Past Lectures & Events

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Lectures & Events 2021



Lectures & Events 2020


"System Operations Challenges and the work of CIGRE Study Committee C2"
By Susana Almeida de Graaff - TenneT TSO B.V.

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3 December 2020
This lecture touched upon the future challenges of system operations, and made the connection with the work developed by CIGRE Study Committee C2, which provides a solid basis for knowledge sharing and development in an unbiased manner.


"Energy flexibility - a precious resource that needs to be shared. How to solve one problem without causing another?"
By Anna Stawska - TU Delft

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26 November 2020
The growing capacity of intermittent energy sources causes more frequent system imbalances as well as congestion. Demand flexibility is a valuable resource that can be used to resolve these. Unfortunately, flexibility can also contribute to congestion, particularly when used to balance the grid. Using flexibility to solve grid problems without creating new ones requires well-designed financial incentives. Congestion management mechanisms (CMMs) are a primary example of such incentives. The question is which of these is most effective in preventing congestion with minimal impact on trading on the imbalance market. This question is answered by comparing traditional CMMs such as grid tariffs to a local flexibility market on their impact on the load in the grid and the lost value of flexibility on the imbalance market. This analysis shows that energy tariffs are not suited for preventing congestion. Capacity tariffs are able to prevent congestion but they impose limitations on the consumer which significantly reduce the value of flexibility on the imbalance market. The flexibility market, an example of a local market, is effective if aggregators do not have a position day ahead or if the distribution system operator limits the buying of flexibility a day before delivery.


"The Smart City Building Blocks and Their Synergy with Smart Villages - What can smart cities and smart villages learn from each other"
By Saifur Rahman, PhD- Joseph Loring Professor of electrical engineering; Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute, USA - President, IEEE Power & Energy Society 2018 & 2019

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Thursday 19 November 2020
A smart city relies on widely distributed smart devices to monitor the urban environment in real-time, collects information for intelligent decision making, and facilitates various services to improve the quality of urban living. The distributed network of intelligent sensor nodes, as well as data centers/clouds where sensor data are stored and shared, constitutes a smart city infrastructure. Participatory sensing plays an indispensable role in emerging initiatives of a smart city, which retrieves sensor data from groups of people or communities. The proliferation of personal mobile devices and development of online social networks make participatory sensing viable at a large scale but introduce many open problems at the same time. Smart cities address urban challenges such as pollution, energy efficiency, security, parking, traffic, transportation, and others by utilizing advanced technologies in data gathering and communications interconnectivity via the Internet. It provides real time and remote monitoring for different aspects of data management in areas such as transportation, communication, video surveillance, and sensors distributed throughout the city. Simultaneously, the Smart City building blocks like education, telemedicine, health care, IT applications, pollution management, etc. can be deployed in Smart Village initiatives to have a greater impact on the rural population throughout the world.  This will support the world’s energy-impoverished communities by providing a comprehensive solution combining renewable energy, community-based education, and entrepreneurial opportunities through reliable electricity and internet connectivity.


"Efficient Integration of Renewable Energy Resources: From DC nanogrids to DC macrogrids"
By Nils H. van der Blij - Assistant Professor at the Electrical Sustainable Energy department of the Delft University of Technology

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29 October 2020
Historically speaking, alternating current (AC) has been the standard for commercial electrical energy distribution. This is mainly because, in AC systems, electrical energy was easily transformed to different voltages levels, increasing the efficiency of transmitting power over long distances. However,  technological advances in, for example, power electronics, and societal concerns such as global warming indicate that it might be time to re-evaluate the current distribution systems. Direct current (DC) distribution systems are foreseen to have advantages over their AC counterparts in terms of efficiency, distribution lines, power conversion and control. Consequently, the adoption of DC grids has been growing significantly for, for example, high voltage transmission, data centers, telecommunications, commercial and residential buildings and street lighting. Furthermore, for device level distribution and sustainable energy resources DC has already been the standard for quite a few years. Therefore, DC grids are being investigated on house (nano), neighborhood (micro) and national (macro) scale for integrating these devices in an efficient manner. Although the advantages of dc distribution systems are significant, there are also several challenges for the broad adoption of DC grids. During this presentation technical challenges such as stability, protection and control are discussed, and non-technical challenges such as the standardization of DC grids and the market inertia of ac systems are discussed.


"Future Challenges for the Distribution Grid - Or is the Energy-Transition a Disruptive Event for the Energy Sector?"
By Heinz Wilkening - European Commission DG Joint Research Centre in Petten

8 October 2020
Heinz Wilkening works for the European Commission DG Joint Research Centre in Petten since 2003. For the first years he worked in the field of hydrogen safety simulation and fuel-cell simulations. For about 10 years now he works in the field of Smart Grids. In particular he is working in the area of residential load profile simulation. After graduating from University Hannover as mechanical engineer in 1993 and before joining the JRC, Mr. Wilkening had worked in German research centre and industries in the field of hydrogen safety simulations as well as fuel cell simulation, design and testing.


