KEMA Labs

		Country: The Netherlands Website
		Get funded free access to this facility via the ERIGrid 2.0 Lab Access Programme.
Submit Testing/Consulting Request

Description: Driven by its purpose of safeguarding life, property and the environment, KEMA Labs enables organisations to advance the safety and sustainability of their business. KEMA Labs provides classification and technical assurance along with software and independent expert advisory services to the maritime, oil & gas and energy industries. We also provide certification services to customers across a wide range of industries. Combining leading technical and operational expertise, risk methodology and in-depth industry knowledge, KEMA Labs empowers its customers decisions and actions with trust and confidence. The company continuously invests in research and collaborative innovation to provide customers and society with operational and technological foresight. KEMA Labs, whose origins go back to 1864, operates globally in more than 100 countries with its 16,000 professionals dedicated to helping their customers make the world safer, smarter and greener.
In the Energy industry: KEMA Labs delivers world-renowned testing and advisory services to the energy value chain including renewables and energy efficiency. Our expertise spans onshore and offshore wind power, solar, conventional generation, transmission and distribution, smart grids, and sustainable energy use, as well as energy markets and regulations. Our 3,000 energy experts support clients around the globe in delivering a safe, reliable, efficient, and sustainable energy supply.
DNV GL Strategic Research & Innovation: The objective of strategic research is through new knowledge and services to enable long term innovation and business growth in support of the overall strategy of KEMA Labs. Such research is carried out in selected areas that are believed to be of particular significance for KEMA Labs in the future.

Facilities:

Flex Power Grid Laboratory (FPGLab) Description: The Flex Power Grid Lab in Arnhem takes a unique position in the world because of the voltage and power range of 24 kV and 1 MVA together with a bandwidth of 2.4 kHz (for harmonic superposition). The laboratory is built around a fully programmable four-quadrant power electronics converter that can either create a grid with a customisable power quality level or represent a custom load. The laboratory has been designed to enable for example the circulation of power from the programmable source, through the device under test, back to the feeding grid. Additionally, various passive loads are available in the lab for easy connection.

FPGLab laboratory is not like any of the already existing KEMA laboratories, not in functionality, purpose nor organizational structure. The laboratory is owned, and run, by the independent foundation called the “Stichting EMVT Laboratorium”. KEMA has an exclusive 50% share in this foundation and the Dutch government the remaining 50%. KEMA will provide exclusive trans-national access to the Flex Power Grid Lab facility from its 50% share in this foundation through sub-contracting of the “Stichting EMVT Laboratorium” foundation.
The laboratory is in operation since 2008 and focuses on Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and Renewable Energy Systems (RES) integration for SmartGrids and power electronics development and testing for industrial high voltage (24kV) and power up to 1MVA, by offering a predefined “bad” grid or load.
Technical specifications (PDF)

The Flex Power Grid Lab added the following DC power supply configurations capable of bi-directional operation:

• High Power (1.32 MW), High-voltage (2kV):
  • equipped with Solar Simulator to operate as PV-Emulator;
  • equipped with Battery Simulator to operate as Battery Storage (ESS)-Emulator.
• High-power (200kVA), Low-voltage:
  • multiple (at least 6) configurations supported up to 750V; can be driven by a real-time simulator (SFP link) and as PV or ESS emulators.
• A co-simulation – Power Wind Turbine test bench

Simulation/optimisation tools:

• Power Factory
• PS-CAD
• AT-EMTP
• MATLAB-Simulink
• NI-LabView

Standards compliance: Several IEC/IEEE/UL standards
Quality Management: FPGLab is certified according to the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard and the DERri protocol.
SCADA Technologies and security/privacy regulations:

• Many different vendor solutions are vailable in the lab
• Most important communication standard in Netherlands: IEC61850
• Most important communication protocols in Netherlands: IEC61850
• Important equipment vendor for SCADA components in Netherlands: SIEMENS
• Most important standardisation organisation in Netherlands: NEN/NEC