Chalmers Campus as a Testbed for Intelligent Grids and Local Energy Systems

This paper presents an overview of a testbed for intelligent distribution grids, local energy systems, and energy flexible buildings, which is being developed at the campus of Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. It describes the test sites, the functionalities, and the planned demonstration activities within the scope of on-going research projects. The proposed demonstrations include a local energy market platform, energy management solutions for microgrids and smart buildings, as well as voltage control in distribution grids. The paper aims to show how the physical energy supply systems of the university are being adapted to integrate the communication and control set-ups that provide the technical requirements for smart grid interoperability. As an example, the on-site implementation of remote battery control is presented, where initial results show the feasibility and potential benefits of the external control. Finally, challenges and lessons learned during the development of the testbed are highlighted.

I. Introduction

Research on intelligent grid solutions has proliferated over the past years to address the uncertainties introduced at the distribution level due to intermittent generation and plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging. The real-site employment of these solutions, however, often has to deal with various technical issues such as interoperability between products of different vendors or errors due to average modeling of certain system parts. Engagement of the associated stakeholders and coordination among them can also be challenging.