UPB-MicroDERLab

By /

Advanced Measurements and Distributed Renewable Resources Laboratory at UPB

TA28 – UPB-MicroDERLab 

Location

Splaiul Independentei 313, Building EA, Room EB105 

RO060042 Bucharest, Romania

Description

MicroDERLab is a Research Group at Politehnica Bucharest, reuniting teams from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Faculty of Energy Engineering and the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers.
It promotes a common research agenda on electrical engineering themes focusing topics in power engineering while envisaging the intelligent networks of the future. Since 2013 MicroDERLab is   full member of the European Distributed Energy Resources Laboratories e. V. (DERLab, www.der-lab.net). DERLab is the association of leading laboratories and research institutes in the field of distributed energy resources equipment and systems. The association develops joint requirements and quality criteria for the connection and operation of distributed energy resources (DER) and strongly supports the consistent development of DER technologies.Key competencies:
•        Instrumentation and measurement; synchronized measurements
•        DC and hybrid microgrids
•        Control strategies and solutions for LV networks
•        Grid integration of renewable energy sources
•        State estimation and grid models
•        Power Quality
•        Smart Metering
•        Standardization (IEEE, IEC)

Testing Capabilities

 
Studies on DC microgrids - A DC flexible Microgrid is available for experiments in the MicroDERLab EB105 research laboratory. The rated voltage is 230 V, so that any appliance with switch mode power supply can be connected directly without the need of additional conversion.Several energy sources in the power range of 1 kW are available for testing the microgrid operation: a PV system; fuel cell; a variable DC power supply, a 250 Ah storage unit and a Triphase TM Rapid Prototyping Platform (5kVA) which can be used either as a power generator or a power electronics converter module. Additionally several power electronics converters are available for flexible configuration of the energy flow control. Lightning in the laboratory is partially supplied from the DC ring. Other loads (including the computers) can be directly connected through custom-designed plug-in boxes. Grid operation can be monitored and controlled from a central control unit (PC) via Ethernet.
 
Studies on synchronized measurements - The mobile Synchronized Measurements laboratory is composed of 6 mobile PMU racks and a datacenter. Five racks are equipped with single channel (three currents and three voltages) 1133 Power Sentinel PMUs, and one rack is equipped with SEL 487E multichannel PMU provided with 18 current inputs (6 three-phase current channels) and 6 voltage (2 three-phase independent channels) inputs. All racks have installed a communication module enabling connections to the datacenter in Bucharest via broadband 3G modems. Datacenter consists of one PDC based on the open PDC platform and one server capable of running several applications for PMU data analyzers and processing for example parameter identification and data mining. The PMUs are usually deployed within the distribution networks of Romanian DSOs.
 
Studies on rapid prototyping platform - The Rapid Prototyping platform has hardware and software building blocks allowing implementation and test of new equipment ideas and control strategies in the following areas: • Power amplifiers and waveform generators • Programmable voltage and current sources • Motor drives • Active filters • Microgrids. One unit (5 kVA) is installed in UPB - the EB105 room. A second unit (90kVA) is connected to a real distribution grid (Cheia substation, 160 km North of Bucharest), can be operated remotely and is used in collaboration with one of the Romanian DSOs. Both platforms are programmed and controlled in real time with Matlab/Simulink™. All parameters and process values are available for being changed and monitored directly from the numerical simulation environment.

Technical Equipment

SEL-487E-3, -4 Relay - provides a suite of current andvoltage elements for the comprehensive protection of two-winding, threewinding, four-winding, and five-winding power transformers. In total, the relay consists of 24 analog channels, divided into three groups of analog inputs. The first group consists of 15 channels for phase current inputs, the second group consists of 3 channels for single-phase (neutral) current inputs, and the third group consists of 6 channels for two three-phase voltage inputs.
 
PQube® 3 is an instrument for monitoring electric power systems and is a combination of a power disturbance monitor, a power meter, a power recorder, and a digital camera. It records disturbances on the mains circuit: sags/dips, swells, interruptions, frequency variations, and disturbances on two analog input channels. It also records impulses, waveform snapshots, unbalance, flicker, and THD, and trend data. When equipped with compatible current transformers, PQube 3 also records current waveforms. It records all data on internal memory plus a removable microSD card, which can be read by any computer. No special software is and it can be configured with the free PQube Configurator program.
 
Triphase 5kVA - 5kVA bidirectional Power Module with 6-channel output that can be used in various AC and DC configurations. Suited for bidirectional energy flow between the supply grid and single phase AC, three phase AC or DC loads and sources. The power module contains all necessary voltage, current and temperature measurements, configuration and connection contactors and safety features such as emergency stop, protection against overcurrent, overvoltage and overtemperature, fuses, covers on high-voltage parts and a door sensor.
 
1133A Power Sentinel PMUs - 4 Arbiter PMUs connected by the PDC system. The Arbiter PMU is a leader in synchrophasor measurement and analysis, and the 1133A model merges precision time synchronization and power measurement features into a single PMU compatible device, as you can see in the picture above. 1133A is a rack mountable Phasor Measuremtn Unit compatible device featuring the highest accuracy posible. It measures system phase angle, monitor power quality, derive frequency and time deviations and tackle revenue metering challenges from a single unit.

Additional information

Technology Readiness Level: 4-6

Special considerations: N/A 

Technology clusters: Energy Storage, Integrated Grids, PV

Website: https://www.microderlab.upb.ro/

Availability: from October to July

Provision of tools to prepare data sets in a FAIR way:  Yes 

Gallery

Scroll to Top