"Dynamic Estimation and Control of Power System"
By Bikash Pal - Professor of Power Systems at Imperial College London (ICL)

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22 September 2020
Electrical generation, transmission and distribution systems all over the world have entered a period of significant renewal and technological change and upgrade. There have been phenomenal changes/deployments in technology of generation driven by the worldwide emphasis on energy from wind and solar as a sustainable solution to our energy need.  Model based control design strategy is not as effective now in system operation. Faster estimation of system dynamics, phasor estimation, point of wave estimation are now very useful for time critical monitoring and control of a real-world power networks. The interconnected AC system becoming lighter and lighter because of replacement of centralised synchronous plants with non-synchronous ones. Fast frequency response provision is very vital for keeping the lights on.  This is the most credible challenge in smart transmission grid operation today.  The reports from some of the recent power grid failures have exposed the inadequacy of control and protection of the network. This talk will highlight the importance of dynamic estimation and control of power networks for their stable operation. It will discuss both centralised and decentralised options.  The speaker will share his research experience in this topic. Future research challenges and opportunities will be highlighted.


"Benchmarking Flexible Electric Loads Scheduling Algorithms under Market Price Uncertainty"
by Koos van der Linden; Software developer - Algorithmics Group TU Delft

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10 June 2020
Because of increasing amounts of intermittent and distributed generators in power systems, many demand response programs have been developed to schedule flexible energy consumption. However, proper benchmarks for comparing these methods are lacking, especially when decisions are made based on information which is repeatedly updated. This paper presents a new benchmarking tool designed to bridge this gap. Surveys that classify flexibility planning algorithms were an input to define the benchmarking standards. The framework can be used for different objectives and under diverse conditions faced by electricity energy stakeholders interested in flexibility scheduling algorithms. It includes a simulation environment that captures the evolution of look--ahead information, which enables comparing online planning and scheduling algorithms. The benchmarking tool is used to test seven planning algorithms measuring their performance under uncertain market conditions. The results show the importance of online decision making, the influence of data quality on the algorithm performance, the benefit of using robust and stochastic programming approaches, and the necessity of trustworthy benchmarking.


"Airborne Wind Energy''
by Associate Professor Roland Schmehl of the TU Delft University; Faculty Aerospace Engineering.

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20 May 2020
Airborne wind energy (AWE) is the conversion of wind energy into electricity using tethered flying devices. Some concepts combine onboard wind turbines with a conducting tether, while others convert the pulling power of the flying devices on the ground. Replacing the tower of conventional wind turbines by a lightweight tether substantially reduces the material consumption and allows for continuous adjustment of the harvesting altitude to the available wind resource. The decrease in installation cost and increase in capacity factor can potentially lead to a substantial reduction of the cost of wind energy. Wind at higher altitudes is also considered to be an energy resource that has not been exploited so far. In a first part, this talk will outline the fundamental working principles and a basic theory to describe the energy harvesting performance, using this to explore some of the technology demonstrators of leading industrial players. In a second part, the widely adopted pumping AWE concept will be analyzed in more detail, both theoretically as well as experimentally, with the final goal to describe the performance of AWE systems arranged in wind parks. In a last part, current research challenges are outlined, with a focus on the activities at TU Delft.


"Modeling the very large electricity network of Alliander DNO and its applications" - Data science and machine learning and the energy transition
By Werner van Westering - Senior data scientist at Alliander NV

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13 February 2020
The energy transition combined with a shrinking workforce poses a great challenge for maintaining a reliable power grid. At the data science department of Alliander DNO we combine physical models, machine learning techniques and optimization techniques to model and predict the effects of the energy transition. We also investigate other subjects, such automatic network design, AI-driven investment planning and electricity storage control.


Lectures & Events 2019


Lecture Flexibility, Reliability and Resilience in Integrated Energy Systems
by IEEE Distinguished Lecturer prof. Pierluigi Mancarella
IEEE PES distinguished lecture hosted by TU Delft's PowerWeb Institute

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16 December 2019
The aim of this IEEE Power and Energy Society Distinguished Lecture is to discuss the main concepts about provision of power system flexibility and grid services from the so-called multi-energy systems (MES) whereby electricity interacts with other energy vectors and sectors such as heating, cooling, transport, gas, hydrogen, etc. Specific use cases and applications, covering technical, commercial and regulatory aspects, will refer to a number of recent projects in the UK, Europe and Australia. These include ongoing work with electricity and gas system operators, transmission and distribution network operators, and energy regulators to address how MES could support an affordable, reliable and resilient development of low-carbon electricity and gas grids with deep penetration of renewable energy sources. Longer-term potential energy futures that envision electricity-hydrogen systems with renewables penetration (much) greater than 100% will also be discussed.


"Blue Battery: sustainable energy storage for smart communitie"
By Juan-SebastiĂĄn Alvarez Rincon, AquaBattery - Senior R&D Engineer

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12 December 2019
AquaBattery is a clean-tech startup with a growing team of highly motivated, leading and experienced engineers and technicians for the development of new battery systems for the storage of renewable energy. We make use of the osmosis principle, whereby we can store and generate energy using fresh water and salt (e.g. NaCl), also known as the BlueBattery. This concept has already yielded several awards and is now being tested for use as energy storage in households, solar parks and neighbourhoods. AquaBattery is also developing the TerraBattery, which is based on nickel-iron technology.


