A Digital Infrastructure for Techno-Economic Analyses and Optimization of Complex Integrated Energy Systems (IES) Using HERON

With this project, FPoliSolutions will leverage its existing enterprise digital platform, FPoliAAP (FPoli Agile Application Platform) by adding capabilities for performing techno- economic analyses of Integrated Energy Systems integrating INL HERON tool in FPoli SaaS (Software-as- a-Service) suite. While FPoli core business is in engineering services for the nuclear industry, in recent years, FPoli team extended its capabilities in a broader segment of the energy sector by providing software solutions to large developers and integrators in the renewable and grid- scale energy storage market. This makes FPoli uniquely fit for this project. In Phase-I of this project, FPoli intends to gather Integrated Energy System (IES) use cases from nuclear and non-nuclear energy stakeholders by leveraging our growing and diverse clients’ portfolio. The potential IES use cases will include, but no be limited to: 1) Nuclear generation from the operating NPP fleet; BESS and grid infrastructure; 2) solar and wind production; 3) hydrogen generation; 4) district heating and 5) EV mobility and transportation. The capabilities of INL HERON will be assessed in relation to such use cases. The quality attributes, architecture and feasibility of the HERON service when integrated in our in-house digital platform will be the focus of Phase-I. Optimal data entries, efficient UI/UX tactics to interface with HERON and other tools in the platform will be identified to ease the data processing. Phase-I will generate a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of the HERON service which will be presented to potential stakeholders to ensure use cases can be addressed, technology risks are understood and functional requirements for full implementation are identified. For modeling the dynamics of the energy systems FPoli will consider Modelica or similar commercial or open source tools. The model will interface with RAVEN, which is already part of the FPoliAAP platform. The assessment of the robustness of the dispatching algorithms for practical applications, will be given particular attention in Phase-I. This will involve a collaboration between INL and FPoli for possible advancements of the HERON tool to ensure practical deployment models can be pursued in Phase-II. The final product will be integrated in Phase-II. This will require upgrades to the INL HERON and the orchestration of automated workflows to ease its use within the framework. Phase-II will most likely involve interactions and collaboration with industry partners to refine and optimize the design of the service while following market trends for IES solutions for suitable commercialization plan at the completion of the SBIR project.