Government Agencies
Resource Innovations plays an influential role in integrated national and regional energy policy and planning. Energy Sector Development requires a stable energy supply, infrastructure, and, increasingly, clean energy technology in order to attain—and sustain—the full economic benefits of reliable energy supply, the environmental benefits of clean air, soil, and water, and the social benefits of job creation.
Resource Innovations has collaborated with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on several projects. The DOE awarded Nexant (now part of Resource Innovations), Arizona State University (ASU), and Arizona Public Service (APS) an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA‑E) grant entitled “Sensor Enabled Modeling of Future Distribution Systems with Distributed Energy Resources” for the amount of $2,800,000.
“This unique collaboration between ASU, Nexant, and APS will facilitate the development of advanced distribution modeling and analysis tools enabling the seamless control of a range of active controllers on distribution feeders including smart inverters, capacitor banks, and voltage regulators to achieve desired operating objectives” said Vijay Vittal, Ira A. Fulton Chair Professor at ASU.
Since 2016, Nexant has been involved in an US Department of Energy, ARPA-E funded project that is applying cutting edge technology to mitigate the impact of major power network operational uncertainties. The project is called: “Stochastic Optimal Power Flow for Real-Time Management of Distributed Renewable Generation and Demand Response.”* This project is a collaboration between Resource Innovations, Arizona State University, Sandia National Laboratories, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and MISO.
The team has developed a Stochastic Security Constrained Economic Dispatch (S-SCED) tool and is currently developing a Stochastic Look Ahead Commitment (SLAC) software advisory tool. The SLAC tool employs the simultaneous study of various scenarios, in which each scenario models a different level of uncertainty. The SLAC’s end-application is to provide system operators with guidance for pre-positioning controllable grid resources, via generation commitment, power schedules and reserves, so that the grid controllable resource fleet can satisfactorily react to a range of possible different scenario realizations.
Before being acquired by Resource Innovations, Nexant also completed two research products in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and sponsored by the U.S. DOE Office of Electricity: Estimating Power System Interruption Costs: A Guidebook for Electric Utilities and the Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator 2.0.
“Utilities are increasingly focused on improving the customer relationship,” said Josh Schellenberg, Senior Vice President of Advanced Analytics at Resource Innovations. “The Guidebook and ICE Calculator align with this objective by providing state-of-the-art guidance and tools for assessing the value that customers receive from a wide variety of investments ranging from everyday tree-trimming activities to advanced smart grid applications.”
The ICE Calculator, which was first released in 2011, is a free online tool for electric reliability planners at utilities, government organizations, and other stakeholders interested in estimating power interruption costs and the benefits associated with improvements in reliability and resilience.
*This project is formally titled: “Stochastic Optimal Power Flow for Real-Time Management of Distributed Renewable Generation and Demand Response.” Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Award No. DE-AR0001289-1531.