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Pioneer Regional Partnerships

The Pioneer Regional Partnerships are early-stage, public-private collaborative projects that address specific near-term grid modernization issues important to particular regions and its stakeholders. The GMLC will lead 12 partnerships composed with the following general attributes in mind:

  • address a key state/regional grid modernization challenge that is currently visible and important to local industry and government stakeholders;
  • include collaboration from local stakeholders, utilities, and vendors to pursue a grid modernization outcome with links to the DOE GMI objectives; and
  • address multiple technologies and policy options important for grid modernization.

Projects

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Topic 1.3.1 - Southeast Consortium. Increase utility clean energy portfolios and improve power system network resiliency to ensure increased reliability along with improved responsiveness under extreme conditions by eliminating outages or enabling faster restoration of power to critical loads

  • Labs:  ORNL, SRNL
  • Partners: University Tennessee, EPB, Southern Company, TVA, UNC-Charlotte, Duke Energy, Santee Cooper, Clemson

Topic 1.3.4 - Industrial Microgrid Analysis and Design for Energy Security and Resiliency.  Investigation, development, and analysis of the risks, costs, and benefits of a microgrid utilizing renewable energy systems at the UPS WorldPort and Centennial Hub facilities.  Develop roadmap to help industries evaluate microgrid adoption by defining institutional and regulatory challenges associated with development of industrial-based resilient systems.

  • Labs:  ORNL, SNL
  • Partners: United Parcel Service, Waste Management, Burns & McDonnell, Harshaw Trane, LG&E, State of Kentucky

Topic 1.3.5 - DER Siting and Optimization Tool for California. Deliver to stakeholders an integrated distributed resource planning and optimization platform, hosted online, able to identify meaningful behind-the-meter DER adoption patterns, potential microgrid sites and demand-side resources, and evaluate the impacts of high renewable penetration feeders on the distribution and transmission grid.

  • Labs:  ANL, BNL, LBNL, LLNL,NREL, SLAC
  • Partners: California PUC, PG&E, SCE, Metropolitan Council of Governments, NYSERDA

Topic 1.3.9 - Smart Reconfiguration of Idaho Falls Network. Improve physical security of the Idaho Falls distribution system by testing smart reconfiguration, intelligent DR utilizing loads as a resource, controlled islanding, black start procedures for emergency service, and resynchronization in the presence of DERs.

  • Labs:  PNNL, INL
  • Partners: Idaho Falls Power, Schweitzer Engineering Labs, Washington State Univ, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems

Topic 1.3.10 - Vermont Regional Partnership Enabling the Use of DER. Assist Vermont utilities in meeting the state’s ambitious goal of obtaining 90% of its energy from renewable sources by 2050 through (1) DER integration, (2) DER control, 3) validation of wind and solar forecasting, and (4) techno-economic analysis of energy storage.

  • Labs:  SNL, NREL
  • Partners: Green Mountain Power, VT Electric Cooperative, VT Electric Company, Univ of VT

Topic 1.3.11 - Grid Analysis and Design for Resiliency in New Orleans. Conduct technical evaluations to assess energy and critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, and to identify cost effective options to improve the resiliency of both the electrical grid infrastructure and the community.

  • Labs:  SNL, LANL
  • Partners: City of New Orleans, Rockefeller Institute, Entergy, US Army Corps of Engineers

Topic 1.3.21 - Alaska Microgrid Partnership. Develop a design basis framework and programmatic approach to assist stakeholders in their efforts to reduce diesel fuel consumption by at least 50% in Alaska’s remote microgrids without increasing system lifecycle costs, while improving overall system reliability, security, and resilience.

  • Labs:  NREL, PNNL, LBNL, SNL
  • Partners: Alaska Energy Authority, UAK - Fairbanks, UAK – Anchorage,  Renewable Energy Alaska Project, Intelligent Energy Systems

Topic 1.3.22 - Technical Support to the New York State REV Initiative. Provide objective Technical Assistance by a team of National Lab experts to NYS agencies and policy makers on significant policy issues including retail market design, rate design, customer engagement, utility planning/operations, DER integration, cyber security.

  • Labs:  BNL, LBNL, PNNL, INL
  • Partners: NYSERDA, NY State Smart Grid Consortium, Modern Grid Solutions, ICF International, Regulatory Assistance Project

Topic 1.3.29 - Grid Frequency Support from Distributed Inverter-Base Resources in Hawaii. Develop, simulate, validate, and deploy practical solutions in Hawaii that enable distributed energy resources (DERs) to help mitigate bulk system frequency contingency events on the fastest time scale (milliseconds to seconds). Validate the ability of real hardware inverters to support grid frequency in an environment that emulates the dynamics of a HECO power system.

  • Labs:  NREL, SNL
  • Partners: Hawaiian Electric Companies, Enphase Energy, Fronius USA, Forum on Inverter Grid Integration Issues, Energy Excelerator

Topic 1.3.33 - Midwest Interconnection Seams Study.  Convene industry and academic experts in power systems to evaluate the HVDC and AC transmission seams between the U.S. interconnections and propose upgrades to existing facilities that reduce the cost of modernizing the nation’s power system.

  • Labs:  NREL, PNNL, ANL, ORNL
  • Partners: SPP, MISO, WAPA, SEIA, Minnesota Power, Xcel Energy, Tetra Tech, Transgrid Solutions, UVIG, and Bryndan Associates.