According to the State of California progressive climate goals, the energy sector power generation technology mix must evolve by 2045 into a renewable, zero-emissions system. Planning and evaluating options for the technology mix are needed to achieve a cost-effective and timely result. To this end, the State’s electric grid is modeled utilizing a least-cost optimization platform with the goal to identify the profile of technologies that fulfills the projected 2045 demand and while achieving both 100% carbon neutrality and minimal criteria air pollutant (CAP) emissions. Heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) and refineries are prioritized due to their large contribution to emissions in the two highest emitting economic sectors: transportation and industry, respectively. For each of those subsectors, viable electrification scenarios are established and modeled to identify subsector-specific effects on the least-cost technology mix output. Then, the subsector scenarios are combined to evaluate the cost, air quality, and electric grid implications of the multi-sector electrification in the context of a 100% renewable grid. Using an optimization tool, HiGRID+, two multi-sector scenarios were identified that achieve California 2045 environmental targets. These scenarios implement heavy-duty battery electric vehicle (BEV) and fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) deployments along with the substitution of fuel cell systems for refinery processes. Emissions and air quality analyses reveal sufficient emission reductions across the board to meet the State goals. An optimistic versus conservative charging infrastructure analysis revealed that total cost of BEV deployment is driven by charging infrastructure buildout (vehicle to charger ratio) whereas the cost of FCEV deployment is driven by storage capacity assumptions and hydrogen fuel cost. The cost of the two scenarios, one BEV centric and one FCEV centric, are similar.

Microgrids are evolving concepts that are growing in interest due to their potential reliability, economic and environmental benefits. As with any new concept, there are many unresolved issues with regards to planning and operation. In particular, demand response (DR) and plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging are viewed as two key components of the future grid and both will likely be active technologies in the microgrid market. However, a better understanding of the economics associated with DR, the impact DR can have on the sizing of distributed energy resource (DER) systems and how to accommodate and price PEV charging is necessary to advance microgrid technologies. This work characterizes building based DR for a model microgrid, calculates the DER systems for a model microgrid under DR through a minimization of total cost, and determines pricing methods for a PEV charging station integrated with an individual building on the model microgrid.

It is shown that DR systems which consist only of HVAC fan reductions provide potential economic benefits to the microgrid through participation in utility DR programs. Additionally, peak shaving DR reduces the size of power generators, however increasing DR capacity does not necessarily lead to further reductions in size. As it currently stands for a microgrid that is an early adopter of PEV charging, current installation costs of PEV charging equipment lead to a system that is not competitive with established commercial charging networks or to gasoline prices for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV).

While energy storage systems (ESS) are required to integrate and manage renewable resources on the electric grid, ESS can result in life cycle environmental impacts associated with (1) the production of the system, (2) the use of the system, and (3) the end-of-life of the system. As more energy storage capacity is deployed, the grid benefits and associated life cycle environmental impacts may not scale the same. For example, thresholds of energy and power capacity may exist beyond which additional energy storage results in a negative environmental impact. To explore this question, this study addressed the use-phase environmental impacts of three flow-battery energy storage systems. Dynamic electric grid modeling tools were used to establish the use-phase environmental benefits and impacts on Global Warming Potential (GWP), Particulate Matter (PM) emissions, Acidification Potential (AP), and Fossil Fuel Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) as the aggregate ESS power and energy capacity installed on the electric grid is increased. For an electric grid with a high percentage of renewable resources, the results reveal that (1) the use-phase impact can be as, or more significant than, the production - phase depending on the grid composition, (2) the combined power and energy capacities for flow battery systems where the net environmental benefits are a maximum, and (3) that power and energy capacities must be limited to certain thresholds in order to ensure that flow-battery storage provides net environmental benefits.

