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, bringing together 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 on topics in power engineering while also envisaging the intelligent networks of the future. Since 2013, MicroDERLab is full member of the European Distributed Energy Resources Laboratories (DERlab) e. V. 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 competences include:
- Instrumentation and measurement, as well as synchronised measurements
- Direct current (DC) and hybrid microgrids
- Control strategies and solutions for low-voltage (LV) networks
- Grid integration of renewable energy sources
- State estimation and grid models
- Power Quality
- Smart Metering
- Standardisation (IEEE, IEC)
Testing Capabilities
The following experiments can be carried out based on the available equipment:
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, including 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 synchronised measurements
The mobile synchronised measurements laboratory is composed of six mobile Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) racks and a datacentre. 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 communication modules enabling connections to the datacentre in Bucharest via broadband 3G modems. The datacentre consists of one Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC), based on the open PDC platform, and one server capable of running several applications for PMU data analysers and processing, for example, parameter identification and data mining. The PMUs are usually deployed within the distribution networks of Romanian Distribution System Operators (DSOs).
Studies on rapid prototyping platform
The Rapid Prototyping platform has hardware and software building blocks allowing implementation and testing 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 in the EB105 room. A second unit (90kVA) is connected to a real distribution grid in Cheia substation, 160 km North of Bucharest, and 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
The equipment available for experiments is focused on the following:
- SEL-487E-3, 4 Relay provides a suite of current and voltage elements for the comprehensive protection of two-winding, three-winding, four-winding, and five-winding power transformers. In total, the relay consists of 24 analogic channels, divided into three groups of analogic 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 such as sags/dips, swells, interruptions, frequency variations, and disturbances on two analogic input channels. It also records impulses, waveform snapshots, unbalance, flicker, and Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), and trend data. When equipped with compatible current transformers, PQube® 3 also records current waveforms. It records all data on internal memory plus, as well as a removable microSD card, which can be read by any computer. No special software is need and it can be configured with the free PQube's Configurator program.
- Triphase 5kVA is a 5kVA bidirectional Power Module with 6-channel output that can be used in various alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) configurations. It is 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 synchronisation and power measurement features into a single PMU compatible device, as illustrated in the picture above. 1133A is a rack mountable PMU compatible device featuring the highest accuracy possible. It measures system phase angle, monitor power quality, derive frequency and time deviations and tackles 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
