Center for Combined Smart Energy Systems

The research Center for Combined Smart Energy Systems (CoSES) at Technical University Munich (TUM) has been established with a laboratory facility that is capable of emulating a small microgrid that consists of heating, cooling, transportation and electric subsystem. With the aim to provide a test environment with conditions close to those in real-life, the laboratory is equipped with the full set of high power components that practically eliminates a need for modeling in tools such as real-time simulators.

CoSES microgrid laboratory comprises five building emulators, which are connected by three grids – communication, heat and electricity. The Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) philosophy is at the core of the design of electrical and heating grids, and is interconnected in real-time by the communication grid. The real world analogy of the lab is a microgrid of five houses, four single-family housesand one multi-family building. The interconnections form an electrical and a heat network, allowing for sector coupling, robust pricing mechanisms and having a decentralized grid control with high shares of renewable energy resources.