Dr. Atri Bera was recently honored with the Outstanding Young Engineer Award by the IEEE Albuquerque Section, recognizing his significant contributions in developing “software tools to assess the reliability and stability risks associated with high penetrations of renewable generation.” His research and tool development work has been pivotal in addressing critical challenges as the power grid transitions to incorporate a higher proportion of variable renewable energy sources.

Dr. Bera’s work as a Senior R&D Engineer at Sandia National Laboratories has notably advanced the understanding of potential reliability and stability risks posed by renewable energy integration and demonstrated how energy storage solutions can be strategically utilized to mitigate these issues. Furthermore, his research into energy storage valuation has been instrumental in reducing barriers to its broad adoption, making it easier for industry stakeholders to assess the financial benefits.

Additionally, Dr. Bera has been at the forefront of developing innovative software tools that enhance energy storage valuation and improve grid planning, thereby supporting a more resilient and efficient energy infrastructure. This award highlights Dr. Bera’s impactful work and his commitment to advancing renewable energy integration and enhancing grid reliability and stability using energy storage.

Dr. Bera earned his bachelor’s from National Institute of Technology Durgapur in India and his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, both in electrical engineering. He has authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reports focused on improving grid performance amidst the large-scale integration of renewable energy through the utilization of energy storage systems. He is actively engaged in a range of IEEE activities, including participation in working groups and task forces, serving in editorial roles, and organizing panels and sessions to share ongoing research in his field.

A nationally recognized leader in electrochemical energy conversion and storage at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Vince Sprenkle has been chosen to oversee the Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL), a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) research and development facility that will open this year on PNNL’s campus in Richland, WA.

For more than a decade, Sprenkle has helped lead the effort to develop and accelerate energy storage technologies to meet the country’s clean energy goals. As director of the GSL, Sprenkle will focus on applying the facility’s cutting-edge capabilities and bringing together research collaborations to help advance grid energy storage solutions to enable the nation’s resilient, reliable, and affordable energy grid.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) today announced the selectees of $15 million in awards at the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council Summit on April 8, 2024. These awards are through the Storage Innovations 2030: Technology Liftoff (SI Liftoff) funding opportunity announcement (FOA) to advance energy storage innovations to help deliver clean, affordable electricity to Americans when and where it is needed most.

OE selected three organizations (listed below) for their innovative ideas to tackle key R&D barriers in the domestic energy storage industry. Entities are awarded up to $5 million each for projects that (a) create research partnership to bring together two or more technology stakeholders, and (b) partner with a research institution to solve one or more pre-competitive R&D technical challenge. Projects must enable a long-duration capable (10+ hours) energy storage technology with a pathway to $0.05/ kWh Levelized Cost of Storage (LCOS) by 2030.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) today launched the American-Made Silicon Carbide (SiC)  Packaging Prize. This $2.25 million contest invites competitors to propose, design, build, and test state-of-the-art SiC semiconductor packaging prototypes to enable these devices to work more effectively in high-voltage environments such as energy storage. The prize is part of the American-Made Challenges program, which fosters collaboration between our nation’s entrepreneurs and innovators, DOE’s National Labs, and the private sector.

On February 26, 2024, Sandia National Laboratories staff were co-instructors for HalfMoon Education’s Distributed Energy Interconnection and Interoperability webinar. This webinar covered broader DER interconnection policy and technical standards content, plus narrower discussion specific to energy storage (ES) and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G).  Sandia staff featured learning developed through Energy Storage (ES) program work within the Policy & Outreach and Safety & Reliability ES program thrust areas.

Will McNamara, Policy Analyst for the Sandia Energy Storage program, presented Trends in State-Level Policymaking. While Charlie Vartanian presented DER Interconnection Standards in Codes and Regulation, with an overview of industry activity updating IEEE 1547-2018 standard.

In supporting industry education events like this webinar, Sandia staff leverages and promotes ES program R&D products and resources. This and similar industry-facing activities also provide valuable industry feedback to inform continual refinement of ES program RD&D to best meet industry needs.

