The Freetown area is chosen as one of six regions in Massachusetts that need electric system enhancements to maintain reliability and enable distributed energy resource (DER) facilities to safely interconnect and operate. Contact online >>
The Freetown area is chosen as one of six regions in Massachusetts that need electric system enhancements to maintain reliability and enable distributed energy resource (DER) facilities to safely interconnect and operate.
The upgrades needed in this area include:
If all six groups of projects are approved, that would enable the integration of approximately 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar energy needed to help Massachusetts achieve its net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050.
Distributed energy resource (DER) projects will help support the clean energy goals of Massachusetts and the objectives of renewable energy developers across six different areas.
Distributed energy resources (DER) are small-scale energy generation and storage technologies, interconnected to the electric grid, and installed at or near where the energy will be used.
Distributed generation(DG)refers to the array of DER technologies used to generate electricity, such as solar panels, wind turbines, natural gas and fuel cells.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of DER facilities, primarily solar and battery storage, seeking to interconnect to the electric grid in southeastern and western Massachusetts. These DG projects require equipment upgrades at some existing substations, as well as the installation of new transmission lines in existing rights-of-ways.
We conducted extensive system planning studiesin seven affected areas where electric system upgrades are needed to support the interconnection of new DER. These clean energy resources are needed to help Massachusetts achieve its net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050.
If all six groups of projects are approved, that would enable the integration of approximately 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar energy. So far, five groups have been approved by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU).
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Distributed energy resources (DERs) are proliferating on power systems, offering utilities new means of supporting objectives related to distribution grid operations, end-customer value, and market participation. With DER management systems (DERMS), utilities can apply the capabilities of flexible demand-side energy resources and manage diverse and dispersed DERs, both individually and in aggregate.
NREL-developed optimization tools, control architectures, and DER analytics are collectively contributing to modern DERMS solutions and can help utilities, communities, companies, and other solution providers make existing and incoming devices work for grid flexibility, reliability, resilience, and more.
NREL and project partners deployed an optimal power flow control approach for rural Colorado co-op Holy Cross Energy. The project team added autonomous controls to homes within a new development constructed by Habitat for Humanity, allowing the homes'' solar panels, battery storage, and appliances to automatically balance power and voltage constraints within the neighborhood. The strategy allows Holy Cross Energy to better serve its members by optimizing local energy and is a building block toward autonomous energy systems.
NREL has innovated a DERMS approach that can more effectively estimate PV hosting capacity by taking into consideration control options for localized inverter optimization. The approach is innovative for adapting to flexible PV interconnection requirements, leveraging state estimation to avoid dependence on load data, and for allowing online DERMS and thereby expanding the PV hosting capacity of power systems.
To take advantage of flexible grid-edge DERs for improving grid operations, a prerequisite is to possess some knowledge about the DER dispatchability capacity at a given time, the duration of the desired dispatch, and how fast the DER can respond to a control command. Such information collectively determines the DER''s flexibility, which can be formally defined as the DER''s capability to adjust its consumption or generation pattern.
Learn more about NREL''s work on quantifying grid-edge DER flexibility and aggregating the DER flexibility for improved grid operations.
Hierarchical Control of Behind-the-Meter Distributed Energy Resources in Net-Zero Energy Communities
NREL and partners have piloted a hierarchical control system that estimates and forecasts DER flexibility in real time, aggregates DER resources across neighborhoods, and issues operational commands that strengthen both the community and the entire distribution network. The solution creates a grid-support market for DERs while considering homeowner preferences about DER operations.
Networked Distributed Energy Resources for Improving Community Resilience
Emerging smart meters, rooftop PVs, electric vehicles, energy storages, and demand response appliances are adding more intelligence at the distribution grid edge and bringing new opportunities for end-use customers to withstand weather disruptions. NREL developed optimization models and a novel framework to integrate the flexibility of behind-the-meter DERs into grid restoration planning and operation. With this collaboration framework, distribution system operators and end users will be constantly coordinating throughout the outage period to fully use all types of DERs to improve resilience.
