Advancing Energy Analysis 

through High Performance 

Computing at NREL

Rob Leland

Swiss-US Energy Innovation Days, Lausanne, Switzerland

August 20, 2018
NREL | 2

National economic impact

NREL at a glance

facilities, renowned 

technology experts

World-class

with industry, 

academia, and 

government

Partnerships

operates as a 

living laboratory

Campus National 

economic 

impact

$872M

annually 1,800

Employees

\

nearly

750

plus >400 early career 

researchers and visiting 

scientists
Messaging + Blue 

Infographic 

Content

NREL | 3

NREL missions and 

capabilities

Bioenergy

Vehicle Technologies

Hydrogen

Sustainable Transportation

Buildings

Advanced Manufacturing

Government Energy Management

Energy 

Efficiency

Solar

Wind 

Water

Geothermal

Renewable

Power

Bioenergy

Vehicle Technologies

Hydrogen

Sustainable 

Transportation

Buildings

Advanced Manufacturing

Government Energy 

Management

Energy 

Efficiency

High-Performance 

Computing 

Data and 

Visualizations

Energy Systems

Integration
High-performance computing

energy analysis

Applied

mathematics

Computational

science

Visualization

and data

Systems

Technologies

Policies

Resources

Markets
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Energy analysis at NREL

Data

High spatial and temporal resolution datasets, maps, data analytics, and data visualizations

Models and Tools

Innovative models, tools, and web-based applications to develop future energy scenarios and predict their cost, 

performance, and operability

Economic Analysis

Evaluate and understand the 

impact of markets, policies, 

and financing on technology 

uptake, and the impact of 

new technologies on on 

markets and policy 

frameworks

Earth Systems 

Analysis

Analyze various future 

energy scenarios’ 

implications for GHG 

emissions, air quality, and 

land and water use

Technoeconomic

Analysis

Conduct full life-cycle and 

supply chain analysis of 

energy technologies along 

with manufacturing 

competitiveness analysis

Inform R&D, Policy, Market, and Investment Decisions

Complex Systems Analysis
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6

• Respects regional operating borders • Methods solve now 

in days, not years

• Captures information asymmetries 

between operators

• Full representation of 

98,000 nodes

• Every generator and transmission line

Advanced 

computational 

methods
WECC + ERGIS
NREL | 8 https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/naris.html

State-of-the art methods 

and state-of-the art data 

applied to all three 

countries at once

RIGOR

In data, assumptions, 

methods used for all 

three countries 

(five interconnections)

CONSISTENCY

Geographically the 

largest study of its 

kind, allowing us to 

study new things

SCALE

The North American 

Renewable Integration 

Study (NARIS)
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Temporal

Spatial

Feedback Feedback

Model transients

Bound dynamics / 

resiliency

SYSTEM STABILITY

Weather X 50

Constraints

Behavior of market 

participants

POWER PRODUCTION

Optimize infrastructure

Resiliency

Cost

CAPACITY EXPANSION

Where we’re headed

Microseconds Decades

Components Continentalsystems
Thank You

This work was authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy 

Efficiency and Renewable Energy. This research was performed using computational resources sponsored by the Department of 

Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The views 

expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government retains 

and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paidup, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. 

Government purposes.

NREL/PR-6A70-72200
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Models and tools

Model/Tool Name Web Address

Advanced Energy Systems Design https://www.nrel.gov/technicalassistance/advanced-energy-systems-design.html

Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/reeds/

Resource Planning Model (RPM) http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/models_rpm.html

Systems Advisor Model (SAM) http://sam.nrel.gov/

PVWatts http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/

Solar Deployment System (SolarDS) http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/45832.pdf

Jobs and Economic Development Model (JEDI) http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/jedi/

Distributed Generation (dGen) http://www.nrel.gov/XXXX

Biomass Scenario Model (BSM)
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Data and resources

Data/Data Resource Web Address

Open Energy Information 

Platform (OpenEI) http://en.openei.org/wiki/Main_Page

Annual Technology 

Baseline and Standard 

Scenarios (ATB and 

Standard Scenarios)

http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/data_tec

h_baseline.html

Transparent Cost 

Database

http://en.openei.org/wiki/Transparent_

Cost_Database

Wind Integration Datasets 

(and solar?)

http://www.nrel.gov/electricity/transmi

ssion/wind_integration_dataset.html

Utility Rate Database http://en.openei.org/wiki/Gateway:Utili

ties

RE Project Finance https://financere.nrel.gov/finance/

Regulatory and Permitting 

Information Desktop 

(RAPID) Toolkit http://en.openei.org/wiki/RAPID

OpenCarto and key 

resource data sets https://maps.nrel.gov/

Visualization Platform e.g, http://www.nrel.gov/analys

is/re_futures/data_viewer/

Developer Platform for 

data API’s http://developer.nrel.gov/

Clean Energy 

Solutions Center www.cleanenergysolutions.org

Geospatial Toolkit

Geothermal Data 

Repository (GDR)

Geothermal 

Prospector

RAPID (Regulatory 

Roadmap) Toolkit

Renewable Energy 

Probabilistic Resource 

Adequacy (REPRA)
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Temporal resolution

Geographic scale

Tools for electricity modeling at multiple scales

SolarDS

Rooftop PV adoption

Global

U.S.

Regional/

Balancing

Area

Generator

Annual Hourly Sub-hourly

ReEDS

National policy, market, 

technology analysis

SAM

Hourly plant output 

FESTIV

Automatic generation 

control (AGC) & dispatch

RPM

Regional integrated 

resource planning

IAMs, CGEs

Global energy-economic-climate

Data 

wind, solar, 

demand, 

generator, 

transmission

PLEXOS

Security-constrained unit 

commitment & economic dispatch

Seasonal/Diurnal

ABM

Agent Based Models 

of Customer Behavior