ISE Welcomes Aaron Bloom on Nov. 2

Posted: 

Section Manager, Energy Forecasting and Modeling Group

A seminar by Aaron Bloom

Project Manager/Engineer – Electricity Section Supervisor, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Wednesday, November 2, 2016; 4:00 – 5:00 pm

395 Watts Hall, 2041 College Rd. N.

The Eastern Renewable Generation Integration Study (ERGIS), explores the operational impacts of the wide spread adoption of wind and solar photovoltaics (PV) resources in the Eastern Interconnection. In order to understand some of the economic and reliability challenges of managing hundreds of gigawatts of wind and solar, we developed state of the art tools, data and models for simulating power system operations using hourly unit commitment and 5-minute economic dispatch over an entire year. Using NREL’s high-performance computing capabilities and new methodologies to model operations, we found that the Eastern Interconnection, as simulated with evolutionary change in 2026, could balance the variability and uncertainty of wind and solar PV at a 5-minute level under a variety of conditions. Our simulations achieve instantaneous penetrations that exceed 50% of load while meeting an annual penetration of 30% on an energy basis.  In this work, we analyze potentially challenging system conditions that occur in the simulations and identify opportunities for innovation, regulatory reform, and changes in operating practices that require further analysis to enable the transition to a system with more wind and solar PV. We also released our model and a variety of visualization tools to the public.

Aaron Bloom graduated from the John Glenn College in 2005. After earning his Master’s in Public Administration he moved to Washington, DC to work at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission where he worked on various rulemakings, market design issues, and NERC standards. In 2012 he joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO. There he leads an interdisciplinary team of power systems analysts that study the impact of clean energy technologies on power systems using a range of models and tools. His research is focused on power system planning and electricity market design. He very much enjoys his job and loves riding mountain bikes in Colorado with his family.