In June, CEA officially inaugurated its new platform at INES, the French National Solar Energy Institute (Savoie, France), which houses the TIGON demo site in France.
After several months of renovation and restructuring work, the building has a surface area of 1,500 m², including 900 m² of laboratories and a technical test hall with:
– 6 secure development boxes for innovative electronic converters
– A 20kV high-voltage experimental loop and 4 experimental 1000 kVA transformers, two of which are adjustable on the low-voltage side
– 4 experimental low-voltage 1600 A busbars, and 2 1000 A busbars to supply the DC and AC emulators
– 1440 kW of DC simulators capable of simulating photovoltaic power plants, batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, etc., and 480 kVA of AC simulators for simulating disturbed networks, wind turbines, AC consumers and producers in the broadest sense of the term.
– Real-time simulation systems for PHIL (Power Hardware In the Loop) experiments and high-frequency acquisition monitoring systems (up to 1MHz)
– A supervision room for monitoring the various experiments taking place in the dedicated Smart Grids technical hall, equipped with a fast acquisition server.
– Areas outside the building can host containerised systems to be tested (ESS, electrolyser and H2 heat pump, for example).
The overall platform emphasis flexibility and modularity.
In addition, the 3000 Vdc PV plant has been installed and tested on the rooftop of another building at INES. A 3000 Vdc line interconnect PV3000 with the TIGON demonstrator. And the PV3000 substation has also been updated.
Above, an example of development in a power electronics box (double pulse tests on SiC switch for TIGON )
Real 100 kWp PV array on the roof of the PUMA1 building as part of TIGON
High voltage cells of the experimental 20 kVAC loop
Experimental 20 kVAC MV/LV transformers (2 of which are adjustable on the LV side between 380 VAC and 1000 VAC, 22 setpoints)
Technical hall for assembling the smart microgrid mock-ups
Photo credits: CEA
