With support from the U.S. Department of Energy Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, the FlexPower project brings National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers together with other National Laboratories to develop a colocated variable hybrid generation power plant enhanced with energy storage at NREL’s Flatirons Campus. Participants include the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia).Hybrid renewable power plants combined with energy storage can transform variable resources such as wind and solar photovoltaics into fully dispatchable and flexible energy sources. These hybridized power plants will be capable of operating in day-ahead and real-time energy markets and providing essential reliability and resiliency services to the grid.
Researchers will test a variety of energy storage systems, including pumped storage hydropower, battery, hydrogen, flow battery, kinetic, and ultracapacitor energy storage. In addition, the project will focus on advanced control strategies and resource forecast techniques. Improved forecasting allows hybrid plants to participate in energy and ancillary services markets in the same way conventional generation plants do.
The FlexPower research results will be freely accessible to all stakeholders in the form of public domain information and other assets.
FlexPower was funded in part by U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office, Water Power Technologies Office, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, and the Office of Electricity.
