Let’s focus on electricity supply. The U.S. Electricity Grid, which could be considered the largest machine in the world, has innumerable moving parts. All elements must work together to provide a sufficient amount of electricity to homes, schools, businesses, and factories when its needed and at an affordable price. How do we know what is sufficient? How do we know when to supply it? How can we make it cheaper?

High-performance computing can help us answer these questions. The data is there, and U.S. computing capabilities have developed to a point where we can analyze and convert the data into actionable information.

The data currently available is immense. Not only does generation vary moment by moment but so does demand.  Couple this with rapidly changing system dynamics such as minute-by-minute weather changes and associated impacts, and the availability of cooling water. Now add smart grid, other incoming data and the need for outgoing decisions. Pulling it all together represents real time computational challenges.

U.S. high-performance computing capabilities resident at our national laboratories can turn these challenges into an opportunity for competitive advantage. What was once only available for unique, extremely important and expensive government research projects or the largest corporations is now available to benefit society on a greater scale. Furthermore, the breadth and depth of an educated and talented work force to utilize these tools is expanding. The world-wide competitive advantage this will provide is beginning to be realized across various domestic and international industry sectors.

The HPC for Energy initiative is a very important and timely program that can accelerate the realization of the benefits of better-informed deployment of HPC across all aspects of the U.S. energy supply chain.

RELATED: A Transformative Partnership: California Energy Systems for the 21st Century by Michael Peevey.

About the Author:

Carl O. Bauer is the former Director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and Founder and President of C.O. Bauer Consulting, Inc. He has over thirty-five years of experience in the private and public sectors in the arena of energy and technology development and deployment. Presently, his company provides technical and managerial assistance to industry, utilities, national laboratories and state and federal government agencies relative to energy and technology utilization and investment.

And, it won’t happen overnight. This revolution requires us to look from now to 2050 and beyond. It requires us to think about future generations and the obligation entrusted to us by our children to leave them a better future. But, it is crucial that we lead this revolution and lead it successfully. While our actions alone will not save the planet, we can serve as an example to other towns, states (especially the so-called red ones), and countries. If our example is successful, they will join us. Only then will it be possible to stabilize the climate and ensure sufficient renewable energy supplies for future generations. Only then can we all reap the benefits of a cleaner environment built on advanced technologies – advancements that provide more for all people, at less environmental and economic cost.

To ensure the success of this revolution we cannot rely on the tools of the past.  The challenges of the future require a much better understanding of all the factors that impact our decisions.  In the coming years we will be investing in new, cleaner solar and wind generation, energy storage capability, more intelligent devices for our grid and our home, and transmission capacity to accommodate our growing population and the electrification of transportation.  We have already installed millions of smart meters and intelligent devices on the grid to help us understand the impact of these changes.  What we now need is to use this data, and the information from the world around us, in better decision-making tools.

On December 20, 2013 my fellow commissioners and I voted to initiate a transformative new partnership called California Energy Systems for the 21st Century.  It brings together our three largest California Utilities (PG&E, SDG&E, and SCE), and one of our nations leading research institutions, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to leverage the enormous capabilities of technology, analysis, and advanced computing available.  In this partnership, advances will be made to the tools we use to manage our energy grid in the area of electric resource planning, electric and gas operations, and cyber security.

In particular I’m pleased that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has, through its new High Performance Computing Innovation Center, made available to our utilities, all the power advanced computing can offer.  This powerful computing resource has been used to solve some of the most vexing problems facing our nation for the past two decades.  Now, with the infrastructure developed by Lawrence Livermore national Laboratory, the Department of Energy, and its partners, this power can be put to use to benefit our state and our utility customers.

The solutions that come out of this partnership will benefit our utility customers in the area of gas operations by reducing the amount of pressure needed in transmission pipes in order to maintain distribution flows, and also by improving leak detection and predicting pipe breaks.  Further, the project is very likely to provide benefits to customers that exceed the costs across both electric and gas operations by avoiding unnecessary purchases of power support services and by identifying with precision places where more grid investment is needed.

California is known for leading revolutions.  CES-21 helps us continue leading the charge, and in doing so create a cleaner, more economical, and more sustainable energy future for our state, and by example, for our nation.

