Energy Systems Integration Facility. In anticipation of the opening of the ESIF, NREL held the workshop August 21-23, 2012 and invited participants from utilities, government, industry, and academia to discuss renewable integration challenges and discover new ways to meet them by taking advantage of the ESIF's capabilities
Interconnecting PV on New York City's Secondary Network Distribution System
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has teamed with cities across the country through the Solar America Cities (SAC) partnership program to help reduce barriers and accelerate implementation of solar energy. The New York City SAC team is a partnership between the City University of New York (CUNY), the New York City Mayor s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).The New York City SAC team is working with DOE s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Con Edison, the local utility, to develop a roadmap for photovoltaic (PV) installations in the five boroughs. The city set a goal to increase its installed PV capacity from1.1 MW in 2005 to 8.1 MW by 2015 (the maximum allowed in 2005). A key barrier to reaching this goal, however, is the complexity of the interconnection process with the local utility. Unique challenges are associated with connecting distributed PV systems to secondary network distribution systems (simplified to ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂnetworksÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂàin this report). Although most areas of the country use simpler radial distribution systems to distribute electricity, larger metropolitan areas like New York City typically use networks to increase reliability in large load centers. Unlike the radial distribution system, where each customer receives power through a single line, a network uses a grid of interconnected lines to deliver power to each customer through several parallel circuits and sources. This redundancy improves reliability, but it also requires more complicated coordination and protection schemes that can be disrupted by energy exported from distributed PV systems. Currently, Con Edison studies each potential PV system in New York City to evaluate the system s impact on the network, but this is time consuming for utility engineers and may delay the customer s project or add cost for larger installations. City leaders would like to streamline this process to facilitate faster, simpler, and less expensive distributed PV system interconnections. To assess ways to improve the interconnection process, NREL conducted a four-part study with support from DOE. The NREL team then compiled the final reports from each study into this report. In Section 1ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂPV Deployment Analysis for New York CityÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂwe analyze the technical potential for rooftop PV systems in the city. This analysis evaluates potential PV power production in ten Con Edison networks of various locations and building densities (ranging from high density apartments to lower density single family homes). Next, we compare the potential power production to network loads to determine where and when PV generation is most likely to exceed network load and disrupt network protection schemes. The results of this analysis may assist Con Edison in evaluating future PV interconnection applications and in planning future network protection system upgrades. This analysis may also assist other utilities interconnecting PV systems to networks by defining a method for assessing the technical potential of PV in the network and its impact on network loads. Section 2ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂA Briefing for Policy Makers on Connecting PV to a Network GridÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂpresents an overview intended for nontechnical stakeholders. This section describes the issues associated with interconnecting PV systems to networks, along with possible solutions. Section 3ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂTechnical Review of Concerns and Solutions to PV Interconnection in New York CityÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂsummarizes common concerns of utility engineers and network experts about interconnecting PV systems to secondary networks. This section also contains detailed descriptions of nine solutions, including advantages and disadvantages, potential impacts, and road maps for deployment. Section 4ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂUtility Application Process ReviewÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂlooks at utility interconnection application processes across the country and identifies administrative best practices for efficient PV interconnection
Energy Systems Integration: A Convergence of Ideas
Energy systems integration (ESI) enables the effective analysis, design, and control of these interactions and interdependencies along technical, economic, regulatory, and social dimensions. By focusing on the optimization of energy from all systems, across all pathways, and at all scales, we can better understand and make use of the co-benefits that result to increase reliability and performance, reduce cost, and minimize environmental impacts. This white paper discusses systems integration and the research in new control architectures that are optimized at smaller scales but can be aggregated to optimize energy systems at any scale and would allow replicable energy solutions across boundaries of existing and new energy pathways
Interim Test Procedures for Evaluating Electrical Performance and Grid Integration of Vehicle-to-Grid Applications
The objective of this report is to provide a test plan for V2G testing. The test plan is designed to test and evaluate the vehicle's power electronics capability to provide power to the grid, and to evaluate the vehicle's ability to connect and disconnect from the utility according to a subset of the IEEE Std. 1547 tests
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Flexible DER Utility Interface System: Final Report, September 2004--May 2006
In an effort to accelerate deployment of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) such as wind, solar, and conventional backup generators to our nation's electrical grid, Northern Power Systems (NPS), the California Energy Commission (CEC), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) collaborated to create a prototype universal interconnect device called the DER Switch
Updating Interconnection Screens for PV System Integration
This white paper evaluates the origins and usefulness of the capacity penetration screen, offer short-term solutions which could effectively allow fast-track interconnection to many PV system applications, and considers longer-term solutions for increasing PV deployment levels in a safe and reliable manner while reducing or eliminating the emphasis on the penetration screen. Short-term and longer-term alternatives approaches are offered as examples; however, specific modifications to screening procedures should be discussed with stakeholders and must ultimately be adopted by state and federal regulatory bodies
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Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) External Stakeholders Workshop
On October 9, 2008, NREL hosted a workshop to provide an opportunity for external stakeholders to offer insights and recommendations on the design and functionality of DOE's planned Energy Systems Infrastructure Facility (ESIF). The goal was to ensure that the planning for the ESIF effectively addresses the most critical barriers to large-scale energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) deployment. This technical report documents the ESIF workshop proceedings
Criteria for clinical audit of women friendly care and providers' perception in Malawi
Background
There are two dimensions of quality of maternity care, namely quality of health outcomes and quality as perceived by clients. The feasibility of using clinical audit to assess and improve the quality of maternity care as perceived by women was studied in Malawi.
Objective
We sought to (a) establish standards for women friendly care and (b) explore attitudinal barriers which could impede the proper implementation of clinical audit.
Methods
We used evidence from Malawi national guidelines and World Health Organisation manuals to establish local standards for women friendly care in three districts. We equally conducted a survey of health care providers to explore their attitudes towards criterion based audit.
Results
The standards addressed different aspects of care given to women in maternity units, namely (i) reception, (ii) attitudes towards women, (iii) respect for culture, (iv) respect for women, (v) waiting time, (vi) enabling environment, (vii) provision of information, (viii) individualised care, (ix) provision of skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetric care, (x) confidentiality, and (xi) proper management of patient information. The health providers in Malawi generally held a favourable attitude towards clinical audit: 100.0% (54/54) agreed that criterion based audit will improve the quality of care and 92.6% believed that clinical audit is a good educational tool. However, there are concerns that criterion based audit would create a feeling of blame among providers (35.2%), and that manager would use clinical audit to identify and punish providers who fail to meet standards (27.8%).
Conclusion
Developing standards of maternity care that are acceptable to, and valued by, women requires consideration of both the research evidence and cultural values. Clinical audit is acceptable to health professionals in Malawi although there are concerns about its negative implications to the providers
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From the Building to the Grid: An Energy Revolution and Modeling Challenge; Workshop Proceedings
This report summarizes the workshop entitled: From the Building to the Grid: An Energy Revolution and Modeling Challenge. The first workshop was held May 1-2, 2012 on NREL's campus in Golden, Colorado. The second was held June 6-7, 2012 at the University College Dublin, in Dublin, Ireland
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