On February 19, 2024, Sandia staff were co-instructors for the tutorial “How Grid Energy Storage Meets the Challenges of a Decarbonized Future”, at the 2024 IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technologies conference in Washington DC.  This tutorial was organized and led by the IEEE Energy Storage and Stationary Battery (ESSB) technical committee.  Sandia staff, in support of the IEEE ESSB, covered tutorial sub-topics including Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) technologies, Energy Storage (ES) economics, ES grid interconnection, and ES safety. This tutorial will be provided next at the IEEE T&D show May 6, 2024, in Anaheim CA.  A read description of that tutorial here.

In supporting IEEE ESSB, Sandia staff leverages and promotes Lab ES R&D learning and resources. The IEEE is also a productive community for technical information-exchange and socializing broader DOE initiatives including the Long Duration Storage Shot.

From January 30 – February 2, 2024, Sandia staff participated in the 2024 IEEE Energy Storage and Stationary Battery (ESSB) committee’s winter general meeting. The meeting was held in San Diego, CA, co-located with the IEEE EESAT conference. These ESSB biannual meetings cover committee-level administrative and planning activities, plus additional breakout meetings for individual standards working groups sponsored by the ESSB. See the winter meeting agenda here.

Sandia staff and contractors who participated include:

• Babu Chalamala, past ESSB Chair
• Waylon Clark, P3434 Working Group Chair
• David Rosewater, P2686 Working Group Chair
• David Schoenwald, P2688 Working Group Chair
• Tu Nguyen, P2688 Working Group Vice Chair
• Tom Carpenter (contractor), ESSB Treasurer
• Chris Searles (contractor), ESSB Awards Chair and past ESSB Chair
• Charlie Vartanian (contractor), ESSB Energy Storage Collaboration Team Secretary

The ESSB Committee plays a crucial industry role by both maintaining the IEEE’s existing set of “traditional” technical standards for stationary batteries, while also developing new standards for emerging storage technologies and the integration of storage technologies into energy storage systems. The active expansion of standards under ESSB addresses a strategic gap that the DOE OE ES R&D program has identified as a barrier to stationary storage adoption, specifically lack of standards. Sandia staff lead several of the newer ESSB standards projects, including a new draft IEEE recommended practice for Battery Management Systems (BMS, IEEE project P2686) and new draft IEEE recommended practice for Energy Storage Management Systems (ESMS, IEEE project P2688). The Summer 2024 ESSB general meeting will be held this July in Richland, Washington. Additional meeting information will be posted at IEEE PES Energy Storage and Stationary Battery Committee (ESSB).

From January 29-30, 2024, Sandia staff members organized and participated in the 2024 IEEE Electrical Energy Storage Applications and Technologies (EESAT) conference in San Diego, CA. This year’s technical program centered around the theme of Long Duration Energy Storage and highlighted advances in electricity storage technologies including battery chemistries such as flow, sodium, zinc, and other battery designs, hydrogen storage, pumped storage, CAES, and novel approaches such as demand response as storage programs.

Sandians on the Organizing Committee:

• David Rosewater – 2024 EESAT Conference Chair
• David Sokoloff – 2024 EESAT Marketing & Communications Chair

Sandians Presenting:

• Cody Newlun – Planning for Grid Decarbonization in New Mexico: An Energy Storage Perspective
• Will McNamara – State Policy Perspectives: Charting the Path for Energy Storage in Diverse Markets panel session (moderator)
• David Schoenwald – Development and Deployment of Energy Storage Management Systems in Grid Applications
• Victoria Obrien – Increasing Battery Management System Resilience Following Identification of Sensor Anomalies Using Unknown Input Observer
• Henry Guan – Expanding Access to Energy Storage for Disadvantaged Communities: Energy Storage for Social Equity (ES4SE)

Since 2000, EESAT has been the premier technical forum for presenting advances in energy storage technologies and applications. EESAT benefits attendees through up-to-date idea exchange with top technologists from across the global energy storage industry. Learn more about EESAT and review the 2024 technical agenda at https://cmte.ieee.org/pes-eesat/2024-eesat-agenda/.

The 2025 EESAT conference is planned for January 20-21, 2025, in Charlotte NC. Please watch for the 2025 EESAT ‘Call for Papers’ coming later this spring.