Sandia National Laboratories, PNM partner on mix of resiliency, clean energy and security efforts

As part of a major new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Sandia National Laboratories and PNM announced this week, the partners will work to advance energy storage, solar photovoltaics, power electronics, artificial intelligence, and sensor technologies, among others.

Through analytics and tools, the massive scope of technology advancement will cover grid resiliency, security, and stability efforts for both New Mexico — where PNM and Sandia are both based — and the United States at large. It is an effort that will be bolstered by funding from the Department of Energy Office of Electricity’s Energy Storage Program and align with another of the labs’ recent pushes: a $40 million, 7-year Resilient Energy Systems Mission Campaign.

“The partnership with PNM will address energy challenges not just in New Mexico but across the United States,” Sandia Labs Director James Peery said. “This agreement provides a pathway for Sandia’s advanced technologies to be put to the test in a real-world system while advancing the goals of electric power system resiliency and safety that are critical to national security.”

The effort will be split into several projects. The first, lasting five years, will identify tools needed to properly assess current and future energy storage technologies in an integrated, large scale grid, and undertake simulations to identify priorities. PNM will focus on meeting a 100 percent emissions-free goal. At the same time, Sandia will look at longer term opportunities focused on energy storage technologies and analytics, particularly in ways that aid national security.

“Our goal for 100 percent emissions-free energy requires advanced resources to bridge the technological gap,” Pat Vincent-Collawn, PNM chairman, president and CEO, said. “We are fortunate to have a national laboratory in Albuquerque, and the combination of their expertise, technologies, and resources with our team’s industry experience is an ideal collaboration to solve this challenge. We look forward to this opportunity for shared learning and progress.”

According to Charles Hanley, Sandia’s senior manager for the Grid Modernization and Energy Storage Program, such joint efforts will include work on batteries, thermal storage, hydrogen, and others that can help grid resilience on broad timescales ranging from seconds to whole seasons.

Additional projects could include those focused on a more flexible electric system and efficiency enhancements for emissions-free generation technologies, be they microgrids, virtual power plants, reconfigurable grid architectures, or others.