RAPID: Transportable Energy Storage for Enhancing Power Grid Resiliency to Natural Disasters

鉴于美国大西洋和墨西哥湾沿岸地区飓风袭击的频率和破坏日益增加，减少自然灾害对电网的影响在社会范围内的紧迫性促使了该项目的开展。提高电网运营商抵御此类灾害能力的一种方法是确保备用灵活性资源的可用性，以便在灾难发生前及时部署。这种灵活性可用于防止灾难期间的关键设备故障，并加速灾后电网恢复。该项目将开发和验证可为电网提供备用灵活性的移动储能（ES）单元的概念。提供及时的灾难场景，这些单元可以使用公共交通路线从固定位置移动到可以增强电网弹性的位置。实现这一目标需要解决两个紧迫的研究空白。首先，没有决策策略可以根据需要优化路线、重新配置和控制移动ES单元，以减少预期灾难的影响。其次，现有的ES技术使得很难在短时间内重新配置ES单元。利用现实生活中的预测和飓风哈维的事后数据，该项目将设计一种数据驱动的方法，实现移动ES单元的最佳路由、重新配置和控制，以增强电网的弹性。提出的方法将伴随着一种新的电化学ES机制的发展，该机制能够产生两种可运输的能量载体：氧化还原活性物质（如用于氧化还原液流电池的物质）和氢气（如在美国墨西哥湾沿岸的炼油厂中可用）。在方法上，该项目将推进解决二元资源决策的多阶段优化问题的技术，以及基于以溶液为基础的氧化还原偶对作为水电解中间体的电化学水分解反应的电网规模储能机制。该项目将增强工具集和知识，以减轻自然灾害的影响，并将在接下来的大西洋飓风季节（2018年）之前及时提供给电网公用事业公司。pi的目标是让代表性不足的群体参与STEM研究活动。

This project is motivated by the society-scale urgency of reducing the impact of natural disasters on power grids in the light of increasing frequency and damage of hurricane strikes in the US Atlantic and Gulf Coast region. One way to enhance the ability of power grid operators to withstand such disasters is to ensure availability of backup flexibility resources that can be timely deployed prior to the disaster. This flexibility can then be used to prevent critical equipment failures during the disaster and to accelerate post-disaster grid restoration.This project will develop and validate the concept of mobile energy storage (ES) units that can provide backup flexibility to power grids. Provided a timely disaster scenario, these units can be moved using public transportation routes from their stationary locations to the locations, where they can enhance power grid resiliency. This objective requires addressing two immediate research gaps. First, there is no decision-making strategy that can optimally route, reconfigure and control mobile ES units as needed to reduce the impact of the anticipated disaster. Second, existing ES technologies makes it difficult to reconfigure ES units on a short notice. Using the real-life predictions and ex-post data from Hurricane Harvey, this project will design a data-driven approach to enable the optimal routing, reconfigure and control of mobile ES units to enhance power grid resiliency. The proposed approach will be accompanied by the development of a new electrochemical ES mechanism that is capable of generating two transportable energy carriers: redox-active species (such as those used on redox flow batteries) and hydrogen (e.g. available in refineries along the US Gulf Coast). Methodologically, this project will advance techniques for solving multi-stage optimization problems with binary recourse decisions and grid-scale energy storage mechanisms based on electrochemical water splitting reactions with solution-based redox couples as intermediates for water electrolysis.The project will enhance the tool set and knowledge to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and will be made available to educate power grid utilities just in time for the following Atlantic Hurricane Season (2018). The PIs will aim to engage underrepresented groups in STEM research activities.