Grid-Edge Intelligent Distribution Automation System for Self-Healing Distribution Grids
NREL partnered with a commercial advanced distribution management system technology vendor to develop and validate a model-based, DER-cognizant, hierarchical fault location, isolation, and service restoration platform to achieve self-healing, reliable and resilient distribution grids. This novel platform integrates NREL''s novel DER optimization approach into legacy fault location, isolation, and service restoration functions to yield an intelligent distribution automation system that fully leverages grid-edge resources and delivers self-healing controls.
Valuing Distributed Energy Resource Resilience for Both Social and Economic Impacts
Resilience-Oriented Cellular Grid Formation and Optimization
For communities deploying more distributed energy, there is currently a gap in applying these resources for resilience. NREL is innovating a solution that dynamically reconfigures power distribution systems into community microgrids for improved resilience. The method uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to optimally cluster DERs for a variety of operating scenarios. It is being piloted in a 5-MW community in Colorado and will be directly transferable to other co-ops.
Utilities can reduce outages and recover quicker by implementing the right data collection and coordination. NREL and partners are pioneering one approach that draws data from many sources, including grid-edge devices and online forums, and integrates those data with advanced distribution management systems and DERMS platforms to achieve improved real-time situational awareness and automated restoration. Through wide grid visibility and data coordination, rural co-ops involved in the project are showing that advanced and automatic reliability and resilience can also be affordable.
Learn more about the project Solar-Assisted, Stakeholder-Engaged Autonomous Restoration With Data Orchestration.
The grid controls architecture developed in FAST-DERMS enables the provision of reliable, resilient, and secure distribution and transmission grid services through scalable aggregation of utility-scale and small-scale DERs.
Using a federated architecture allows both utility-scale and behind-the-meter DERs to be managed either directly by the distribution utility or through a transactive market or DER aggregator. The key optimization and control component of FAST-DERMS aggregates the distributed resources within a substation service area and manages the photovoltaics, electric vehicles, and other DERs, to remove uncertainty from the service provided to bulk system. The project is a collaboration between private energy sectors partners and the national laboratories.
Learn more about the FAST-DERMS system architecture.
A Novel Resilience-Oriented Cellular Grid Formation Approach for Distribution Systems With Behind-the-Meter Distributed Energy Resources, 2023 IEEE PES Grid Edge Technologies Conference and Exposition (2023)
Multi-Task Reinforcement Learning for Distribution System Voltage Control With Topology Changes, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (2023)
Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems Online: A New Voltage Sensitivity-Enabled Feedback Optimization Framework, IEEE Power and Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (2022)
Unleash Values From Grid-Edge Flexibility: An Overview, Experience, and Vision for Leveraging Grid-Edge Distributed Energy Resources To Improve Grid Operations,IEEE Electrification Magazine (2022)
Self-Organizing Map-Based Resilience Quantification and Resilient Control of Distribution Systems Under Extreme Events, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (2022)
A Hybrid Data-Driven and Model-Based Anomaly Detection Scheme for DER Operation, IEEE Power and Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (2022)
As the photovoltaic (PV) industry continues to evolve, advancements in Freetown distributed energy systems have become critical to optimizing the utilization of renewable energy sources. From innovative battery technologies to intelligent energy management systems, these solutions are transforming the way we store and distribute solar-generated electricity.
When you're looking for the latest and most efficient Freetown distributed energy systems for your PV project, our website offers a comprehensive selection of cutting-edge products designed to meet your specific requirements. Whether you're a renewable energy developer, utility company, or commercial enterprise looking to reduce your carbon footprint, we have the solutions to help you harness the full potential of solar energy.
By interacting with our online customer service, you'll gain a deep understanding of the various Freetown distributed energy systems featured in our extensive catalog, such as high-efficiency storage batteries and intelligent energy management systems, and how they work together to provide a stable and reliable power supply for your PV projects.
