Wiring Upgrade Prepares Energy Technology Facility for More Research

Upgrades are currently underway at ACEP’s Energy Technology Facility. With the addition of the new battery energy storage system, wiring upgrades were required to fully integrate the system with the facility’s electrical components.

The new battery, funded by the Department of Defense Office of Naval Research under a Defense University Research Instrumentation Program grant, is a 220 kilowatt-hour/600 kW discharge/260 kW charge Intensium Max+ 20 lithium-ion battery from Saft. The battery has been installed outside the ETF and connected to our existing ABB PCS-100 inverter and replaces the aging lead-acid battery bank which was removed earlier this year.

In addition to this upgrade, ACEP is completing other wiring modifications at the ETF to support additional new equipment. These equipment additions include:

• A 250-ampere Spitzenberger and Spies resistive/inductive line length simulator funded by the Murdock Charitable Trust under a Strategic Project Grant.
• A 50 kilovolt-ampere Regatron four-quadrant AC power supply (grid simulator) purchased under the UA President's Professor of Energy budget.
• A 64-kW Regatron bi-directional DC power supply funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, DOE Office of Electricity, and DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under a DOE Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research grant award, number DE-SC0020281. 

The line length simulator will allow replication of actual impedances and dynamics of microgrid distribution networks. The grid simulator and the DC power supply will facilitate power hardware-in-the-loop experiments. They’ll also provide capability to develop and test inverters for both grid-following and grid-forming applications. 

In addition to electrical upgrades, ACEP will also complete a major cooling system upgrade to allow liquid cooling of both laboratory equipment and test articles. This upgrade is being funded by the DOE Waterpower Technologies Office under award number DE-EE0008955.

When this upgrade is completed, the facility will be ready for upcoming energy technology testing and energy system simulations conducted by ACEP’s Power Systems Integration team.

For more information on the upgrades, please contact Mariko Shirazi at mshirazi@alaska.edu.

 

Electrical upgrades are currently underway in the Energy Technology facility. Photo by David Light.