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NREL's REDB Connects Smart Grid Research

Seeded on Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:04 PM EST
Read ArticleArticle Source: Nrel.Gov
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Seeded by Par4TheCourse
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Plug-n-play has become so integrated into daily life that most computer users don't give a second thought to hooking up a camera or smart phone to a laptop or tablet. Now, take the same concept and apply it to the nation's complex electrical systems when it comes to "plugging in" renewables or smart grid technologies.

(Image:     The Research Electrical Distri¬bution Bus (REDB) is the electrical back bone interconnecting many of the laboratories at ESIF. This state-of-the-art facility will enable NREL and industry to work together to develop and evaluate their individual technologies on a controlled integrated energy system platform.
Credit: Rendering courtesy of SmithGroupJJR  )

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This plug-n-play adaptability is possible because of the Research Electrical Distri­bution Bus (REDB) at ESIF, which will function as a power integra­tion circuit capable of connecting multiple sources of energy, interconnecting laboratories and experiments. All of this will allow NREL and its partners to test and simulate what happens when components, such as solar inverters, are connected to the grid.

"Each lab in ESIF has its own niche with different kinds of equipment and functionality fostering research on all aspects of energy integration," NREL Electrical Engineer Greg Martin said. "There is nowhere else where you can bring in a piece of equipment, connect it up, and be testing in a matter of days — along with the type of data acquisition we can provide."

  • 1 vote
Reply#1 - Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:08 PM EST
Tim S.-560036

This is exactly the type of role set forth for the federal government in Article I: Section 8; enumerated powers clause, "... fix the standards of Weights and Measures:".

Energy distribution across state lines is essential to the prosperity of the United States as a whole and therefore, this technology has to be standardized at the point of integration. This has already begun with the microinverter technology that is being applied to individual panels and allows for the "plug n play" addition of panels to an existing installation. Now it is being expanded to a "plug n play" for each residential, commercial, or utility scale installation tying into the grid as a whole.

Anything prior to that point can be proprietary.

    Reply#2 - Sun Jan 29, 2012 4:23 PM EST
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