Unical project
The University of Calabria was established in 1968 with the aim of rooting in the territory a strategic resource for the development of Calabria, able to create prospects of social and economic cultural growth for its students and their families.
The vision that guides the University of Calabria is well summed up by the motto: the "Campus for Excellence".
The research and teaching activities are entrusted to the 14 Departments which belong to about 800 teachers spread over all CUN areas.
In this context H2Planet has been awarded the project for the supply, installation and testing of an H2/PEM energy storage system.
Supply and Installation
The H2/PEM electrical energy storage system consists of a PEM electrolyzer complete with the stack temperature sensor with variable and controllable production of hydrogen, a mixed storage system (pressurized cylinders and metal hydrides) and a PEM generator complete with Temperature sensor, Temperature output port and Firmware module.
The storage system is an element of a Demonstrator, which must interface with a special nanogrid, represented with a 400 V DC bus, through a special external DC/DC converter, which is not object of this supply and which is integrated into the same nanogrid.
The Demonstrator is used to validate the aggregate management in power cloud of storage systems based on different and distributed technologies, connected to the same nanogrid or other nanogrid located in sites geographically different.
Management, control and data acquisition system
The management, control and data acquisition system monitors the system and stores the acquired parameters.
The system consists of an H2planet supply signal acquisition panel that interfaces with all the devices and sensors present in the plant and makes them available for remote reading with OPC-UA protocol.
A special software developed by the customer in a labview environment interfaces to the signals to acquire data and store them. The system also acts as a controller, turning off the machines in case an alarm is detected.
For the more serious alarms, instead, the H2planet system intervenes autonomously without passing from the manager labview to which an alarm notification will be simply sent. This ensures immediate intervention for greater security of the entire H2 system.
The Test
The system operates on three phases: the control phase (CHECK), the operational phase (ORDINARY MANAGEMENT) and the phase emergency management (EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT). These phases are managed by the management, control and data acquisition system.
Each of these three phases works according to two different types of operation: "TEST" and "nGRID".
The TEST operation type involves the connection of the PEM electrolyzer power supply to a Power Supply and the connection of the PEM generator output to an electronic load, both supplied by H2planet and therefore compatible with both the electrolyzer, both with the generator.
The type of operation nGRID instead provides for the connection of both the PEM electrolyzer and the PEM generator to a special nano-grid developed by the University of Calabria
