As we trend toward more renewables and distributed energy resources (DERs), the design of the electric distribution system itself imposes physical limitations. These system constraints could lead to issues like overloaded power lines and faults that propagate freely.
But what if we could restructure the underlying system to support greater renewable integration and system resilience? To that end, a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)–led project is working on a new type of grid device enabled by silicon carbide (SiC) switches and other medium voltage (MV) power electronics that could segment sections of the grid, providing advanced control for flexibility and resilience for our power systems.
The project team is first designing a megawatt-scale prototype converter that provides native “back-to-back” conversion — AC to AC power — at distribution voltages (i.e., not requiring transformers to step down voltage to levels typically used in electronic power conversion). By using MV SiC-based power modules, the converters could be 1/5th the size and 1/10th the weight of alternate equivalent systems, which are trailer-sized and include heavy transformers. Then the team will connect the power converter into NREL’s MV testbed to validate new grid control approaches that the prototype enables.
The NREL-led GADTAMS project is developing and demonstrating smaller and lighter alternatives for direct medium-voltage connections on the grid, which could enable new resilient grid architectures.
“With back-to-back converters between feeders, we can go one step higher in providing resilience across the distribution system,” said Akanksha Singh, a project lead at NREL.
“This technology wasn’t necessary before because we didn’t have so many distributed energy resources on the system, but now we have feeders that are becoming saturated with PV; apart from storage, these feeders don’t have anywhere to inject that excess power,” Singh said. “A new approach to grid interconnection could enable advanced forms of power sharing and provide much-enhanced grid resilience.”
A future grid that features such converters would have the capability to control the flow of power between sections of the grid, shunting excess load or DER-based generation to feeder sections or adjacent circuits as needed, adding new versatility to power distribution. Networked microgrids could protect against the propagation of faults from one microgrid to the next while still allowing controlled power dispatch between the two systems and the macrogrid as well.
During outage recovery, microgrids could be formed that then stabilize neighboring microgrid systems, as envisioned in NREL’s autonomous energy systems research. In general, the two sides of the converter do not need to be synchronized in frequency or even exact voltage level at all — a major shift from the modern power system. But prior to proving any of these applications, NREL and others will first need to build the necessary controls.
“We are developing very novel controls for upcoming grid architectures,” Singh said. “We have local controls on inverters, and we have hierarchical controls that coordinate between grid partitions. With regard to grid support, these controls can do it all: dynamic stability, frequency support, black start, fault ride-through and protection.”
Unlike anything currently available, the NREL testbed provides an environment to validate medium-voltage grid solutions with real power hardware-in-the-loop and real-time grid simulation. For this project, NREL and partners are interested in the full range of use cases for back-to-back SiC converters and have teamed with utility Southern California Edison to inform on utility applications, as well as industry partners General Atomics and Eaton to seek out a commercial path for the technology.
The SiC converter is being built in two halves by project partners Ohio State University and Florida State University. The three-phase converter prototype will be rated for 330 kW and will implement a full thermal and electrical design appropriate for utility use. Traditionally, the same AC-to-AC conversion process requires stepping-down the voltage to low-voltage levels where conventional power electronics can be used, which results in heavy and expensive transformer equipment. The MV SiC option takes advantage of the superior voltage ratings of devices to minimize weight, cost, and size, which makes the technology far more practical and economical for system-wide deployment.
Still, the converter technology is only one aspect of fulfilling flexible interconnections. This framework currently lacks the standardization that exists for so many other recent grid innovations. At NREL, the project team hopes to collect baseline operational data to jumpstart the conversation around how to integrate MV converters in future grids.
“This is a new application that doesn’t exist anywhere yet. We need standards that apply to how the converters can integrate with regular system operation, like starting up, syncing to the grid, etc.,” Singh said. “We are using IEEE Standards 1547 and 2030.8 as a base, interpreting their rules to implement new controls on MV systems. We are trying to merge the two to understand what will apply to this new approach.”
