Powered By Webinar Series
The Powered By webinar series features NLR energy systems analysis tools and the ways they can be used to solve power system challenges.
The Powered By webinar series walks attendees through NLR's suite of energy planning and analysis tools to better understand their capabilities and applications.
Each webinar features a different tool in the context of real-world projects. When possible, sessions include partners from industry and government who have used the tools to inform their energy planning. Attendees have the opportunity to engage directly with presenters to get their questions answered.
The Powered By webinar series is designed to be relevant to anyone who works in the energy planning space, including state and local governments, regulators, nongovernment entities, research institutes, and utilities.
Note: The webinars below were produced when the laboratory operated as NREL.
NLR's PRECISE™ interconnection tool was developed in partnership with Sacramento Municipal Utility District, where it was deployed in 2022. PRECISE automates holistic distributed energy resource interconnection studies for distribution utilities by leveraging diverse utility datasets.
This webinar took place on March 12, 2024, and was hosted by NLR power grid researchers Killian McKenna and Darice Guittet and the principal electrical distribution engineer at Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Sheikh Hassan. To learn more, watch the PRECISE webinar recording on YouTube and view the PRECISE presentation slides.
More resources for using PRECISE:
DISCO is a Python-based NLR software tool for conducting scalable, repeatable distribution analyses. Although DISCO was originally developed to support photovoltaic impact analyses, it can also be used to understand the impact of other distributed energy resources and load changes on distribution systems.
This webinar took place on April 9, 2024, and was hosted by NLR power grid researchers Sherin Ann Abraham and Shibani Ghosh.
To learn more, watch the DISCO webinar recording on YouTube and view the DISCO presentation slides.
More resources for using DISCO:
ReEDS™ is NLR's flagship capacity planning model for the power sector. The model simulates the evolution of the bulk power system—generation, transmission, and storage—from present day through 2050 or later. Energy analysts use the ReEDS model to inform a range of electricity sector research questions and forward-looking generation and transmission infrastructure challenges.
This webinar took place on May 14, 2024, and was hosted by NLR power grid researcher Stuart Cohen.
To learn more, watch the ReEDS webinar recording on YouTube and view the ReEDS presentation slides.
More resources for using ReEDS:
NLR's Sienna modeling framework effectively builds, solves, and analyzes the scheduling problems and dynamic simulations of quasi-static infrastructure systems. It uses a modular framework to answer different questions about future energy systems, fundamentally advancing the nation's ability to model individual and integrated infrastructure systems at a range of spatial and temporal scales.
This webinar took place on June 11, 2024, and was hosted by NLR power grid researcher Clayton Barrows.
To learn more, watch the Sienna webinar recording on YouTube and view the Sienna presentation slides.
More resources for using Sienna:
NLR's demand-side grid (dsgrid) toolkit harnesses decades of sector-specific energy modeling expertise to understand current and future U.S. electricity load for power systems analyses. The primary purpose of dsgrid is to create comprehensive electricity load data sets at high temporal, geographic, sectoral, and end-use resolution. These data sets enable detailed analyses of current patterns and future projections of end-use loads.
This webinar took place on July 9, 2024, and was hosted by NLR power grid researcher Elaine Hale.
To learn more, watch the dsgrid webinar recording on YouTube and view the dsgrid presentation slides.
More resources for using dsgrid:
dsgrid software documentation on GitHub
Recently published TEMPO dataset on OpenEI
TEMPO dataset documentation on GitHub
Cambium data are publicly available and include modeled hourly emission, cost, and generation metrics for a range of possible U.S. electricity sector futures, projecting out through 2050. The granular metrics illuminate trends across the ongoing changes in the power sector. Cambium can support those who make decisions about the future power grid or grid-connected systems but may not have time or expertise to do the modeling themselves.
This webinar took place on Aug. 13, 2024, and was hosted by NLR power grid researcher Pieter Gagnon.
To learn more, watch the Cambium webinar recording on YouTube and view the Cambium presentation slides.
More resources for using the Cambium datasets:
The Probabilistic Resource Adequacy Suite (PRAS) is an open-source, research-oriented collection of tools for analyzing the resource adequacy of bulk power systems. PRAS performs low-fidelity, high-speed simulations of multi-region power system operations, considering hundreds of thousands of years of unplanned resource outages to quantify the risk and potential nature of energy supply shortfalls in probabilistic terms.
This webinar took place on Sept. 10, 2024, and was hosted by former NLR senior researcher Gord Stephen.
To learn more, watch the PRAS webinar recording on YouTube and view the PRAS presentation slides.
More resources for using PRAS:
Probabilistic Resource Adequacy Suite (PRAS) v0.6 Model Documentation
At NLR, researchers are combining transmission system modeling and analysis tools into an integrated planning framework to solve transmission planning problems at a scale and depth that pushes the boundaries of existing practice. Powered By Transmission Planning features the tools and studies helping stakeholders understand future transmission needs to ensure energy goals can be met at reasonable cost to consumers.
This webinar took place on Oct. 8, 2024, and was hosted by NLR senior researcher Jarrad Wright.
To learn more, watch the Transmission Planning webinar recording on YouTube and view the Transmission Planning presentation slides.
Powered By OCHRE features the Object-oriented Controllable High-resolution Residential Energy (OCHRE™) model, an open-source energy modeling tool designed to model flexible loads in residential buildings. OCHRE uses detailed thermal and electrical modeling of residential end-use loads and the building envelope and integrates with grid simulators, device controllers, and aggregators, allowing users to examine the impacts of novel control strategies on building energy consumption and occupant comfort.
This webinar took place on Nov. 12, 2024, and was hosted by former NLR distributed energy resource and controls lead Michael Blonsky and building modeling lead Jeff Maguire.
To learn more, watch the OCHRE webinar recording on YouTube and view the OCHRE presentation slides.
More resources for using OCHRE:
OCHRE: The Object-Oriented, Controllable, High-Resolution Residential Energy Model for Dynamic Integration Studies, Applied Energy (2021)
Powered By HELICS features the Hierarchical Engine for Large-scale Infrastructure Co-Simulation (HELICS), an open-source cosimulation platform that enables integrated multisector/multiscale analysis by bringing together existing software simulators so they exchange information during run-time to form a comprehensive simulation. HELICS was developed in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and has been used for multiple applications from small desktop studies to large-scale T&D analysis to real-time simulations with hardware.
This webinar took place on Dec. 10, 2024, and was hosted by Bryan Palmintier, NLR transmission and distribution interactions group manager and principal engineer.
To learn more, watch the HELICS webinar recording on YouTube and view the HELICS presentation slides.
More resources for using HELICS:
HELICS: A Cosimulation Framework for Scalable Multi-Domain Modeling and Analysis, IEEE Access (2023)
Powered By EMIS features the Electricity Markets Investment Suite (EMIS), an open-source agent-based capacity expansion model designed to capture the interactions between wholesale electricity market design, investment decisions, and resource adequacy. The tool allows users to explore a range of market structures and products to understand how associated price and revenue outcomes can impact investment and retirement decisions made by a set of heterogenous investor agents over many years. Resource adequacy is assessed and incorporated into the market structures in each investment period, allowing users to better explore the feedback between market design and resource adequacy.
This webinar took place on Jan. 14, 2025, and was hosted by NLR senior researcher Bethany Frew.
To learn more, watch the EMIS webinar recording on YouTube and view the EMIS presentation slides.
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Last Updated Jan. 15, 2026