Climate Change and the U.S. Energy Sector: Regional Vulnerabilities and Resilience Solutions

Changes in climate create diverse challenges across the U.S. energy system. Some energy infrastructure assets have already suffered damage or disruption in services from a variety of climate-related impacts, such as higher temperatures, rising sea levels, and more severe weather events. In the absence of concerted action to improve resilience, energy system vulnerabilities pose a threat to America’s national security, energy security, economic wellbeing, and quality of life.

Building climate change resilience into our energy infrastructure planning is a challenging and complex undertaking. Planning horizons can span several decades (the typical service life of most energy assets), associated investments can …

Mathematical Sciences Research Challenges for the Next-Generation Electric Grid

If the United States is to sustain its economic prosperity, quality of life, and global competitiveness, it must continue to have an abundance of secure, reliable, and affordable energy resources. There have been many improvements in the technology and capability of the electric grid over the past several decades. Many of these advances to the grid depend on complex mathematical algorithms and techniques, and as the complexity of the grid has increased, the analytical demands have also increased.

The workshop summarized in this report was developed as part of an ongoing study of the Committee on Analytical Research Foundations for …

Physical Security of the U.S. Power Grid: High-Voltage Transformer Substations

In the United States, the electric power grid consists of over 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines interspersed with hundreds of large electric power transformers. High voltage (HV) transformer units make up less than 3% of transformers in U.S. power substations, but they carry 60%-70% of the nation’s electricity. Because they serve as vital nodes and carry bulk volumes of electricity, HV transformers are critical elements of the nation’s electric power grid. HV transformers are also the most vulnerable to intentional damage from malicious acts. Recent security exercises, together with a 2013 physical attack on transformers in Metcalf, CA, have …

Governors’ Guide to Modernizing the Electric Power Grid

Governors have a strong interest in ensuring that the electric power grid functions safely, reliably, and efficiently. Although it functions well overall and utilities have made many upgrades, the grid needs modern technologies and new infrastructure to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century, including mitigating increased storm- and cyber- related threats, integrating the use of more renewable energy resources, and capitalizing on the greater availability of data on grid performance and electricity usage. Most recently, an attack by gunmen on a utility substation in California that caused damage but did not result in a power outage has …

Severe Impact Resilience: Considerations and Recommendations

The North American bulk power system (BPS) is one of the most critical of infrastructures, vital to society in many ways, but it is not immune to severe disruptions that could threaten the health, safety, or economic well‐being of the citizens it serves. The electric power industry has well established planning and operating procedures in place to address “normal” emergency events (e.g., hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms) that occur from time to time and disrupt electric reliability. However, the electricity industry has much less experience with planning for and responding to high‐impact events that have a low probability of occurring.

To …

Smart Grid: A Race Worth Winning?

Around the world there is strong consensus that we are about to see significant changes in the way we use and generate electricity. Innovations in areas such as renewable and micro-generation, heating and the mass commercial development of electric vehicles (EV) will place new requirements on the networks that transmit and distribute electricity. Meeting these requirements will necessitate large scale investment in these networks to make them more intelligent, efficient and secure. In time these investments will be replicated in every country around the world. The term used to describe these new networks is smart grid.…

Decoding DERMS: Options for the Future of DER Management

Several converging trends are transforming the electric grid in the United States including:

– Increasing variable renewable energy generation,
– Rising electricity demand,
– Grid decentralization driven by the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs), and
– Increasing need for electric grid resilience in response to extreme weather events.

Traditional, infrastructure-centric approaches are insufficient to deliver reliable, affordable power in this new reality. The generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades needed are simply too expensive and time-consuming to be effective on their own. Fortunately, demand flexibility has the potential to enable utilities to meet the needs of the future at much …

Reducing Pollution Without Sacrificing Reliability

The power sector is in the midst a profound transition. Myriad climate policies at nearly all levels of government, including the landmark 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), have incentivized the accelerated adoption of low-and zero-emission energy resources. These policies have sped along sectoral shifts already underway due to changing market conditions, plummeting renewables prices, and the replacement of aging coal-fired power plants with cheaper, more efficient resources. Meanwhile, the electric grid faces increasing vulnerability from climate change impacts that have become unavoidable, in addition to projected future increases in electricity demand. Both the structure and operation of our electric grid …

National Transmission Needs Study

A robust transmission system is critical to the Nation’s economic, energy, and national security. The electric grid continues to face challenges from aging infrastructure and insufficient transmission capacity. The U.S. Department of Energy undertakes this National Transmission Needs Study (Needs Study) to identify needs that could be alleviated by transmission solutions. Findings of this Needs Study will inform the Department of Energy as it coordinates the use of its authorities and funding related to electric transmission, including implementing the many grid resilience and technology investment provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act. The Needs Study …

PR100 One-Year Progress Summary Report

The Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy Study (PR100) is a 2-year study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Grid Deployment Office and six national laboratories to comprehensively analyze stakeholder-driven pathways to Puerto Rico’s clean energy future. 

In Year 1 of the study, the PR100 team rigorously modeled and analyzed scenarios that meet Puerto Rico’s renewable energy targets and achieve short-term recovery goals and long-term energy resilience. This report, which summarizes PR100 progress in Year 1, provides considerations that can inform potential funding and implementation decisions by key federal and local agencies and stakeholders. …