Renewable Energy & Smart Grid Lab at the University of Petrosani
The University of Petrosani, in Romania's Jiu Valley, has equipped its laboratories with eight De Lorenzo training systems covering solar, wind, hydrogen fuel cells and smart grids. The university has its roots in mining engineering and trains more than 4,000 students.
The project started as a quotation request on Edquip in April 2023. At that point there was no funding in place and no tender, only a lecturer who needed prices and specifications he could take to his university board. The university used those quotations to budget an EU-funded modernisation project, financed under the West Regional Programme 2021–2027.
Close to two years later the equipment went out to open public tender. De Lorenzo bid directly, the supply contract was signed in July 2025, and the systems were delivered, installed and commissioned in Petrosani, with staff training by the De Lorenzo team.
This page follows the project from the first quotation to the finished laboratory, including how long each step took. It is a realistic picture of what EU-funded equipment procurement looks like for a university.
In this project Edquip worked with De Lorenzo. The eight systems are listed at the bottom of the page, or browse Renewable Energy Lab Equipment and Smart Grid Lab for the wider selection.
Challenge
Laboratory equipment more than 15 years old, in a region moving on from coal
The University of Petrosani grew out of Romania's Mining Institute and has been based in Petrosani, in the Jiu Valley coal region, since 1957. Today it trains more than 4,000 students across three faculties.
According to the university's own project documentation, a large part of its laboratory equipment was more than 15 years old, and practical work needed to be brought in line with what the labour market now asks for.
For the energy laboratories, that meant three things:
- Hands-on systems for renewable energy: photovoltaics, wind, hydrogen fuel cells, and how these sources are connected into a grid
- A reliable budget figure early on: the purchase depended on EU funding, so prices and specifications were needed long before any order could be placed
- A supplier able to deliver through public procurement: an open tender on Romania's national e-procurement system, with delivery, installation, commissioning and training included
Solution
From a quotation request to a public tender
In April 2023 a lecturer at the university requested quotations for eight training systems through Edquip. Edquip verified the request, De Lorenzo prepared the quotations, and the university received them in a comparable format together with formal quotations and the product catalogue. Installation, commissioning and training were included from the start.
The eight systems:
- Solar Power Plant Trainer (DL SPP)
- Photovoltaic Solar Energy Advanced Trainer (DL SOLAR-AT)
- Photovoltaic Solar Measurement Trainer (DL SOLAR-PV)
- Solar/Wind Energy Modular Trainer 2.0 (DL SUNWIND-24V3)
- Solar Wind Energy Advanced Training System 2.0 (DL SUNWIND-A2)
- Wind Power Plant (DL WPP)
- Fuel Cell Training System (DL HYDROGEN-B)
- Full Smart Grid 2.0 (DL SGWD2.0)
Together they take students from measuring a single photovoltaic panel, through complete solar and wind power plants and hydrogen fuel cells, up to a full smart grid where generation, storage and loads are managed as one system.
The university then took the project through its own approvals. It became part of "Modernisation of the educational infrastructure at the University of Petrosani, Stage II", financed under the West Regional Programme 2021–2027. In March 2025 the equipment went out to open tender. De Lorenzo bid directly and the supply contract was signed in July 2025.
Edquip's role was the part before the tender: making sure the university had quotations it could build a budget on, keeping the university and the manufacturer in contact during the two years the funding took, and flagging when the tender was about to open.
Results
Eight training systems installed, commissioned and handed over
The equipment was delivered to Petrosani and then installed and commissioned by the De Lorenzo team, who also trained the university's teaching staff.
What the university now has:
- A complete renewable energy teaching line: solar, wind and hydrogen in the same laboratory environment
- A full smart grid system, so students can study how renewable sources are integrated and controlled, not only how each one works on its own
- Practical work on current equipment in place of apparatus that was more than 15 years old
- Installation, commissioning and staff training completed by the manufacturer
The systems are part of a wider programme in which the university is equipping 17 laboratories and 11 lecture and seminar rooms with 411 items of equipment, with total financing of 6.56 million lei.
It took close to two years from the first quotation to the tender, and about three years from first contact to installed equipment. That is normal for EU-funded procurement. A quotation requested at the funding stage is what makes the later purchase possible.
