GRID RELIABILITY WITH AUTOMATIC DAMPING AND INERTIA FOR ELECTRICAL NETWORKS AND TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS SBIR/STTR (GRADIENTS SBIR/STTR)
This ARPA-E modification clarifies program policy for a funding opportunity (GRADIENTS SBIR/STTR) aimed at improving grid reliability with renewable energy via advanced control solutions.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy has archived this opportunity.
Funder: Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E)
Due Dates: February 14, 2025 (Concept Paper Submission) | Full Application Deadline: TBD
Funding Amounts: Approximately $4.5 million total funding; cooperative agreements awarded. Typical project duration 2-3 years.
Summary: Supports development of innovative grid assets and control solutions to enhance reliability and stability of electrical networks with high renewable energy penetration through advanced automatic damping and inertia technologies.
Key Information: Focused on small businesses via SBIR/STTR; projects must address real-time control co-design for intelligent inverter-based resources to improve grid stability and resilience.
Description
The Grid Reliability with Automatic Damping and Inertia for Electrical Networks and Transmission Systems SBIR/STTR (GRADIENTS SBIR/STTR) program, funded by ARPA-E, aims to develop disruptive grid technologies and control solutions that enable renewable energy systems to provide grid services traditionally supplied by large synchronous generators. The program addresses challenges posed by renewable energy systems that currently lack ancillary services, which can degrade grid stability.
Key to this program is the use of real-time control co-design (RT-CCD), a methodology that integrates control engineering principles throughout the design process to co-optimize power delivery and controllability. This approach enables improvements in grid stability and resilience that would otherwise require prohibitive capital investments.
The program targets three technology categories:
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Flexible Renewable Generation: Development of advanced power electronics co-design solutions incorporating short-term energy storage (without batteries) and advanced control strategies. Projects must demonstrate performance under various contingencies and grid topologies.
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Intelligent Automatic Relays: Creation of fast-acting relays equipped with smart sensors capable of automatic contingency prediction, impedance estimation, stability assessment, and emergency load-shedding (under-frequency/under-voltage), along with other enhanced functionalities.
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Wide-Area Real-Time Control Co-Design (RT-CCD): Development of optimization algorithms for energy (inertia) allocation, control authority (damping) allocation, and load-shedding across the grid. These tools enable grid operators to holistically manage normal and emergency scenarios, improving grid stability and resilience.
The program emphasizes technologies that quantify grid stability using dynamic metrics such as rate of change of frequency (RoCoF), frequency nadir, decay ratio, and recovery time, alongside techno-economic metrics for evaluating synergy margins.
By coordinating resources that provide inertia and damping with fast frequency regulation, GRADIENTS aims to:
- Improve grid reliability in scenarios with high renewable penetration.
- Mitigate blackout risks.
- Reduce renewable energy curtailment.
- Lower operational costs.
- Maximize economic viability of renewable integration.
The program also fosters innovation in intelligent relays and fault-tolerant protection systems tailored for inverter-based resources (IBRs), enhancing fault detection and response capabilities.
The scalable and flexible distributed control approach supports applications ranging from large regional grids to localized microgrids, adaptable to diverse energy mixes and regulatory environments.
