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Leading European research institutes have founded the association
- European Distributed Energy Resources Laboratories (DERlab)
- as an independent world-class laboratory for the grid-integration
of distributed power generation.
The association is based at the Institute for Solar Energy
Supply Technology (ISET) in Kassel (Germany).
Currently, distributed power generators such as solar power
plants and wind turbines feed their electricity - unregulated
for the most part - into the public grid at a low-voltage
or medium-voltage level. Their increasing numbers create new
challenges - in particular, since currently there are neither
harmonised standards nor harmonised interconnection requirements
or test procedures for grid feed-in in Europe.
In the Network of Excellence DERlab, supported by the European
Commission, the research institutes from eleven countries
have been developing joint requirements and quality criteria
for the interconnection and operation of distributed energy
resources since the end of 2005. In addition, they prepare
testing and certification methods as well as standards - valid
all over Europe for decentralised power generation.
By founding the association, the project partners have now
sealed their further co-operation after the six-year research
project is completed - even after 2011, they will continue
to jointly use the laboratory infrastructure and exchange
research results, personnel and know-how.
Counted among the results of the Network of Excellence is,
for example, the preparation of an international white book
for research and standardisation needs of grid inverters.
These devices are increasingly being used for the integration
of distributed power generation and adapt the voltage and
frequency of a solar power plant, for example, to grid conditions.
To-date, international standards do not exist in this area.
This is what the DERlab researchers want to change. Their
draft concept will be discussed at an international level
within the framework of the third DERlab inverter workshop
in Nice, France on 9 December 2008.
The European Network of Excellence DERlab is co-ordinated
by the Institute for Solar Energy Supply Technology (ISET)/Germany.
In addition to ISET, the following research institutes and
universities participate in DERlab - University of Manchester/UK,
KEMA/The Netherlands, Fundación Labein/Spain, Risoe National
Laboratory/Denmark, arsenal research/Austria, National Technical
University of Athens/Greece, CESI RICERCA SpA/Italy, Commissariat
ŕ l´Energie Atomique (the French Atomic Energy Commission)/France,
Technical University of Sofia/Bulgaria, Technical University
of Lodz/Poland.
For more information on DERlab - Click
Here
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