Infrastructure

Infrastructure Security

The Infrastructure Security program develops and applies technologies and analytical approaches to secure the nation’s critical infrastructure against natural or malicious disruption.

Our nation’s energy infrastructure faces two foundational challenges as we seek our vision towards an energy independent and secure future. First, elements of the infrastructure, such as the electricity transmission and distribution network, have not significantly changed since their initial creation over a century ago. It is clear that new approaches are required for the grid to accommodate the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. Second, the reliability and resilience of our grid is central to our national security. For example, robust and secure power is essential to key infrastructure such as military installations. Economically, electricity outages presently cost our economy $150 billion annually.

Energy Surety

The reliability and security of the energy infrastructure is an essential requirement for the mission readiness of military facilities and for high-consequence private enterprises. The Energy Surety Microgrid developed by Sandia improves the reliability and performance of the energy infrastructure.

• SMART Grid
• Renewable Grid Integration
• Applying Energy Surety to Military Bases

Energy Storage

The goal of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) is to develop advanced energy-storage technologies and systems, in collaboration with industry, academia, and government institutions, that will increase the reliability, performance, and competitiveness of electric generation and transmission in utility-tied and off-grid systems.

• Battery Lab
• Electricity Storage
• Power Electronics

Cyber Security

The Infrastructure Security Program Area works with several government agencies in the area of cybersecurity to ensure the integrity and availability of the nation’s cyber infrastructure.

• SCADA Systems
• SPIDERS
• Global Critical Energy Infrastructure Protection (GCEIP)

Modeling and Analysis

Understanding the linked, interdependent nature of the nation’s critical infrastructure in order to enhance preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation is a hard problem—one that requires the capabilities of a national laboratory. It is through high-performance computer modeling and analysis that Sandia can quantify and qualify the interactions of political, health, social, economic, and technical systems.

• NISAC

Infrastructure Publications

• Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems: Final Report of the Florida Solar Energy Center Team 4.71 MB
• Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems: Final Report of the Princeton Power Systems Development of the 100kW Demand Response Inverter 5.43 MB
• A Model for the Nation: Promoting Education and Innovation in Vermont’s Electricity Sector 6.83 MB
• Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. SEGIS Developments 1.91 MB
• Development of Economically Viable, Highly Integrated, Highly Modular SEGIS Architecture 9.65 MB

Infrastructure Events

• EESAT 2011
  October 16, 2011 to October 19, 2011, San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina
  

  The Electrical Energy Storage Applications and Technologies or EESAT Conference is the premier forum for dissemination, review, and presentation of research and development, demonstration, and studies conducted around the globe on specific electrical energy storage applications and technologies, especially as they relate to the electricity grid.

• Control System Design using Energy Storage to Improve Dynamic Performance in Large-Scale Electric Power Grids
  September 25, 2012 to September 25, 2012, Dreese Laboratories
  

  David A. Schoenwald
  Energy Storage & Transmission Analysis Department
  Sandia National Laboratories
  
  Abstract: This talk will present results on two applications of energy storage for the improvement of power system dynamic performance that will become necessary as more intermittent renewable energy sources are incorporated into the electric power grid. The first application is the design and implementation of a battery-based control system to reduce the variability of photovoltaic (PV) power output at the generation site. The control system is challenged with the task of reducing short-term PV output variability while avoiding the overworking of the battery, both in terms of capacity and amp capability. A full-scale implementation was deployed in a demonstration project, in partnership with an electric utility and a battery manufacturer. Both simulation and experimental results will be presented. The second application is the analysis and design of a decentralized control system to increase the damping associated with inter-area oscillation modes. These modes arise from the swinging of many generators in one part of the power grid against generators in another part of the grid. Analysis and simulation results for the control system design will be presented for both a reduced-order model of the WECC (Western Electricity Coordinating Council) and a full-scale PSLF (Positive Sequence Load Flow) model of the WECC.

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Infrastructure News

Sandia and the U.S. Army Collaborate on Operational Energy at Fort DevensDaniel Borneo and Ben Schenkman (both in Sandia’s Energy Surety Engineering and Analysis Dept.) are working on microgrids with Ft. Devens’ Base Camp Integration Laboratory (BCIL). They have been involved in successfully testing an application that can also be used for the civilian power grid. This demonstration and deployment work is consistent with the energy [...]

Sandia to Co-Host International Workshop on Photovoltaics (PV) PenetrationSandia National Laboratories, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and European Distributed Energies Research Laboratories (DERlab) have organized a workshop on utility operating experience with high solar PV penetration levels. The workshop, “Utility Experience with High Penetration PV,” is scheduled Monday, December 3, in Berlin. The workshop will take place just before the Fifth International [...]

North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Report PostedThe Integration of Variable Generation Task Force (IVGTF) Task 1–3 report, “Interconnection Requirements for Variable Generation” was posted to NERC’s website in mid-October. Many of NERC’s existing interconnection standards and procedures have been based on technical characteristics and physical capabilities of traditional power generation resources that employ synchronous generators. With the global trend toward renewable [...]