S&C Electric Europe Ltd has announced a strategic partnership with The University of Strathclyde’s Power Networks Demonstration Centre (PNDC), which was officially being opened by Scotland’s First Minister last week.
The centre, the first of its kind in Europe, provides a purpose-built platform for researching and developing state-of-the-art electrical transmission, distribution and generation innovation. The centre aims to de-risk smarter solutions for tomorrow’s power networks, accelerate emerging technologies towards commercial deployment of power technologies and facilitate research into the electricity solutions of the future.
S&C is investing approximately £100,000 worth of equipment in the PNDC, including:
- IntelliRupter PulseCloser: An advanced switching and protection solution for self-healing distribution grids, resulting in reduced wear and tear on utility systems, and improved power quality and reliability for consumers of electricity.
- Community Energy Storage (CES) units: a battery-based domestic energy storage system providing reliable backup power for communities; supporting distributed renewable generation plants; as well as offering improved power quality and voltage control. The CES units the PNDC is deploying will enable the trial of various battery chemistries by the PNDC to determine what is optimal for a given energy storage application.
As well as providing the technology, Mike Meisinger, Application Director at S&C Electric Europe, will also be serving as the PNDC’s Technical Board Representative.
The PNDC has been established in response to growing demands for more efficient, reliable and environmentally friendly electrical networks across the globe. Home to researchers, engineers and industry specialists who are developing new innovative technologies from advanced grid control schemes to intelligent sensor systems, the 900-square-metre facility is equipped with high quality, innovative control and simulations systems and is home to a real-life, reconfigurable distribution network which may be operated in isolation from the main grid.
The PNDC provides a flexible arrangement of the primary and secondary equipment that is required to represent typical rural, urban and suburban networks in the UK (11kV and 400V). The network can be supplied either directly from the grid or using a 5MVA motor-generator set to allow both voltage and frequency disturbances to be applied. The network itself is built using a mixture of cables and overhead sections. Variable lumped impedance equivalents are used to provide a more dispersed network within the footprint available.
