Solar engineering, especially photovoltaic (PV) technologies, has been growing by leaps and bounds. This is fueled by intense private-sector interest in renewable energy (RE) power generation (on both the residential and commercial scale) and state mandates that utilities generate defined percentages of the electricity they provide from RE sources. Thirty five states have adopted these renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) with “due dates” ranging from 2015 to 2035.
The RE power-generation sector is growing so fast that existing technologies will have to be ready to support an interactive power grid at larger scales than ever before. With distributed power generation, the disparate elements of the power generation, transmission, and distribution network will have to move from a passive configuration—where power is “pushed” from a central generating facility through transmission lines and substations to be distributed to the end user—to an active model—where power is generated in many places and flows in many directions across the network, requiring intelligent agents at all nodes in the network to communicate needs and requirements as well as available resources and price information.
This new grid is challenging because the grid architecture is constantly evolving; the functionality of these new grid components necessary to support this grid are not yet well defined. What we do know is that all components will be required to carry out communication functions in addition to their normal generation, transmission, and/or distribution functions.
SEGIS is a Sandia-initiated technology-development concept that the DOE embraced. Its goal is to provide federal support to parties interested in thinking about what components will be needed to bring this smart grid into reality and move industry toward that vision—to build the platforms that will be ready to implement these new power generation and distribution concepts when the market is ready for them.the first round of technology development has been successfully completed. Sandia worked with four industry partners to develop the components described below.
Micro-inverter and PV module
Sandia worked with Petra Solar (South Plainfield, NJ) and utility partners PSE&G and PEPCO to develop a micro-inverter. This project included design and development of
Utility customers now are liking smart solar (SEGIS) functionalities.
New 100 kVA 4-port Demand-Response Inverter (R&D100-2011 Winner)
Sandia worked with Princeton Power (Princeton, NJ) and utility partner PSE&G to develop a demand-response inverter. This project included design and development of
New advanced inverter/controller, interface, and MPPT for SEGIS smart inverters.
Sandia worked with PV Powered (Bend, OR) and utility partner Portland General Electric to develop an advanced inverter/controller. This project included design and development of
Shared inverter configuration
Sandia worked with the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC, Cocoa, FL) and SatCon Technology Corporation (Boston, MA) and utility partner Lakeland Electric to develop a shared inverter. This project included design and development of
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Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.
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