An entirely new grid architecture and operational flexibility could seem far-out for now, but NREL and partners are showing that these options are viable in the near-term and that NREL has the capability to prepare these solutions for real systems. Learn more about how NREL can validate advanced energy systems at scale.
Hyundai Motors is recalling 145,235 EVs and other “electrified” vehicles in the US, citing concerns about a loss of driving power, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday.
The NHTSA announced this morning that the recall affects selected IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 EVs, as well as certain luxury Genesis models, including the GV60, GV70, and G80 electrified variants, from the 2022-2025 model years, Reuters reported.
It looks like the issue stems from “the integrated charging control units in these vehicles, which may become damaged and fail to charge the 12-volt battery. This malfunction could lead to a complete loss of drive power, posing safety risks for drivers,” the NHTSA stated.
If you’re an owner of one of these Hyundai models dating 2022-2025, stay tuned. Hyundai has not yet provided a timeline as to when affected vehicles will be repaired.
To make that happen, the company’s dealers will inspect and replace the charging unit and its fuse if necessary, NHTSA said. Free of charge, of course.
Importantly, no crashes, injuries, fatalities, or fires due to this issue have been reported in the US, Hyundai reported.
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Tesla announced that ‘Actually Smart Summon,’ its autonomous driving feature that enables moving its vehicles without anyone inside over short distances, is now being launched in Europe and the Middle East.
The automaker’s Full Self-Driving suite of features has been limited in those markets due to regulations and Tesla’s focus on making them work in North America first.
Actually Smart Summon is the vision-only version of Tesla’s “smart summon” feature, which was released years ago on Tesla vehicles with ultrasonic sensors.
When Tesla transitioned away from ultrasonic sensors, Smart Summon was one of the missing features that Tesla had yet to adapt to the vision-only (cameras and neural nets) system.
However, that’s only in North America where Tesla focuses its Full Self-Driving (FSD) development, the feature package that includes Actually Smart Summon, also referred to as ‘ASS’.
Most of Tesla’s other markets, including Europe, don’t have the same capabilities under the Full Self-Driving package. That’s partly due to regulations, but Tesla also focuses on making the features work on North American roads first.
Now, Tesla has announced that its Actually Smart Summon feature is launching in Europe and the Middle East:
The feature can only be used on private roads, like parking lots and driveways. Most people have used it to bring their vehicles parked in a large parking lot to them as they exit a store or restaurant. However, the vehicle moves quite slowly under the feature and the owner needs to keep an eye on it at all time and be ready to cancel the summon as Tesla doesn’t take any responsibility for accidents caused by using Actually Smart Summon., like all other FSD features.
Therefore, most people I know who have the feature, myself included, tried once or try to see or impress some friends who have never seen a car move without anyone inside and then stopped using it.
The feature’s main useful use-case is for people with extremely tight parking spots. It enables them to exit the vehicle before it is in its final parking spot and then move the car in and out remotely.
However, that has been the case for years with the regular Smart Summon, as you generally don’t need the vehicle to handle complex parking lots. You mostly need it to move a few feet forward or backward.
US Automakers are planning to ask Mr. Trump to retain President Biden’s EPA exhaust rules, in the face of signs that Mr. Trump might try to reverse them. If the rules are reversed, it would cost Americans hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of deaths per year.
Interestingly, this is the opposite of what big auto did the last time a reality TV show came to the White House – signaling that they have perhaps learned their lesson this time ’round.
First, some history.
In the middle of the 20th century, the effects of human activity on the atmosphere became readily apparent. Certain cities – with Los Angeles among the forefront – were choked by smog, and it was soon found out that vehicle pollution was the primary reason for this smog.
Since Los Angeles was one of the most smog-choked cities, California led the way on clean air regulation, creating the California Air Resources Board in 1967 (under then-Governor Ronald Reagan).
