Elevate Energy Consulting

Join our growing team! 💥

Join Elevate Energy Consulting and many industry participants tomorrow at the ESIG (Energy Systems Integration Group) Large Loads Task Force (LLTF) Kick-Off Webinar! We’re excited to announce that Kyle Thomas, VP of Engineering and Compliance Services at #Elevate, will lead Project Team 3: Interconnection Processes. This initiative will tackle the growing challenges posed by large loads (#LargeLoads)—such as AI/data centers, hydrogen production, industrial heat electrification, and EV fleet charging—and work toward identifying practical solutions. With large loads creating new complexities for the electric power system, the LLTF is bringing together diverse stakeholders to explore grid impacts, reliability challenges, and efficient strategies for interconnecting these loads to the power system. 💡 Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the conversation! Let’s work together to shape the future of energy! #LargeLoads #Datacenter #AI   📅 December 17, 2024 🕰️ 4:00 PM Eastern US Time Registration Link 👉 https://lnkd.in/edbNubQY Obligatory AI-generated picture of a data center attached⚡

Tune in to the next i2X FIRST meeting where the group will discuss inverter-based resource (#IBR) voltage control and Clause 5 of IEEE 2800-2022. A great lineup of presenters and these meetings have proven to be educational and informative regarding practical considerations of 2800 implementation and industry experience in these areas. Kudos to ESIG (Energy Systems Integration Group), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), EPRI, and Berkeley Lab for putting on such a great series!

📣 Reminder! Join some of the Elevate Energy Consulting team tomorrow for a lively discussion about inverter-based resource (#IBR) and data center integration trends. "Learn from the past and look to the future!" Special thanks to ESIG (Energy Systems Integration Group) for the invitation to share our perspectives and lessons learned with the community! #elevate

We are excited to announce that Amin Banaie, PhD joins the Elevate Energy Consulting team as a Senior Engineer in our Power System Studies and Modeling team. Amin will support a wide range of modeling, studies, protection and control, and grid reliability projects. His areas of expertise include electromagnetic transient (EMT) model development and studies, grid forming (GFM) inverter performance and ride-through assessments, and impacts of increasing inverter-based resources (IBRs) on different power system protection systems. 💡 He has been active in the research community and IEEE Power & Energy Society for the past few years and is excited to bring his skills and expertise to help support and #elevate industry broadly. He also likes to hit the dance floor at weddings and other events!🕺 Welcome, Amin!

This week Kyle Thomas, VP of Engineering and Compliance Services at Elevate Energy Consulting, and Kathleen Rogers, Manager of Reliability Assessments at WECC, presented WECC’s Large Load Risk Assessment and Industry Advisory Group activities under development at the 2024 EPRI-North American Transmission Forum, Inc.-North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Planning and Modeling Virtual Seminar. Kyle and Kathleen (Katie) gave an overview of the WECC Large Load Risk Assessment that began in early 2024 and some of the draft key takeaways discovered through the assessment and with support of a wide range of stakeholders as part of their ad hoc industry advisory group (IAG). Key takeaways: ♦ Predominant large loads include data centers, cryptocurrency mining facilities, hydrogen electrolyzers, electric vehicle (EV) fleet charging stations, large industrial manufacturing facilities, and multi-sector electrification. ♦ From WECC member load interconnection queue data, data centers are by far the dominant large load seeking interconnection in the Western Interconnection. They make up almost 80% of the load interconnection queues, based on information from WECC participants. ♦ While large loads present opportunities and are increasingly critical for modern society today, the risk assessment highlights potential bulk power system risks and challenges with interconnecting these facilities rapidly and at enormous scale. 🔸 Interconnection processes and queues for large loads vary widely depending on factors including location and voltage level of the interconnection (transmission vs. distribution); these processes need to evolve and standardize to improve efficiency and consistency as well as ensure fair and just treatment of all ratepayers. 🔸 Interconnection requirements and associated grid reliability standards for large loads are very limited today and also need to evolve to keep pace with these changes. 🔸 Data centers are complex facilities that have unique steady state and dynamic performance and operating characteristics that the electricity sector needs to understand to create accurate models and conduct adequate reliability assessments. 🔸 Given the exponential growth of interconnection requests for these facilities, driven by AI and more, there are challenges in accurately forecasting large loads for use in capacity expansion planning, transmission planning, integrated resource planning, etc. ♦ Further collaboration and partnership between the power system industry and the large load industries on these technical details are essential to moving quickly and addressing any BPS risks and challenges Be on the lookout for the final WECC Large Load Risk Assessment in early 2025 along with continued industry developments and risk mitigations throughout the year. Elevate Energy Consulting is thrilled to be supporting collective industry advancements in this area!

