Laborelec performs contract research and technical expertise services in electrical power and new energy technology. We improve the business of our shareholders and our external customers on the international market. Through our contract research, we improve the operational excellence of existing electrical power assets, electrical networks, we prepare our customers for their future challenges, we develop new solutions for energy end-users needs, and we anticipate and explore the potential and risk of emerging energy technologies. Through our technical expertise and consulting services, we create value for our customers from cost savings, failure prevention, risk reduction, efficiency improvement, availability improvement, safety improvement and environmental footprint reduction of energy installations. We develop and maintain excellent expert competences covering the entire electrical power value chain, including generation (nuclear, fossil-fired and renewable), storage, transmission & distribution and end-use. We combine expert knowledge with state-of-the-art measurement and analysis capability, with practical experience acquired from technical assistance to plant or network operators. We implement a creative, solution-oriented and open innovation approach, with strong international partners. In all cases, we seek valuable long-term relationships with our customers, based on sound market principles and an open-minded partnership approach. We also guarantee the professional quality and objectivity of our results and recommendations. With our research and our expertise services, we work actively and passionately towards a more sustainable (i.e. a more reliable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly) energy supply. Laborelec is a cooperative research and knowledge center specialized in electrical energy technology and for many years active in the domain of renewable and decentralized energy production. A lot of experience was acquired for the interaction with the electricity grid (i.e. voltage quality, protections, μgrids, Power Line Communication, energy management, ...). The product line "Electricity Grids & End-Use" has in the past and still today research programs whit close affinity to This project. Laborelec is working at these themes nationally with most of the Belgian grid Operators as well as internationally (i.e. Enexis, Alliander, ...). Further was Laborelec involved actively in the international EU-DEEP program and Flemish LINEAR project.

LABLEC's Role in ELECTRA IRP: The Laborelec teams deposes of a wide set of laboratory and on field test equipment. Most relevant for the project are the Electricity Grids and End-Use testing facilities. The teams are competence organized and so are the laboratories. The projects are transversally managed and use the different environments and competencies when necessary. The Power System people work with state of the art measurement equipment for all kind of Power Quality measurements (from voltage dips, over swells to harmonics and waveforms), recorders as well as long time synchronized wave recorders and a we manage a set of more than 600 permanent recorders, simulation software as NEPLAN, VISION, EMTP, COMSOL, SIMULINK, ... for all a kind of network simulations (including finite elements). A test bench was setup for PV panels and inverters. The test bench is extended with a real life working Grid Connected Micro-Grid (including storage). Recently the grid protection laboratory for testing relays was extended with IEC 61850 capabilities. Portable measurement equipment is GPS synchronized and capable to measure transient phenomena over long distances. Communication and automation goes hand in hand at Laborelec, therefore a close collaboration between IT, process control, metering and telecom experts is necessary. These people rely on sophisticated test and measurement equipment for Power Line Carrier as well as a Certified Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory with measuring equipment, simulating software and field sources from kHz to GHz. The laboratory is extended with portable equipment for in field EMC measurements. These joint teams work on the management of flexibility in electricity systems and work with the latest state of the art tools, process control laboratory (automation and communication capabilities, simulation and testing). Recently a smart home energy lab (domestic smart grid and flexibility environment) and smart local energy management lab (industrial flexibility simulation and automation tools) was setup. This teams are also strongly involved in the development of products and services for electrical vehicles and uses therefore an electrical vehicles test environment (fast-charge, slow-charge, flexibility piloting, ...). Often forgotten but the precision of measurements is crucial, therefore the experts use a certified metrological laboratory (A, V, kWh, kvarh, ...). A lot of other competencies and testing environments are at the disposal of the different teams. If we want to test or develop monitoring or control algorithms not only technical expertise about the phenomena are necessary but also hardware and software. A monitoring and development team with a PI test environment has experiences in data mining (including alarm management) and SCADA environments. This team disposes of different simulation and programming languages from more scientific (like MATLAB, LABVIEW, PROCESSBOOK, ... and many others) to more classical (Microsoft studio.net, ...).

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Key Personnel Involved: Reynders K., Uytterhoeven S., Ducarme O.