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About the Author:

Michael R. Peevey was appointed President of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) by on December 31, 2002. Mr. Peevey was first appointed to the CPUC by Governor Davis in March 2002 and was reappointed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008.

As President of the CPUC, Mr. Peevey is committed to protecting the public interest by promoting consumer needs, while challenging utilities to embrace new technologies and provide safe, high-quality services.

Click here for full bio.

The conference was held Sept. 24-25^th at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The first day focused on economics, domestic and international politics, and environmental concerns – the second day on technical issues and their impacts.  The agenda and speakers list can be found online here. Keynote speakers included Daniel Yergin (CERA), Amy Jaffe (UC Davis), former Gov. Freudenthal of Wyoming, CEOs and CTOs from oil and gas production and service companies, and surrogates from the presidential campaigns.

 Security and geopolitics

Speakers discussed the profound impact of low-cost gas production on two related topics: US domestic energy security and geopolitical rebalancing. Sustained US development of tight hydrocarbon resources (shale gas and tight liquids) has reduced imports of oil, and could lead to exports of LNG. This new domestic energy supply has already cushioned impacts from Middle East turmoil and sanctions on Iran. The consensus is that over the long term shale gas development globally will reduce Middle East and Russian influence in Europe, Africa, and developing Asia. If the US proceeds with substantial LNG exports, it may also rebalance trade, improve US-China relations, and help Japan through its energy reformation following Fukushima Daiichi.

Economic impacts

Some security benefits flow from the economic benefits of tight hydrocarbon development. These include some of the lowest cost power prices in the developing world, in part through a counter-balance to growing coal prices worldwide. Production has also provided tax revenues through severance taxes. On the jobs front, over 200,000 jobs in the Rust Belt and rural areas (with their own tax benefits) grew from production, along with early repatriation of the petrochemicals industry (with its attendant security benefits).

Environmental and Regulatory Concerns

Discussion focused on the nature and depth of environmental problems and the potential regulatory approaches to manage them. Despite questions by the audience and moderators regarding state versus federal regulatory roles, most speakers suggested that both have a role and solutions should focus on the capacity of regulators and the content of proposed rules. Many agreed that the industry record of drilling and completions is quite good, yet progress is still needed. Ultimately, all agreed that the safe and environmentally sound production of tight hydrocarbons was possible with current best practices and that prudent, considered regulation would be helpful.

Two major environmental concerns dominated the discussion – ground water contamination (chiefly from poor drilling and completion practice, less from composition of hydrofracking fluids) and air pollution (including fugitive methane emissions, flaring, and production of NOx from diesel generators and trucks). Many in industry and environmental NGOs agreed that issues such as road traffic and noise were a major public concern. Most agreed that existing technology could manage many of these concerns, and that urgent regulation was unwarranted. All agreed that public outreach and reduction of public grievances are essential.

The role of technology and high performance computing

The story of innovation, investment, and technology in this gas transformation emerged repeatedly throughout the summit. Many lauded the vital early role of public investment (both the DOE and Gas Resource Institute) in shale gas technology development, which led to the key industrial risk-taking and entrepreneurship that unlocked our potential currently with over 100 years of reserves. Research leaders in both industry and the scientific community posited that advanced technology could further unlock new resources, growing reserves by a factor of 2-3. Similarly, many argued that advanced technology could dramatically boost recovery factors from tight reservoirs by 2-3 times, up from their current 4-13%.

Many researchers saw advanced supercomputing (HPC) as the lynchpin in the development of new production and conversion technologies. This included all components of the value chain, from exploration (seismic processing) to production (new stimulation technologies) to use (gas-to-liquids conversion). Speakers identified a few key technology pathways as valuable, each benefiting from application of HPC, to rapid new solutions development:

• Rapid prototyping through advanced supercomputing and unique manufacturing assets
• Sophisticated modeling and simulation of rock mechanics, fracture network formation and flow
• Abilities to design and synthesize novel materials, including catalysts, proppants, and stimulation approaches

Not surprisingly, many in industry, NGOs, and the research community saw the clear benefits of a large, sustained investment in technology development to reduce environmental impacts and improve recovery and use.