The federal government gave California special dispensation to set stricter regulations than the rest of the country, in recognition that it had a unique smog problem in its primary metropolis. California has retained this dispensation, in the form of a “waiver,” since then. And other states can follow California’s rules, but only if they copy all of the rules exactly.
Thus, there have been two separate sets of clean air regulation in this country since then – the federal rules, and then the “CARB states” which follow California’s rules.
In 2012 that finally changed, when President Obama’s EPA negotiated with California to finally harmonize these standards and also implement higher fuel efficiency nationwide. This would have been a huge boon for both industry and consumers, saving money and giving regulatory certainty to the auto industry.
But then, in 2016, the candidate who got the 2nd most votes in the presidential election was headed for the White House. And automakers responded by immediately lobbying to torpedo these standards, even before inauguration.
Now, you might think that asking a profoundly ignorant individual, who ended up staffing the EPA with bought-and-sold science deniers (huh, that would never happen again would it?), to change rules which had already been set through years of negotiation and lobbying was not a great idea. And you’d be right.
Not long after automakers had the dumb idea to ask an idiot to fix something that wasn’t broken, that idiot went and broke things further, fracturing the agreement between California and the federal government and ensuring less regulatory certainty for automakers.
But it was too late, and we are now back in the era of disparate regulatory regimes – something which John Bozzella, head of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (formerly called Global Automakers), keeps complaining about these days, despite having lobbied for exactly this in the first place.
The US EPA and California are still not fully harmonized, but both released recent new standards which do have somewhat similar targets. If a manufacturer builds towards one set of rules, they’ll probably not be too far off from meeting the other.
So in the end, we did get better emissions regulations and California has continued to push forward with clean air regulations, thus signaling a failure on the part of Mr. Trump to cause the long term harm to Americans that he and his oil industry solicitors so desperately seem to desire.
The most recent EPA standards, finalized in March (after being softened at the auto industry’s request), do not mandate any particular powertrain, but rather require steep emissions cuts – and EVs are the easiest way to achieve lower emissions.
Notably, Tesla lobbied in favor of making this last set of standards stronger, and they also lobbied against ruining the Obama/CA standards in 2016 – being one of very few automakers who were on the correct side of that discussion.
Despite that the President Biden EPA’s rules do not mandate any particular powertrain, Mr. Trump, in his usual ignorance, has said that he will end the nonexistent EV mandate. And now that he has received more votes than his opponent for the first time (after three tries, and despite committing treason in 2021 for which there is a clear legal remedy), it looks like the upcoming EPA might be directed to end these emissions cuts and fuel/health cost savings for Americans.
But in this instance, it sounds like the automakers might actually do the right thing for once, and ask the government not to do any rollbacks, and instead let them continue on with the plans without disruption from a convicted felon who seems determined to cede a US EV manufacturing boom back to China.
Detroit’s Big Three automakers – GM, Ford and Stellantis – are all reportedly trying to figure out how to ensure that these rules stay in place. The mentality is that constantly changing regulations are not beneficial for companies – particularly in the auto realm, where models take on the order of 7 years to plan and execute. Long-term planning is important for the hundreds of billions in manufacturing investment that EVs have attracted in the US during Biden’s EV push.
These attitudes are notable, given that this is not what automakers did in 2016/2017. That time, they compulsively pushed for fewer regulations, and now they are asking for regulations to remain in place.
It’s further notable that Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company lobbied strongly in favor of emissions cuts and makes more use of the federal EV tax credit than any other company, is now allied with the very entity that’s looking to harm EVs. It seems that we have entered opposite world.
On the other hand, a former reality TV host – tagged along with by the CEO of the company that has sold more electric cars than any other – seem determined to kill electric cars, despite the harm that would cause to Americans’ pocketbooks and health insurance premiums. And that famously vindictive character may be even more spurred towards this harmful course of action after failing in his efforts the first time.
Who ya got?
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