Country: Belgium
Website:
https://www.laborelec.com

Since its creation in 1962, Laborelec has been a centre of expertise integrated within a larger utility company. Our main mission has always been to help our parent company manage its assets in a sound manner and find cost effective solutions. In recent years, the company has opened up to third parties, and ENGIE Laborelec is now proud to put over 50 years of expertise at the service of a much wider range of customers to reduce the total cost of ownership of their facilities.

ENGIE Laborelec is a leading expertise and research centre in electrical power technology. Drawing on the skills of 280 highly specialized engineers and technicians, the company is active on the whole electricity value chain and backs a large set of customers in the fields of generation, transmission, distribution, storage and final use, with a particular focus upon the energy transition and the 3 D’s – decentralization, decarbonization and digitalization.

All forms of electricity generation come within our capabilities, whether centralized or decentralized, from fossil and nuclear to renewables technologies. Directly or indirectly, we also work for a large array of other customers, including grid operators, large industries, SME’s, cities, regions or residential prosumers.

ENGIE Laborelec is the only global service provider in the market which is completely independent of equipment manufacturers, which allows us to provide unbiased recommendations. Whether you are replacing parts, refurbishing or optimizing operating and maintenance practices, we guarantee the independence and objectivity of our solutions and recommendations.

We believe that R&D and operational assistance to operators are mutually enriching. The support we provide to operators gives us a clear and pragmatic idea of their day-to-day problems, and this helps us steer our R&D projects to meet their real concerns. On the other hand, our R&D allows us to stay abreast of technological developments of interest and to be part of international networks of expertise, which is directly benefitting the support we offer our customers.

The following labs are in operation at ENGIE Laborelec.

Future Collectivities & Homes

Real life scenario testing in households for new appliances and/or energy management and metering equipment. Debugging and troubleshooting of newly designed products.

Solar Lab

The SolarLab at ENGIE Laborelec offers research, development and operational excellence services in the areas of decentralized energy solutions, building integrated photovoltaics and large scale solar power generation. Its activities cover technology evaluation, proof of concept testing, asset performance improvement and advanced monitoring.

The Solar Lab at ENGIE Laborelec functionally coordinates the research efforts of ENGIE on solar technology and applications and operates major outdoor testing and monitoring facilities for multiple solar applications, including Building-Integrated Photovoltaics in Belgium and France and large scale solar R&D infrastructure in Chile near the Atacame Desert.

The Solar Lab provides operational excellence and performance improvement services to large scale solar farm operators worldwide.

Wind & Hydro Lab

ENGIE Laborelec supports solar and wind farm operators all over the world with targeted advice and assistance to optimize the performance of their assets. Our solar and wind power expert teams carry out independent audits and inspections and implement improvement programs to significantly increase performance beyond OEM targets and to allow saving on operation and maintenance costs. They also provide pre-development assistance.

What about storage?
Storage systems are crucial elements of electrical networks as they make it possible to deal with the inherent intermittency of wind and solar energy. In this field also, we offer a broad range of services, such as sizing, integration, performance, lifetime management and total cost of ownership optimization of electrical and electrochemical energy storage installations.

We also do R&D. ENGIE Laborelec also provides Research & Development services with respect to wind and solar power generation.

Microgrid Lab

Microgrids are expected to play an increasingly important role in tomorrow’s energy supply system, and they promise to bring ever greater benefits to companies and organizations operating them.

Meet the ENGIE Laborelec microgrid expert team.
We know there’s no single answer to the wide microgrid challenge. We help you make your investment wisely, based on your priorities and your goals. These vary widely depending on the site being considered. For example, you may want to:
How we can help – Consultancy services. Our experts analyze your situation and provide independent advice on the best way to invest in local power production, storage and management systems. We develop different investment scenarios, clearly indicating their costs and benefits and support you through the decision-making process.
How we can help – LAB Services. Next to these consultancy services we also have a dedicated lab where live setups make the bridge between concepts and operational pilots. ENGIE Laborelec’s MICROGRID-Lab is the one-stop shop for testing electrical power technology components and evaluating the performance and reliability of devices, solutions and systems in real-life conditions. The multidisciplinary service includes lab testing, onsite measurements, system simulations, and expert advice.

ENGIE Laborelec’s MICROGRID-Lab is richly equipped with a wide range of test, measurement and analysis systems.

Static Equipment:
PHIL setup, using power amplifiers, programmable DC sources, PV emulators and several programmable loads.

Simulation/Optimisation Tools:
OPAL RT for simulation/emulation
Simulink

Testing Services:
Our Lab has testing capabilities going from single devices (controllers, relays…) to fully functional microgrid systems.
The services we provide cover:

  • validation of new concepts (designs using specific components or for use in specific harsh environments)
  • pre-certification testing (like new controllers, invertors, …)
  • Homologation of specific components
  • RCA (root cause analysis): re-creating the environment in which a certain phenomenon/component fail occured, to confirm the fault analysis
  • ALT testing: Accelerated Lifetime Testing

ENGIE Batteries Lab

ENGIE Laborelec offers the ultimate guarantee of multi-level technical and operational expertise in batteries and energy storage for customers and business partners.

We offer:

  • State-of-the-art laboratory, capable of testing all the components of an electrochemical storage solution, from a cell to a complete module, including control systems.
  • On-site intervention capability, including measurement, validation and monitoring using mobile measuring devices.
  • A team of experts with seasoned electrochemical, electrotechnical and communication skills in multiple domains, including power grid integration and hybridization with turbines, gensets and renewable energy.

We offer a broad range of services to evaluate and optimize the lifetime management, sizing, integration, performance and total cost of ownership of electrical and electrochemical energy storage technologies.

Our test facilities are fully equipped to test all the components of an electrochemical storage solution, from cell to rack, including the battery management system. Test protocols are adapted to specific customer use cases, and performance is evaluated based on actual cycling profiles, leading to clear recommendations.

ENGIE Laborelec