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RF2.0: EU project targets better energy efficiency at CERN with improved grid monitoring tools

The recently launched Research Facility 2.0 project is deploying 24 phasor measurement units on CERN’s electrical power distribution grid to analyse grid perturbations, improve power quality and develop a digital twin for greater efficiency

18 December, 2024

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By

Nikolaos Sapountzoglou

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The main substation in BE1 at CERN where the first phasor measurement unit was deployed as part of the RF2.0 project's activities at CERN

Particle accelerators are energy-intensive, consuming up to hundreds of gigawatt hours annually, comparable to small- or medium-sized European cities. This, combined with their reliance on non-renewable energy sources and significant raw material requirements, pose environmental challenges.

That is why the Research Facility 2.0 (RF2.0) project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, is exploring innovative solutions to make accelerators more sustainable.

The project focuses on four points:

  • Developing new highly efficient components (permanent magnets and solid-state amplifiers)
  • Integrating AI-assisted energy management systems
  • Adopting low-carbon technologies (energy storage systems, renewable power-driven computing centers)
  • Enhancing power consumption flexibility and network services (power electronics, direct current networks, fast measurement systems)

There are 10 partners, including five of the largest particle accelerator facilities in Europe – ALBA Synchrotron (Spain), CERN, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, and MAX IV Laboratory (Sweden) – supported by four specialised technology companies and with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) coordinating the consortium. 

It is running for three years between 2024 and the end of 2026 and is backed with a total of €5.6 million.

Improving power quality in accelerator electrical power distribution grids

It is still early in the project but there has already been marked progress towards achieving the goal of improving power consumption flexibility and network services at accelerator facilities.

As part of the fast measurement systems developments CERN, together with Swiss smart grid solutions company Zaphiro Technologies, are deploying 24 phasor measurement units (PMUs) in selected locations across CERN’s electrical power grid, as shown in figure 1, significantly enhancing its monitoring capabilities.

By validating these solutions through demonstrator projects, one of which will take place at CERN, RF2.0 seeks to reduce accelerators' environmental impact and benefit other energy-intensive facilities, for example medical centers, data centers and other industrial plants, with innovative, flexible energy management strategies.

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Figure 1: Locations of PMUs on CERN's electrical power grid. Point 2 (ALICE) will be fully monitored (i.e. all of its connected loads will be monitored in detail)

The benefits for CERN

The electrical power distribution systems in particle accelerator facilities typically use standard SCADA systems characterised by slower dynamics, as is the case at CERN. The deployment of PMUs will provide several benefits, including the ability to:

  • Analyse perturbations coming from the upstream electrical transmission grid
  • Understand how these perturbations can impact CERN’s electrical power grid as well as various subsystems and components
  • Increase grid resilience and provide guidelines for future accelerators, in particular the proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC)

With the help of the PMUs, which are capable of monitoring voltage and current fluctuations in real-time with high sampling frequency and accuracy, CERN aims to:

  • Create, in collaboration with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), a data-fed digital twin of CERN’s main electrical power grid focusing on the LHC
  • Monitor the power quality of the grid and perform harmonic content analysis with the aim to better understand and classify in categories the various types of disturbances and identify mitigation actions and possible optimisations to increase the efficiency of the electrical power grid
  • Communicate detected events to the SCADA system
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Figure 2: Motivation and Objectives from the deployment of PMUs on CERN's electrical power grid

First PMU and recorded events

So far, two PMUs have been installed at CERN. One in BE1 (CERN’s main 400 kV substation) and one in the new data centre recently opened on CERN’s Prévessin site. The rest will be installed during the year-end technical stop of the accelerators at CERN, which is in place over the winter period.

Zaphiro Technologies has also developed a dashboard to visualise all the recorded events and a few notable ones have already been recorded by the PMU installed in BE1. This marks a milestone for the project and the future installations.

The accuracy of the measurements and their high sampling frequency will pave the way for CERN to better understand and classify the voltage disturbances that impact its electrical power grid and prove as an excellent input to the digital twin which will unlock the potential for future improvements.

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Figure 3: The first voltage disturbance on voltage phase C recorded with the PMU in BE1 on 13 September 2024 at 06:58 in the morning with a voltage decrease of 39% from the nominal value and a duration of 60 ms. This caused a trip on the grid and the stop of the accelerators

The author would like to acknowledge the full RF2.0 project team, Jean-Paul Burnet, Mario Parodi, Giuseppe Cappai, and Isabel Amundarain Arguello for making this work possible.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101131850 and from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).