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Europe / Commercial & demonstration

Intelligent DC MIcrogrid Living Lab

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations7
System facts39
Sources reviewed9
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

Aalborg University's Intelligent DC Microgrid Living Lab (iDClab) was a 2014–2017 research project comparing a multivoltage DC apartment microgrid with a conventional 230 V AC apartment under realistic residential use. The documented DC architecture included 380 V down to 12 V buses, four bidirectional TDK-Lambda EZA2500 converters, storage, programmable/real loads, meters, and proposed interfaces for PV, wind, electric vehicles, and hydrogen micro-CHP. A partnered North China Electric Power University facility used separate 750 V DC buses and must not be merged into the Aalborg equipment inventory.

Research status
The funded iDClab project is finished; Aalborg records its duration as January 2014 through December 2017. A 2020 IoT-MGLab publication and Aalborg's current Microgrids and Energy Internet Laboratory show related research continuing with newer infrastructure, but neither source proves that the original apartment testbed remains in its 2015 configuration.
Historical classification
Building
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
57.01457, 9.98185
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Intelligent DC MIcrogrid Living Lab?

7 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Aalborg University

Lead institution and host of the Danish living laboratory [5][6]

Organization

Aalborg University / AAU Energy

Danish project lead and residential living-lab host [3][4]

Organization

Danish Council for Strategic Research

Research funder, providing DKK 5,396,587 [5]

Organization

Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Chinese-side collaborator on energy-management research [6]

Organization

Kamstrup

Advanced multiutility-metering partner and supplier [6]

Organization

North China Electric Power University

Chinese research collaborator and host of a separate industrial DC laboratory [6]

Organization

TDK-Lambda

Supplier of bidirectional DC/DC converters identified in the Aalborg platform [6]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

Storage
NA [1]
Project period
January 2014–December 2017 [3]
Reported Danish project funding
DKK 5,396,587 [3]
Residential DC buses
380 VDC, 48 VDC, 24 VDC, and 12 VDC [4]
AC comparison apartment
230 V, 50 Hz [4]
Industrial partner-lab buses
Two 750 VDC buses at North China Electric Power University [4]
Project duration
1 January 2014 to 31 December 2017 [5]
Funding
DKK 5,396,587 from the Danish Council for Strategic Research [5]
Danish living-lab comparison
Two fully functional apartment sections: one 230 V, 50 Hz AC microgrid and one multibus DC microgrid [6]
DC bus levels
380 V DC stepped through lower-voltage buses down to 12 V DC; project descriptions also identify 48 V and 24 V intermediate levels [6]
Bidirectional conversion
Four TDK-Lambda EZA2500 bidirectional DC/DC converters in the documented laboratory setup [6]
Chinese partner lab
Separate NCEPU research platform with two 750 V DC buses and a diagrammed 1 MVA power-electronic transformer [6]
Current broader AAU lab resources
Aalborg's successor/current laboratory lists an 80 kW bidirectional supply and 45 kVA grid simulator; these are not capacities of the original iDClab apartment system [8]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Advanced metering infrastructure

Kamstrup — OMNIA

Integrates electricity, gas, and district-heating meters so the energy-management system can coordinate whole-building energy use. [4]

02

Home-area communications

ZigBee

Low-bit-rate wireless devices communicate through a gateway to the building energy-management system. [4]

03

Micro-CHP research system

Model not publicly disclosed

Electrolyser, hydrogen storage, and fuel cell provide electricity and useful heat; commercial models are not disclosed. [4]

04

Renewable and electrical storage test assets

Model not publicly disclosed

PV, small wind turbines, and batteries are included in the laboratory architecture, but the paper does not provide fielded model numbers for each asset. [4][1]

05

Bidirectional DC/DC converters

TDK-Lambda — EZA2500

Four converters used to route energy among DC buses and storage/source interfaces [6]

06

Metering

Kamstrup — OMNIA

Advanced multiutility metering concept covering electricity, gas, and district heat [6]

