Sustainable Energy Systems

The Sustainable Energy Systems research group seeks ways to increase the flexibility, efficiency, sustainability, reliability and social acceptance of increasingly complex and dynamic energy systems, which will be mainly powered by renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind power or bioenergy.

It aims to bridge the gap between existing technologies and globally optimized, smart solutions for the future. In this way, the research team is focused on developing ground-breaking solutions for the challenges of future energy systems, allowing for the larger integration of renewable energy, energy storage, demand response and electric mobility including energy communities, resilient networks and efficient intelligent buildings, without forgetting system security assessment and model/data interoperability.

The research group will also work towards providing solutions to new and existing challenges in markets (local and global), including developing mathematical models to analyse market operations and proposing new market designs.

Main EXPERTISE

Specialization fields

Renewable energy integration
Sustainable transport and electric mobility
Energy efficiency and energy management in buildings
Energy markets, economics and regulation
Digital market-based planning
Green economy

Transversal fields

Big Data
Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning models)
Deep Learning
Cyber-Physical Energy Systems
Software Engineering
Energy Cloud Computing

Research Challenges

Shifting energy production to renewable and low-carbon sources;
Shifting energy demand from fossil fuel to decarbonized electricity, hydrogen or heat;
Developing flexibility systems able to respond to the inherent uncertainty of complex renewable energy systems;
Holistically integrating electricity, gas and heat networks optimally;
Coordinating developments of variable renewable energy sources, flexibility options, energy infrastructures and the demand for decarbonized energy;
Managing bi-directional energy flows, as consumers play an active role in energy supply and demand;
Increasing system flexibility to match supply and demand dynamics more locally and over multiple time frames (e.g. improving forecasting, shortening decision-making processes, extending automation, increasing coordination, etc.);
Unlocking demand response and integrating small-scale generation and storage, from the residential and industrial sectors;
Modernizing energy markets to achieve a fully interconnected market with a level playing field across different energy vectors and system levels (from international trade to consumers).

Application Areas

Renewable energy systems
Electric network monitoring and operations
Power system protection
Generation and demand forecasting
Energy-efficient buildings
Electric vehicle charging management
Energy communities
Energy markets
Computational energy intelligence
Dynamic optimization and planning

Main Assets

FlexiGrid – Enabling flexibility in future power grids (H2020 / 2019-2023)
ATTEST – Advanced tools towards cost-efficient decarbonisation of future reliable energy systems (H2020 / 2020-2023)
Combi-Cast – Combined approach for the spatial highly resolved, intra-day PV forecasting for smart distribution grid operation (FNR / 2018-2021)
gENESiS – Energy management system for smart sustainable buildings: planning, operation and optimal integration in the smart energy (FNR / 2019-2022)
ML4SCOPF – Machine learning-based enhancements of security-constrained optimal power flow computations (FNR / 2020-2023)

Equipment

All-sky imager (sky cam) – “EKO ASI-16” – 180° fisheye camera pointing towards the sky to estimate “cloud cover”, to identify clouds and clear parts of the sky, to estimate the cloud movements (speed and direction)
KEPCO 4-quadrant power supply
NI PXI systems (industrial PC) including several measurement cards
Measurement systems and instruments