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About the Authors

Steve Bohlen is the Program Director for Nuclear and Domestic Security at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Dona Crawford is the Associate Director, Computation Directorate, for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

S. Julio Friedmann is the Chief Energy Technologist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

César Pruneda is Senior Advisor, Science and Technology Principal Directorate, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The purpose of the workshop was to build on the three previously related workshops that examined the potential role of advanced computing for energy innovation: the DOE Simulations Summit, the National Summit on Advancing Clean Energy Technologies, and Industry-National Laboratory Workshop on Modeling and Simulation.  This workshop focused specifically on identifying grand challenges of achieving the full potential of using the Department of Energy’s advanced computing resources to impact the energy future of the United States.

The four major recommendations from this workshop are to:

• Improve the usability and availability of DOE-developed advanced computing solutions
• Engage the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) community to promote energy innovation
• Enact policies that will facilitate adoption of advanced computing for energy innovation
• Establish an Advanced Computing for Energy (ACE) program with the Department of Energy

For anybody that follows energy, North Dakota is known for its vast resources in oil, gas, and wind. What may not be quite as obvious is the role that supercomputing plays in offering these resources to the marketplace.

The Bakken Formation: Strengthening Domestic Oil
A key component of North Dakota’s energy industry is the Bakken Formation, a geologic feature estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to hold more than 3 billion barrels of potentially recoverable oil. While the oil in the Bakken is “tight” compared to conventional petroleum resources, it can be produced using alternative techniques — all of which depend on the physical and chemical nature of the underlying rock. The structure of the Bakken is not only compelling for petroleum engineers and geologists, but also places a premium on computational modeling and simulation. Lynn Helms, Director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, noted that while each topic — geology, engineering, environment, resource extraction and delivery – is important, the omnibus challenge is to integrate and optimize these elements into a single functional system.

Wind Energy: Fuel-Free Power
Wind power requires an understanding of the atmosphere and the ability to engineer devices to tap into that potential. It involves a detailed understanding of the local terrain and topography. Supercomputing can span this interface between the natural and built worlds, enabling everything from better turbine blades to wind forecasting, all while optimizing for regional conditions. By linking together an understanding of aero-acoustics, aerodynamics and planetary boundary layer flow, it is possible to lower the real-world cost of wind energy. These advances, in turn, provide a competitive advantage to the companies that adopt them. This is enhanced by the flexible, talented workforce found in North Dakota, as shared by Bill Burga, Director of LM Wind Power’s Blade Business Unit. The LM Wind Power Blade factory in Grand Forks — headed by Burga — is one of LM Wind Power’s most-productive plants in the world.

Electrical Transmission: Making the Connection
North Dakota’s proximity to the major Midwest electricity markets presents the state with an opportunity to export a high-value energy service. For both fossil and renewable electricity, transmission is the link that makes this export possible. Moreover, the intricacy of grid operations necessitates a detailed understanding of power flows, pricing and supply for transmission to be economically successful. Dr. Richard O’Neill, Chief Economic Advisor for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Division of Policy, reminded the audience that most of the analytical tools for the grid were built using techniques from 30 or more years ago, and that these tools cold be dramatically improved using modern computation.  Tapping into the processing power of today’s fastest computers opens the door to analyzing these features quantitatively. This not only makes grid management more viable, but it also improves the economics of the entire supply chain — from generation to end use. As such, accurate simulations of the grid help both North Dakota and its neighbors.

Computing: The Final Link
The complexity of applied computing solutions demands an eco-system of partners, from subject-matter experts and code developers to factories and supercomputing facilities. Each element is required to create simulations that enable market-ready products. The roles of industry and government in that network are as clear as they are important. In the middle ground between technology commercialization and effective regulation is the computing offered by academia and research laboratories. For their parts, North Dakota State University’s Center for Computationally Assisted Science and Technology and the Computation program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory offer capabilities that make this connection.

This interconnection between partners — from industry to government — offers a blueprint for increased competitiveness, improved U.S. energy security and technological innovation.

About the Author:

Nalu manages the Laboratory’s low-carbon energy portfolio and is responsible for energy-related program development and strategic planning. The low-carbon portfolio emphasizes energy technologies—including combustion and engine research—and techno-economic analysis in support of both government and industrial sponsors. Prior to joining LLNL, Nalu was the Deputy Director of the Advanced Energy Systems Laboratory at Stanford University. Read full bio.