Conventional light duty vehicle fleets and petroleum are firmly bonded. It is leading to several issues, such as energy security, greenhouse gas (GHG) and criteria pollutant emissions. Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs), have the potential to break this bond and improve the energy and environmental landscape of personal transportation. The United States, especially the state of California is very proactive in promoting PEV adoption. Several regulations and laws have been passed to stimulate PEV growth, including the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Regulation and Assembly Bill 32 (Climate Change). However, society faces three main challenges associated with PEV deployment from the perspective of charging infrastructure. This dissertation addresses each step by step. First, a methodology is established to quantify the energy impact of PEVs. In particular, a travel behavior based PEV operating/charging model is made to characterize fleet-wide energy consumption with different PEV parameters and charging infrastructure scenarios, such as location, power level and charging time strategy. Second, PEVs face the hurdle of access to charging infrastructure. Consequently, question has to be answered as to what types, locations, and quantities of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) will be required. For this purpose, an optimal charging strategy based on 24-hour travel patterns is formulated to minimize operating cost. With that, the approximation of the Level 1 and Level 2 EVSE needed at different types of location categories is proposed. As an alternative infrastructure solution for BEVs, Level 3 DC fast charging stations are also investigated in terms of location allocation. Third, a massive population of PEVs has the potential to change the grid operation. To this end, a durable decentralized charging protocol is proposed and verified for coordinating individual PEVs with grid operation such that grid-level optimality can be achieved.

Greenhouse gas emissions and water usage are two major concerns in the power generation sector. Advanced clean coal technologies (i.e., solid sorbent CO2 capture technologies and combined wet/dry cooling system) are promising for future central power generation in order to achieve sustainable, secure, and efficient system performance. This dissertation describes research associated with advanced coal derived clean power generation, from near-term pulverized coal (PC) power plant strategies retrofitted for CO2 capture, to long-term integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power generation, to co-production IGCC with carbon capture and storage (CCS) co-fueled by coal and biomass.

In this study, the post-combustion solid sorbent based CO2 capture system for the PC power plant is optimized for integration in order to minimize plant modifications and the associated downtime. Due to significantly less steam usage in sorbent regeneration, the PC plant with advanced solid sorbent CO2 capture has better performance and lower cost of electricity than the plant using conventional amine scrubbing technology. By employing a combined wet/dry cooling system, the PC plant with CO2 capture reduces water usage significantly, while the performance and water usage are a function of ambient conditions as predicted by a mathematical model, the latter of which is validated by experimental data from the literature.

Pre-combustion solid sorbent based CO2 capture technologies used in the IGCC are evaluated by systems analysis and compared to SelexolTM CO2 capture. Compared with the SelexolTM approach, solid sorbent CO2 capture results in a power plant with significantly higher overall plant efficiency and more attractive economics.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation models were developed for both solid sorbent CO2 capture alone, and combined water gas shift (WGS) and solid sorbent CO2 capture in the IGCC applications. ANSYS FLUENT and User Defined Functions (UDF) were the resources adopted to incorporate the fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, water vaporization, adsorption equilibrium and kinetics, and WGS reaction kinetics . The CFD models were validated by experimental data, and applied to commercial size fixed bed reactor designs and simulations. It was found that (1) the CO2 breakthrough time or CO2 loading capacity is independent of reactor geometry as long as the space velocity is constant, (2) the adsorption rate is the rate controlling step for CO2 capture using solid sorbent, and (3) break through occurs before the solid sorbent near the exit of the bed is fully utilized due to bulk transfer of the CO2 in the axial direction. However, a low space velocity can increase the loading of the sorbent. The CFD approach also assists in the design of effective thermal management strategies for the reactor in the case of combined WGS and solid sorbent CO2 capture.

Co-feeding of biomass along with coal and the co-production of H2 and synthetic fuels in IGCCs is evaluated for future clean coal power generation. It was determined by systems analyses that co-feeding and co-production IGCCs are preferable for renewable energy utilization and energy security, with the co-products being produced at competitive costs.

