Project Directory

CERTS assembled an interdisciplinary team to assess the research needs associated with a range of topics related to the use of load (or demand response) as a system reliability resource, mainly to provide ancillary services.

This project was designed to address several emerging issues for the Western US and the context of the WECC: (1) Will multiple concurrent market-based policies necessarily benefit renewable producers at the expense of consumers and coal-based producers? (2) What is the relationship among prices of electric energy, emissions permits, and renewable energy credits (RECs)? (3) Will multiple concurrent market-based policies grant a greater magnitude of incentive for companies to manipulate markets in their favor (i.e., market power)?

FERC staff commissioned LBNL to study how a critical aspect of reliability—the control of power system frequency during the period immediately following the sudden loss of a large conventional power plant—can be better measured to assess the adequacy of frequency control in the interconnections currently and be used to manage the reliable integration of new resources, including variable renewable generation.

This research focused on control issues associated with the bulk power system—initially control-area management and transmission reliability. This project aimed to develop an information flow model for interchange schedules and real-time grid operating data, and to develop a description of the concepts and relationships that can exist in an agent community for information management.  

The project builds upon earlier work to assess current available metrics, perform a comparative assessment of data on metrics used by different Independent System Operators (ISOs) and regions, identify gaps in available metrics, define metrics needed to address all elements of the grid and markets, validate the metrics with industry stakeholders, develop prototypes using CERTS technology platform for performance monitoring, field test, implement and perform periodic comparative assessments.  

The purpose of this work was to develop a plan to explore the implications of issues on electricity systems infrastructure caused by dependence on Earth-based and Space-based Timekeeping and Navigation (ESTN) systems.

This project was designed to study the effects of control algorithms and frequency measurement error on electric system behavior.

NERC BAL-003-1 (Frequency Response Standard) has two main objectives: To require sufficient Frequency Response from the Balancing Authority (BA) to maintain Interconnection Frequency within predefined bounds by arresting frequency deviations and supporting frequency until the frequency is restored to its scheduled value; and to provide consistent methods for measuring Frequency Response and determining the Frequency Bias Setting.

The NERC-FMA real-time tool has the capability for automatically collect interconnections 1-second frequency phasor data together with 10-second and 1-minute interconnections SCADA ACE data to calculate, estimate statistics, display, and report the interconnections frequency behavior for allowing NERC Resources Subcommittee during their quarterly meetings and Operations Management to analyze, assess and track each interconnection frequency performance and define and recommend corrective measures if necessary.

The overall objective of this project is to develop a framework to assess the impact on bulk power system performance of distributed energy resources (DERs) when coordinated (via an aggregator) to provide ancillary services (e.g., frequency regulation). Of special interest is understanding the potential negative effects of failures in channels utilized by the aggregator to exchange information with the individual DERs and the hardware used to implement the DER local control.

The purpose of this task is to generalize the load model development and calibration methodology developed for WECC to address the FIDVR phenomenon in planning studies.  Specifically, residential and commercial building load models must explicitly identify the load composition by electrical characteristics (i.e., static power, impedance, 1 and 3 phase motors, motor torque/speed characteristics, motor inertia, variable speed drive, and motor protection characteristics).