SimTech Concept

01.04.2008 - 01.03.2011
Assigned research project
The share of distributed generators (DG) in the electricity system has been growing continu-ously over the last years. Given the current technology developments and the strong encour-agements for using renewable energy resources, this development will continue. With the rising density of DG, design questions for future energy systems in regard to capacity, stabil-ity, safety and availability have to be revisited. By setting up a national laboratory for experimental real-time simulation of electricity grids and their components (SimTech laboratory), Austria will act towards the cutting edge of inno-vative grid technologies and become a strong carrier of know how in the area of cost-effective integration of distributed energy resources in existing electricity grids. By this pro-ject, the national research and development competences in the area of ecologic and distrib-uted energy supply will strongly be promoted and Austria¿s position in this future market will be strengthened. This project aims to develop a concept for the research and simulation laboratory SimTech, which enables to examine the advantages, impacts, as well as current and future challenges of a large number of interacting DG units in the grid. On one hand the results of examinations in this laboratory shall be applicable to more com-plex problem areas, and on the other hand the simulation results shall reveal more precise predictions for future applications. Hardware tests can immediately be compared and vali-dated against simulation results. In order to achieve this, the partners of the ¿SimTech Con-cept¿ project will deal essentially with the following questions: > What is required to enable the laboratory infrastructure to give comprehensive answers to current research questions for the distribution grid operation? > How must a laboratory infrastructure (SimTech laboratory) be designed and structured in order to answer current and future requirements of potential customers in the area of grid operation with a high share of DG? The results of the ¿SimTech Concept¿ project will be: > detailed requirements analysis serving as basis for planning and implementation of the SimTech laboratory > concept for close coupling of simulation and real hardware (hardware-in-the-loop) > concept for a system configuration enabling parallel operation of smaller CHP units in large numbers > the structure of a complex integrated development environment for grid simulation The implementation of the SimTech laboratory will allow the grid operators to gain compre-hensive answers on system questions in regard to safety functions, grid management, secu-rity of supply and quality of supply. Plant supplier and operators profit from more precise component behaviour descriptions and better support of component developments. Regula-tory authorities and legislators are supported in the decision finding for innovative tariff mod-els and funding frameworks.

People

Project leader

Subproject managers

Project personnel

Institute

Contract/collaboration

  • ARCS arsenal research

Research focus

  • Distributed and Parallel Systems: 30%
  • Computer Engineering: 30%
  • Sensor Systems: 10%
  • Climate Neutral, Renewable and Conventional Energy Supply Systems: 10%
  • Computational System Design: 20%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
LaborkonzeptionLaborkonzeption
Hardware-in-the-loop SimulationHardware-in-the-loop Simulation

Publications