Join us for this ESIG (Energy Systems Integration Group) webinar after the Thanksgiving holiday where Ryan Quint, Kyle Thomas, and Farhad Yahyaie will be sharing their perspectives and experience with inverter-based resource (IBR) modeling, studies, and integration - past, present, and future! Topics will include covering changes going on at the regulatory level, trends with generator interconnection modeling and studies, rollout of IBR model quality and performance conformity assessments including wider adoption of IEEE 2800-2022, grid forming (GFM) technology, and other recommended practices. They will also discuss thoughts, perspectives, and predictions regarding large load interconnection, modeling, and studies, and some of the similarities between IBR and large load integration efforts.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the six Regional Entities (WECC, Midwest Reliability Organization, SERC Reliability Corporation, Texas Reliability Entity, Inc., Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Inc. (NPCC), ReliabilityFirst Corporation) - referred to as the ERO Enterprise - launched the Inverter-Based Resource (#IBR) Registration Initiative over a year ago to address Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directives related to identifying and registering IBRs connected to the bulk power system (BPS) that are not presently subject to #NERC's jurisdiction and thus outside the scope of NERC Reliability Standards. On November 13, the ERO Enterprise held an informational webinar on the IBR Registration Initiative and the recently introduced "Category 2" GO and GOPs criteria - non-Bulk Electric System (#BES) inverter-based generating resources "that either have or contribute to an aggregate nameplate capacity of greater than or equal to 20 MVA, connected through a system designed primarily for delivering such capacity to a common point of connection at a voltage greater than or equal to 60 kV." Key takeaways from the webinar: 🔷 IBRs dominate the interconnection queues presently and have an increasingly transformative impact on the operating characteristics of the bulk power system, which differ greatly from synchronous generators. 🔷 IBRs can pose risks to grid stability and reliability if not planned, designed, commissioned, and operated properly. 🔷 Fully leveraging the capabilities of modern IBR technology can help address those potential risks moving forward. 🔷 Many IBRs (in terms of # of resources) connected to the BPS today fall outside the NERC BES definition and registration criteria. 🔷 On 17 November 2022, FERC issued Order RD22-4-000 directing NERC to address identify, register, and apply applicable NERC Standards to these additional IBRs. 🔷 The NERC work plan involves a three-year approach to implement the FERC directives: ◾ Phase I - May 2023–May 2024: NERC Rules of Procedure revisions ◾ Phase II - May 2024–May 2025: Identify candidates for registration ◾ Phase III - May 2025–May 2026: Register candidates and apply standards Reach out to the Elevate Energy Consulting team to discuss any IBR registration and/or NERC standards applicability and compliance needs. Entities, particularly those not presently registered as a Generator Owner or Generator Operator under NERC's criteria, have a lot of work to do to prepare for compliance with applicable standard moving forward. (Including the new NERC Standards changes as part of FERC Order 901 directives). FERC IBR Registration Order: https://lnkd.in/ggAFP--W NERC IBR Registration Q3 Update: https://lnkd.in/gAaGt44Z

Farhad Yahyaie, Head of Power System Studies and Modeling at Elevate Energy Consulting, presented at the Minnesota Power System Conference (MIPSYCON) in Saint Paul, MN, this week to hundreds of power system engineers about grid forming (#GFM) battery energy storage system (#BESS) technology. Key findings from his talk included: ⚡ Widespread deployment of GFM BESS can enhance grid stability at a low incremental cost, simplify planning in challenging regions, and increase IBR capacity." ⚡ Off the shelf GFM BESS models worked stably in a test microcosm system under “extreme” conditions and in real grid scenarios, and required no tuning to improve stability performance. ⚡ GFM BESS worked well both in weak and strong grid scenarios and provided stabilizing attributes and improved grid performance measures (voltage, frequency, damping, etc.). ⚡ Model quality checks and performance validation are crucial first steps in discovering modeling issues and to avoid erroneous results from a study. This work is part of a novel study using multiple GFM BESS models directly from OEMs to 1) rigor test actual OEM GFM BESS models for interoperability and performance, and 2) apply those models in an actual system to understand how "real" OEM models perform in "real" system conditions for "real" contingencies. This work is co-funded by GridLab and ESIG (Energy Systems Integration Group) and in partnership with Elevate Energy Consulting's friends and colleagues at Electranix Corporation. The project team will also be holding an ESIG webinar on this project and its findings in early 2025!

ESIG (Energy Systems Integration Group) just released a brief recap and summary of the IEEE Power & Energy Society 2024 General Meeting panel where Elevate Energy Consulting Founder Ryan Quint and other esteemed industry colleagues discussed IBR interconnection processes, standards development efforts, and areas of integration improvement. The summary and panel discussion highlight important messages that are pertinent to ongoing work at #FERC, #NERC, and across industry regarding IBR requirements developments and IBR integration projects: 🔹 Comprehensive, harmonized interconnection requirements across North America will help expedite the interconnection of renewable energy resources and in a manner that support a reliable bulk power system moving forward. 🔹 Original equipment manufacturers (#OEM) and developers generally welcome the certainty and efficiencies to be gained from having harmonized standards rather than disparate requirements across all regions, so long as the requirements are reasonable, do not create unrealistic performance expectations, and do not cause significant cost increases or backlogs. 🔹 OEM support is a vital component of IBR integration and careful coordination with OEMs when developing IBR plant models and passing model quality tests (#MQT) is critical for project success. 🔹 High-quality and accurate models throughout the interconnection process leads to better reliability decisions; minimizing errors or discrepancies in these models early in the process helps minimize the risk of project delays. 🔹 IEEE P2800.2 efforts continue to evolve; however, thoughtful consideration will be needed to figure out how to adopt these recommended practices moving forward. 🔹 NERC standards development activities should align with industry efforts in these areas, seeking to leverage the work of IEEE 2800-2022 and not creating duplication of efforts or requirements that differ from the new status quo in terms of IBR design and evaluation. 🔹 IBRs present unique challenges to the grid yet also present major opportunities. New technologies like grid forming (#GFM) may actually help unlock additional IBR capacity in some areas. Interconnection processes and requirements should not create barriers or obstacles to leveraging these new technologies.