The Energy Grids Simulation and Analysis Laboratory in the SEnSSiCC building combines hardware and software components for simulating, modeling and optimizing grid design and operation. All four sectors (electricity, gas, heat and fuel) are taken into account.

We investigate power grids on multiple scales. Our simulation models cover the range from microgrids similar to our campus over larger interconnected distribution grids (e.g. City of Karlsruhe and State of Baden Württemberg)  up to the transmission grids of Germany and Europe.

The main hardware components of EGSAL are four GPU-enhanced power workstations and two fully licensed NovaCor Real Time Dynamic Simulators from RTDS. The latter are supported by three specialized FPGA-Simulation units for detailed studies of Modular Multi Level Converters in HVDC and for the execution of dedicated component models. Using state-of-the-art commercial software like (PowerFactory, RSCAD, Dymola, Matlab) we investigate new operation strategies for multimodal energy grids. Therein, we also apply self-developed software solutions for Co-simulation like the eASiMOV-eCoSim framework.

The strong interconnection between EGSAL and the other laboratories within the Energy Lab also enables hardware testing of grid components and control schemes via Power Hardware in the Loop and Controller In the Loop approaches.

Our access to a large repository of weather data, self-recorded power grid data and data-streams from the campus instrumentation enables a wide range of studies in offline and real-time modes.