The need for exceptional grid reliability and resiliency has become ever more important with the increasing dependence on electrical power in the digital age and more frequent and severe weather events resulting in a disturbance in power delivery. Using on-site energy sources, microgrids have been proven to enhance the reliability and resiliency of critical loads and overall protection during grid outages. With the focused attention on microgrid implementation, this dissertation addresses achieving high reliability and resiliency for two distinct applications: (1) a classic microgrid, and (2) utility distribution feeders operated as a microgrid, both of which are modeled with an IEEE 2030.7 compliant microgrid controller enhanced with self-healing capabilities. The University of California Irvine Microgrid serves as the classic microgrid, and two 12kV circuit feeders at the Southern California Edison 66kV MacArthur substation serve as utility distribution feeder microgrids.The study first enhances and tests the self-healing capabilities of the controller. Second, the efficacy of the enhanced controller is tested for the classic microgrid to assess the impact on reliability and resiliency while islanded, including the utility of battery electric buses as a resiliency attribute during islanded operations. Third, the of the concept of managing utility distribution feeders is assessed in terms of energy sustainability, restoration, and energization with various distributed energy resources within the system including a fuel cell generator, demand response, and vehicle-to-grid energy support. The results show that (1) the reliability and resiliency of critical loads can be enhanced by interconnected circuits with rapidly dispatched switching, (2) firm power generation in combination with demand response are essential in supporting an islanded microgrid, and (3) plug-in electric vehicles including battery electric buses can both enhance resiliency and serve as a flexible energy resource by enabling Mobility Services+ for both an islanded microgrid (e.g., hospitals, fire stations, grocery stores) and a distribution feeder. Examples include the deployment of battery electric buses to serve critical loads within the microgrid, serve as a blackstart resource should the microgrid prime power generator trip, and support community assets outside the microgrid.

Buildings account for over 18% of the world's anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. As a result, a technology that can offset GHG emissions associated with buildings has the potential to save over 9 Giga-tons of GHG emissions per year. High temperature fuel cell and absorption chiller (HTFC/AC) technology offers a relatively low-carbon option for meeting cooling and electric loads for buildings while producing almost no criteria pollutants. GHG emissions in the state of California would decrease by 7.48 million metric tons per year if every commercial building in the State used HTFC/AC technology to meet its power and cooling requirements. In order to realize the benefits of HTFC/AC technology on a wide scale, the distributed generation market needs to be exposed to the technology and informed of its economic viability and real-world potential.

This work characterizes the economics associated with HTFC/AC technology using select scenarios that are representative of realistic applications. The financial impacts of various input factors are evaluated and the HTFC/AC simulations are compared to the economics of traditional building utilities. It is shown that, in addition to the emissions reductions derived from the systems, HTFC/AC technology is financially preferable in all of the scenarios evaluated. This work also presents the design of a showcase environment, centered on a beta-test application, that presents (1) system operating data gathered using a custom data acquisition module, and (2) HTFC/AC technology in a clear and approachable manner in order to serve the target audience of market stakeholders.

Today's aging electric delivery infrastructure is undergoing an extreme makeover. The current system has inefficiencies, is congested and unable to meet future power reliability, quality, sustainability (e.g., more renewable power) and security needs. The massive effort to modernize the nation's electricity delivery system is collectively known as the "Smart Grid." Transition to a smarter grid will occur over time.

This research addresses one area of electric power system modernization, namely the impacts that high penetrations of distributed energy resources (DER), such as solar and batteries, and plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) could have on the distribution system by (1) evaluating the effect of introducing large amounts of DER and PEV charging on a secondary distribution circuit and (2) developing, applying and evaluating smart grid management scenarios which can reduce consumer electricity costs and flatten residential load profiles.

The improved load profiles presented herein demonstrate that traditional residential load profiles can be purposefully reshaped when rooftop solar, energy storage, and plug-in electric vehicles are introduced into the circuit. Through various battery charging and discharging scenarios and controlled electric vehicle charging, residential loads can be reduced to almost zero, flattened, or behave as a distributed generator. By allowing excess solar generation to flow back onto the grid or dispatching batteries during peak load times, the load profile of an individual home or secondary distribution transformer can be altered in a manner that benefits the distribution grid.