The National Smart Grid Laboratory (NSGL) is located in Trondheim at the campus of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and jointly operated by SINTEF and NTNU. The core of the National Smart Grid Laboratory is a facility (250 m2) providing a reconfigurable electrical infrastructure for conducting experiments at low voltage levels (e.g. 400 V ac or 800 V dc) and for power ratings in the range of 100 kW. The laboratory is versatile with most components on wheels and can be reconfigured as wished. In addition, the connections established among the NSGL, the smart house and the energy storage laboratory enables wide range of testing activities.

The energy storage laboratory is located on the same floor with the smart grid laboratory but in a separate room. There is both AC and DC cable connection setup with the smart grid lab together with fiber optic communication. The lab is also connected with the smart house with AC cable and fiber optic communication.

The energy storage laboratory contains equipment such as: battery module tester (battery emulator), climate chamber, two PV-emulators, inverter for PV and battery, lead acid battery with integrated converter to AC/DC and Li-ion battery.

Battery tester

• 32 independent channels, each 200V/30A/2.5k

• Paralleling gives up to 200V/960A/80kW

• Logging and storage of measurements (10ms)

Lead-acid batteries with integrated converter

• 8x Lead-acid batteries from EnerSys (SBS 190F)

• 12V / 190Ah / 2.28kWh each

• 48V / 380 Ah / 18.24 kWh total

• Three phase converter with 3x2kW single phase inverters

LI-Ion Energy storage

• 10x Li-Ion modules mounted in a rack

• 400 – 480V DC, 25 kWh

• Battery Management System

PV emulators

• Output voltage: 0 – 600V DC

• Output current: 0 – 17A / 0 – 25A

• Maximum power: 10kW / 15kW

PV inverter

• 5 kVA, 230V/400V 3-phase inverter

• PV input: 150 -1000V DC 16A

• Battery connection: 120 – 480V DC 16A

• Build-in maximum power point tracking (for solar)

Climate chamber

• Useful capacity: 553 liters

• Maximum weight of test object: 100 kg

• Temperature range: 40…+180 (°C)

• Humidity range (T=-3/+94°C): 10...98 (%)

• Maximum thermal Load (T=+25°C) : 4500 (W)

Some of the services offered by the SINTEF NSGL energy storage laboratory include:

• Energy storage system validation and integration testing

• Characterization of integration charging infrastructure in distribution systems for electric transport system

• Validation testing of services offered by flexibility resources.