Platform will allow researchers to test energy system integration at scale

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently launched the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform.
 
ARIES will allow NREL researchers and the scientific community to address the fundamental challenges of integrated energy systems at scale. It will enable research at the 20MW level to help understand the impact and get the most value from millions of new devices connected to the grid.
 
These items include electric vehicles, renewable generation, hydrogen, energy storage, and grid-interactive efficient buildings. The scale of the platform will also make it possible to consider opportunities and risks with the growing interdependencies between the power system and other infrastructure like natural gas, transportation, water, and telecommunications, DOE says.
 
“The ARIES platform will lay the foundation for the next generation of energy systems that are resilient, reliable, secure, affordable, and clean,” said NREL Director Martin Keller. “We are thrilled to welcome this new research capability to NREL and look forward to transforming the future energy landscape with our partners through ARIES-enabled research.”