07

Storage

Model not publicly disclosed

Battery storage and associated bidirectional interfaces are part of the platform; chemistry, voltage, and kWh capacity are not disclosed in the core project paper [6]

08

Distributed generation interfaces

Model not publicly disclosed

The platform was designed for PV and wind integration, but the paper does not establish nameplate capacity or final installed manufacturer/model for either source [6]

09

Hydrogen micro-CHP

Model not publicly disclosed

Research concept combining electrolyzer, hydrogen storage, and fuel cell for electricity and heat; no installed capacity or vendor is documented [6]

10

Residential loads

Model not publicly disclosed

LED lighting, DC appliances, programmable constant-power loads, and conventional AC/DC household devices for side-by-side efficiency testing [6]

11

Communications

Model not publicly disclosed

ZigBee home-area communications and gateway for measurement and device coordination [6]

12

Real-time control

Model not publicly disclosed

Real-time digital-control modules, meters, and medium-voltage interface terminals supported converter and microgrid experiments [6]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Storage

    Electrolyser produces hydrogen with excess of renewable energy to store until EMS requires heat or electricity [1]

  • Generation

    Solar PV [1]

  • Generation

    Whisper Wind Turbines [1]

  • Generation

    Micro-CHP based on fuel cells [1]

  • Experimental design

    Two fully functional residential sections—one multi-bus low-voltage DC and one conventional AC—were designed for direct efficiency comparison. [4]

  • Sector coupling

    The EMS architecture spans electricity, gas, and district heating and can choose between battery storage and hydrogen production during renewable surplus. [4]

  • Research scope

    The program studied design, modeling, control, coordination, communications, and management rather than documenting a commercial production microgrid. [3]

  • Disclosure gap

    The reviewed paper does not name PV modules, battery cells, DC/DC converters, fuel-cell stack, electrolyser, or central EMS software model. [4]

  • Research objective

    The paired apartments enabled direct comparison of AC and DC distribution efficiency, conversion losses, control, power quality, and user behavior under similar load profiles. [5][6]

  • Boundary caution

    The NCEPU 750 V buses, 1 MVA transformer, supercapacitors, and multiple battery chemistries belong to the separate Chinese industrial lab, not the Aalborg residential apparatus. [6]

  • Unverified savings

    The project paper cites efficiency-savings percentages from other DC-distribution literature but does not report a completed, measured annual energy-savings result for iDClab itself. [6]

  • IoT successor work

    A 2020 paper describes an IoT-MGLab at Aalborg with 230 V AC and 48/400 V DC buses, PV, wind, and battery resources using FIWARE/NGSI context-broker infrastructure. It is related follow-on work, not a verified unchanged continuation of iDClab. [7]

  • Current research infrastructure

    Aalborg's current Microgrids and Energy Internet Laboratory supports microgrid, converter, intelligent-electronic-device, advanced-metering, and real-time-platform research, confirming institutional continuity rather than original-project operating status. [8]

  • Energy mix

    This was a flexible laboratory, not a utility-serving plant with a stable annual generation mix. PV, wind, storage, grid exchange, and hydrogen micro-CHP were research elements, and no annual MWh split is published. [6]

Provenance

9 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
    Source

    et.aau.dk · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  3. [3]
    Intelligent DC Microgrid Living Lab

    Aalborg University Research Portal · Primary source

  4. [4]
    Intelligent DC Microgrid Living Labs — A Chinese-Danish Cooperation Project

    IEEE International Conference on DC Microgrids / Aalborg University · Primary source

  5. [5]
    iDClab: Intelligent DC Microgrid Living Lab

    Aalborg University · Primary source

  6. [6]
  7. [7]
    An IoT-Based Microgrid Laboratory

    Electronics · Primary source

  8. [8]
    Microgrids and Energy Internet Laboratory

    Aalborg University · Primary source

  9. [9]
    Intelligent DC Microgrid Living Lab (archived legacy record)

    Microgrid Projects / Internet Archive · Archived source

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