European laboratories for distributed energy resources

The current change of the electricity supply structure towards decentralised power generation requires a change of current safety, control and communication technology. New technical approaches concerning the functions of distributed energy resources (DER) have to be tested, quality of products has to be guaranteed and operational requirements have to be harmonised. DER laboratories are required to cover these tasks. In this paper selected European DER laboratories are technically described and existing as well as planned networking activities are outlined. The chance of close international co-operation between DER laboratories at an early stage is to get a common understanding of the standardisation requirements for an efficient future power supply's systems technology.