Progress since Kick Off Meeting / March 2020
Since the start of the kick-off meeting (six months away now) TALENT Consortium has made some progress in the different technical work packages.
The physical architecture for the three scales, namely: multi-home, district and utility, is being defined, starting from the definition of requirements in terms of electromagnetic compatibility, power quality, galvanic isolation, etc. Modularity and scalability are key aspects when aiming to reduce the costs of power converters. In this sense, scalability is being defined by using a modular approach in the topology of the power converters, as well as when arranging the possible interconnections among the energy storage modules and renewable energy sources.
Furthermore, some progress has been made on the definition of the software architecture. TALENT control architecture is indeed based on a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) controller working in the cloud and controlling several local Distributed Hybridised Energy Management Systems (DHEMS) and several Battery Management Systems (BMS). This allows operation for hybrid plants and storage systems, and grid stability can be ensured through the increase of renewable sources penetration.
More specifically:
- For the multi-home scale:
A multiport modular power electronic converter, allowing grid integration of distributed resources at building level, is being designed. Some tests have been run with series and parallel connections of iBatt modules. Moreover, a small-scale prototype DC/DC converter for the iBatt module is being built.
- For the district scale:
Novel semiconductors will be developed and packaged into a power module suitable for paralleling. So far, the topology for the DC/DC converter has been selected and some progress is being done on the electrical connection and functionality between the inverter and the battery charger.
- For the utility scale:
An innovative high voltage storage system suitable for large scale and district applications will be developed prototyped and validated. So far, the power converter topology has been selected, the needed high voltage power modules have been identified, and the first simulations of the PEBB power and it is efficiency have been done performed.
- Management software for decentralised and hybridised energy systems:
This activity is about how to manage different decentralized and hybridized energy systems as if they were a unique power plant. Inside WP1, CARTIF, cyberGRID and Siemens-Gamesa have defined not only the architecture and requirements for each software involved but also communication protocols and cybersecurity.
