The Sustainable Power Laboratory
The Sustainable Power Laboratory (SPL) enables world-class research into technologies needed for the transition to a decarbonized energy system with radically reduced environmental impact. Research is carried on all levels, from materials characterization to power system dynamics. The lab consists of nine different facilities.
The lab's key research fields are:
- dielectrics
- electromagnetics
- power electronics and drives
- electric machines
- EMC issues
- embedded control
- hardware in the loop real time simulation.
In terms of final applications a very broad field is addressed – grid interfaces for renewable energy sources, hybrid and electric vehicles and HVDC supergrids. The lab is well recognized in industry, large corporations including KTH strategic partners such as ABB and Scania as well as Volvo, Atlas Copco and General Electric participate in experimental projects in the lab. Several projects are carried out in collaboration with industry and the facilities are made available to industry for testing and verification. Facilities in the lab are frequently rented out to SMEs, including start-ups from students and faculty at KTH.
The vision is of the lab is to, open up this leading experimental facility to local, national and international collaboration. Across KTH, collaborative work is already happening with the SCI and CHE schools and through the national PhD program Swegrids, the facilities are opened up for collaboration also nationally with Uppsala University. Internationally collaboration in EU level networks such as ERIGRID and DERLab the facilities will be made more accessible. An important step in achieving this openness is strengthened governance and management procedures for facility and equipment sharing, personal safety and equipment upkeep.
The infrastructure is arranged into a number of linked facilities and they share a number of support functions. Descriptions of facilities: