Grid Integration
ENERGY TO QUALITY (e2Q) is, within Barlovento group, the laboratory dedicated to advanced electric consultancy, both for renewable and conventional energies. E2Q carries out advanced electric studies as well as on-site tests in order to verify the compliance with grid codes in different countries. The main lines of work of ENERGY TO QUALITY are:
- Grid integration studies
- On site fault ride-through tests
- Power quality
- Model validation
- Consultancy
E2Q is committed to quality and accuracy at work. Therefore, e2Q belongs to the prestigious international network of laboratories MEASNET. Moreover, e2Q is accredited by ENAC for the performance of low voltage ride-through (LVRT), Power quality (PQ) and electric models validation according to the current main standards and grid codes all over the world (official accreditation list of e2Q).
Since 2006, ENERGY TO QUALITY carries out low voltage ride-through tests in electrical generators such as wind turbines, photovoltaic inverters and synchronous generators fed by diesel and gas according to the grid codes in more than 20 countries.
ENERGY TO QUALITY has designed their own two units for performing fault ride through tests. The units are flexible capable of testing different wind turbines with different ratings in different conditions of voltage and grid strengths.
ENERGY TO QUALITY carries out measurements of power quality in electric grids following the international standards IEC 61000-4-30 and EN 50160 and assesses the main indicators of electric grids:
- Voltage fluctuations, flicker
- Harmonics, interharmonics and high frequency components
- Voltage dips, swells and interruptions
- voltage unbalances
- And all the statistics related
Likewise, e2Q also performs specific measurements of power quality in wind turbines following the standards IEC 61400-21 and FGW TR3, always working with their latest revision. Besides the above mentioned points, the following are also assessed:
- Supply of active and reactive power
- Response to changes in the set point
- Grid protections
- Reconnection time
Among the studies carried out by e2Q, we can find the following:
- Studies of renewable energies integration in electric grid.
- Studies of impact of wind farms in weak grids.
- Off-shore wind farms grid integration.
- Monitoring of incidences in the grid.
E2Q performs the simulation studies of electromagnetic transients in different platforms, such as: PowerFactory (DigSilent), PSCAD, MatLab-Simulink, PSS/E, etc.
A simulation model validation is intended to show that a mathematic model dynamically behaves in the same way as the device that represents and reproduce the same response.
The simulations for model validation provided by the manufacturer are performed in different platforms: PowerFactory (DigSilent), PSCAD, MatLab-Simulink and PSS/E.
E2Q carries out advanced electric studies in different platforms such as PowerFactory of DigSilent, SimpowerSystems of Matlab, Matpower, PSIM, PSCAD, etc. Among the offered studies:
- Wind farms technical audits
- Operation limits of a power plant (P-Q Curve)
- dynamic responses facing perturbations in the grid
- Wind farms dynamic simulations
- Studies for the adaptation of old wind farms to new grid codes
- Behaviour of the wind farm
Besides its main activity of electric tests and grid integration and models validation, e2Q also renders services such as:
- Development of devices for the analysis of low voltage ride through
- Models validations in solar thermal plants
- Electrical tests on large devices (gas generators, etc.)