Grid flexibility and RES integration

Due to the constant increase in generation from Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES) that occurred over the last twenty years, electric networks are requiring increasingly higher flexibility .

The concrete use of additional flexibilization measures (i.e. pumping, batteries, storage, etc.) has shown that energy storage is one of the components that improves the flexibility of the system. Electrochemical accumulations, together with Demand Side Management (DSM), represent one of the solutions to meet this need and, currently, we are already witnessing the installation of batteries next to solar and wind farms in renewable energy plants.

In this respect, CESI supports manufacturers through independent testing and verification of energy storage systems under realistic and controllable conditions. Through the Flex Power Grid Laboratory in Arnhem , The Netherlands, KEMA Labs (our Testing, Inspection and Certification Division) offers system-level battery testing showing the major role played by the inverter in determining the grid performance of energy storage systems.

The Flex Power Grid Laboratory’s flexible grid connection allows it to mimic real-life grid conditions and vary parameters such as frequency and voltage. This permits the behavior of systems to be verified during both standard operation and extreme scenarios such as frequency variations, over- and under-voltage, grid pollution and more .

Due to the state-of-the-art technology at our disposal, in the Flex Power Grid Laboratory, our KEMA Labs experts can subject equipment to severe symmetrical and asymmetrical voltage disturbances, as well as fundamental frequency excursions, according to the following ratings and performances:

• Voltage levels of up to 24 kVAC
• Fundamental frequency controllable from DC to 75 Hz
• Continuous power rating of 1 MVA
• Control of harmonics up to the 25th
• Bidirectional power flows in four quadrants
• Passive loads of 0.5 MW and ±1 MVAr

Discover more about this here .