Meet the Smart Energy Delivery Lab, or SEnD Lab for short. It’s a fully equipped learning and experimental environment where modern energy research and practice-oriented education come together. The focus here is on balancing and aligning energy supply and demand through smart grids.
On one side, an increasing variety of energy sources are emerging as we generate energy from the sun and wind. On the other side, the energy demand from consumers and businesses continues to fluctuate. By smartly managing energy flows combined with storage, we can balance supply and demand. With this lab, Avans is fully committed to becoming the regional knowledge center for the energy transition.
What makes the lab so special is that students, teachers, and researchers work here together with companies, governments, and other knowledge institutions to accelerate the energy transition. The facilities can be used to address various current issues. For example, questions like, “How can we make an electric car a part of a building’s energy system?” or “How can we manage energy flows more intelligently so that the power grid doesn’t become overloaded by solar panels?” In the SEnD Lab, you can see exactly why and how this grid congestion happens. And perhaps more importantly… what you can do about it.
Where it all began
The founders of the SEnD Lab are the Smart Energy research group and the Academy for Technology and Innovation (ATix). Lecturer-researcher Redouane Eddeane had always wished to make an Avans location energy-neutral. The original plan was to develop a lab with components. He worked together with companies that wanted to contribute to technical and ICT education. However, during a conference, Jack Doomernik, lecturer in Smart Energy, came into contact with the company New Age Learning. This led to a quick change in the original plan. It was decided to turn something that already existed into a lab. With the help of knowledge and materials from companies, research projects linked to the research group, and students, the SEnD Lab has grown over the years. It now consists of two components: an Energy Neutral Location and a Smart Grid setup by Lucas Nülle.
Working remotely via Remote Labs
The idea behind Remote Labs came later. Through Remote Labs, students and companies can now also conduct their tests and practical work remotely. So you can work from home or another educational institution on the physical setup at a time that suits you best. This has several advantages. For example, you can gain knowledge remotely and connect businesses with each other. It provides much more flexibility for users, and installations are used more efficiently from other locations. To realize Remote Labs, the SEnD Lab works with the Control System group at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at TU/e.
Passionate and involved
One of the ambassadors from the Smart Energy research group and ATix is lecturer-researcher Redouane Eddeane. He has been involved from day one in the creation and further development of the lab. He sees the SEnD Lab as a real playground, partly shaped by the students themselves, where experimentation and learning happen daily. This creates a challenging atmosphere for everyone involved with the lab. When you walk in, you can immediately feel it—there’s a lot of enthusiasm for making the energy transition successful. “I get energy from seeing students grow,” says Redouane. “I’ve achieved my goal when a student has enough confidence to take the lead and contribute to solving the climate problem.”
Redouane hopes that more people will embrace the SEnD Lab in the future. This will allow the lab to grow further and lead to more similar labs in higher vocational education (HBO) and secondary vocational education (MBO). By working together, we can exchange ideas and knowledge and inspire each other. These ambitions can only be realized through intensive cooperation with our stakeholders. Together, we can focus on making urban environments and power grids energy-neutral and use renewable energy sources intelligently. Only in this way can we make society much more energy-efficient and beautiful.
Education and research, the perfect combination
The SEnD Lab is a 50/50 collaboration between the Smart Energy research group and the Academy for Technology and Innovation (ATix). The research group is driven by society’s need for a sustainable energy supply, focusing on energy savings and the integration of renewable energy into the daily practices of consumers, governments, and businesses. ATix works hard to connect education, research, and businesses. The education is linked to the research agenda, which provides added value for students. They come into direct contact with new research and techniques from the research groups. The SEnD Lab is one of the few labs where practice-oriented technical education and research come together so clearly.
Come visit!
Feel free to visit the SEnD Lab in LA121 on the first floor of Lovendijkstraat 61 in Breda and let yourself be surprised! Or contact Smart Energy lecturer Jack Doomernik or lecturer-researcher Redouane Eddeane. They will be happy to tell you all about the possibilities the SEnD Lab offers.