Polyline: A Smart Energy Chain Testing Infrastructure. (POLYLINE)

PolyLine is a highly flexible test infrastructure capturing the electrical energy chain relevant for Smart Cities. Conceptually, PolyLine is a model-controlled, virtual distribution grid. Through these models, realworld and hypothetical situations can be produced and interactions with Smart Grid components studied. The installation offers three-phase, four-quadrant sources on medium (up to 50 kV) and low-voltage, including provisions for lightning and switching transients. The sources are controllable from user-friendly computer models, and have feed-back on both voltage and current, allowing full hardware-in-the-loop functionality. Each phase is individually controllable, with over 2.5 kHz bandwidth available to capture the dynamics of power electronic grid interfaces. When required, large currents can be injected using floating current transformers, also driven from four-quadrant sources. The infrastructure is intended for basic research in Smart Grid components, not for certification or destructive testing, and provides a relatively safe, low-energy system (kW range/phase) with high flexibility