The ESI Lab emulates a “connected home” with a range of electric devices, including rooftop solar, energy storage, smart loads, and EV charging.  It supports testing of battery systems, grid connections, transfer switches and renewable energy generation inverters, with a focus on evaluating the interoperability and real-world performance and efficiency of the tested devices.

Having the in-house capability for testing future residential energy systems is very important to Fraunhofer’s utility and government partners. This was highlighted by Stephen Pike, prior to the ribbon-cutting, as well as by Dan Burgess – Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Staff at Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, Carlos Nouel – VP New Energy Systems, National Grid, and CSE Advisory Board member, Penni McLean-Conner – Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, Eversource Energy.

Residential energy storage is projected to grow from 1 MW today to 600 MW by 2022, as the installed capacity has doubled over the last 12 months. Although most energy storage products are governed by a well-defined suite of test standards focused on safety, there is no commonly accepted method to characterize the real-world performance of residential energy storage systems. Consequently, potential buyers currently lack a method to understand and compare the differences among competing products and high-quality vendors cannot readily differentiate their real-world product performance relative to lower quality offerings.

Testing at Fraunhofer CSE’s Energy Storage Integration Lab will enable consumers to effectively compare the quality, reliability, safety, and overall value of existing and future energy storage products.

Download the Energy Storage Integration Lab flyer here.

Contact Matt Kromer, Director of Fraunhofer CSE’s Grid Integration Group, or Tsz Yip, Senior Project Engineer, for more information.