The consortium of microgrid innovation project TIGON are preparing to demonstrate their pioneering software and hardware systems in Spain and France. They gathered in late November for technical meetings and for a visit to the Spanish demo site in Soria which integrates storage, PV modules, wind power and grid protection.
The new microgrids will enter their demonstration phase in February 2025 after four years of development and fine-tuning. In the run-up to this phase, the project team met in Spain to finalise the roll-out and to visit the demo site in Soria.
Project coordinator Montse Lanero Martinez from CIRCE stated: ‘As the energy transition continues, we’re eager to put TIGON’s solutions to the test and to show how microgrids can securely and safely integrate more renewables and DC technologies in different sectors and scenarios. This will help inform research, standards and policy, and we’re looking forward to reproducing our findings at our replication sites in Finland and Bulgaria in the coming months.’
At the demo site near Soria, the project team visited the various installations at the vast research and testing facility managed by Spain’s energy and environmental research body CIEMAT, partner in the project. Most of the equipment has been set up although the solid-state transformer has not yet been delivered. This is expected in the weeks to come.
The microgrid at Soria includes MVDC modules connected via SiC WBG MV-DC/DC converters and specific MVDC protections. The site visit, led by senior researcher and demo leader Oscar Izquierdo Monge, took delegates to see the PV and wind installations and control facilities. He explained: ‘It hasn’t always been easy to get everything together and working – it’s a big innovation and logistics challenge with much behind-the-scenes work. But I’m pleased we’re almost set for the demo stage’. The site visit was preceded by a team meeting and visit to CIRCE’s laboratories in Zaragoza.
The project is due to end in August 2025 and the coming months will therefore offer stakeholders the opportunity to gain insights into the pioneering microgrids and into the role these can play both on the market and in the broader context of integrating intermittent, but plentiful, power from renewable sources.
