Mission Statement

Thanks to the grant support (Award Number: 1947050) of the National Science Foundation, the DERConnect Research Facility will be established at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) by 2025. The primary objective is to build a testbed that allows universities, utilities, and industry leaders to achieve a better understanding of how to integrate renewable energy resources into the power grid. We are driven by the need to decarbonize the electrical grid and the lack of existing large-scale, centralized testing facilities. While the number and diversity of distributed energy resources is on the rise, the adoption of these resources is hindered by concerns about safety, reliability and costs. DERConnect represents one all-inclusive facility that enables testing of novel approaches and algorithms for real-world applications.