"Energy transition, distribution grids and network tariffs''
by Michiel Mulder - Professor RUG.

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15 November 2019
Energy transition implies more volatility in both local generation and load. Distribution grids can handle this by extending the grid capacity, but this is not always the most efficient solution. Another option is to give network users financial incentives to respond to the intensity of usage of the grid. How can such dynamic shadow prices be implemented in tariff regulation? And, to what extend are such tariffs are perceived as fair? In this presentation, Machiel Mulder explores the answers on these questions, partly based on his research with Stijn Neuteleers and Frank Hindriks published in Energy Policy.


"Forecasting wholesale electricity prices: from probabilistic to deep learning approaches''
by Jesus Lago Garcia; Researcher at Energyville-VITO; PhD candidate TU Delft DCSC department.

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10 October 2019
In recent years, with the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources (RES), the generation of electricity has become more uncertain. As this integration is only expected to increase, the uncertainty in the power grid will become worse.
As electricity consumption has to equal electricity generation at all times, increasing uncertainty in electricity generation leads to electricity markets that display highly volatile prices with sudden and unexpected price peaks. In this context, accurate price forecasting is paramount to ensure further integration of RES into the electricity grid by guarantying their profitability and reducing the associated market risks.
In this talk, we will cover the main approaches and techniques when it comes to forecasting prices. We will start the talk with a brief introduction to the field of price forecasting. Then, we will talk about the three main types of forecasting methods: point forecasting, probability forecasting, and scenario forecasting. In particular, we will discuss the merits and disadvantages of these three classes, and we will provide some particular examples of methods belonging to these families.
At the end, we will also discuss the importance of market integration in forecasting electricity prices, and the role of deep learning techniques in the context of point forecasting.


"Cyber Security for Power Grids''

by Alex Stefanov - Assistant Professor of Intelligent Electrical Power Grids in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science at TU Delft

12 September 2019
 


"Vision on the Energy System Transformation"
by Olivier Gueydan, Siemens Netherlands.

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13 June 2019
As our worldwide population grows, our cities expand, our technology develops and our need for energy increases, we are putting greater pressure on the environment and our future. The world needs a new approach.
Today’s main challenges of the energy systems are climate protection, economic efficiency, reliable supply and public acceptance. The current energy transition therefore includes societal, economical, technological and institutional components.
We call this the 3D challenge of the energy systems: Decarbonized, Decentralized, Digitalized. The 3D challenge of the energy systems changes everything. Are you ready for it?


"Supporting the Development of a north Sea Offshore PowerHouse" - Case Study: North Sea Wind Power Hub Project
By Huygen van Steen - Navigant;

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9 May 2019
Accelerated global warming can have catastrophic consequences for humans and nature. International climate goals and actions should prevent this from happening. The North Sea renewable energy system (with up to 180 GW of offshore wind) will play an important role to decarbonize the NW Europe energy system and reach these climate goals. But how can this be realized and integrated into the onshore grid at lowest cost and minimum impact? In this lunch talk Huygen van Steen from Navigant will present the North Sea Wind Power Hub project as a case study, where they are providing strategic and implementation support


"The inequality effects of energy transitions: A review of policy mixes for sustainability transitions"
By Floor van Alkemade, Eindhoven University; professor Economics and Governance of Technological Innovation

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9 May 2019
Global sustainable development critically depends on a fundamental transformation of current energy-intensive systems along both socio-economic and environmental dimensions. These two dimensions of energy transitions are closely related as energy is required for economic growth, and poverty often coincides with limited access to energy and a high vulnerability to the effects of climate change (GEA, 2012). Energy transitions are expected to transform both currently energy-poor societies as well as societies where energy is widely available at affordable prices. Increasingly, we observe that the benefits of such sustainable energy transitions are not equally distributed. Examples are the construction of a hydroelectric dam that forces the local population to relocate, or the opposition against wind turbines or CO2 storage. 
While the overall relation between energy and prosperity is well known, the specific welfare effects of sustainability transitions have received surprisingly little attention. There is wide consensus that the sustainable development goal of clean and affordable energy (SDG7) will also have positive impacts on several other sustainable development goals. However Nillson et al (2018) indicated that is unclear how SDG7 will interact with SDGs 5 and 10 on inequalities, Two bodies of literature provide partial insights. First, the sustainable energy transitions literature focuses on the determinants of sustainability transitions and but on their consequences. Second, evolutionary economic geography provides insight in the economic development pathways of countries and regions but rarely considers effects on sustainability and inequality. By connecting these two fields of evolutionary thinking in order to systematically investigate the main research question: What are the inequality effects of energy transitions and how can they be addressed by policy mixes for sustainable development.
Our review results in a systematic overview of the (lack) of attention for inequality effects in transition experiments and energy transition policies as well as the policy interventions that were made to compensate for these adverse effects. The main inequality concerns relate to the affordability of the energy transition. However specific instruments to address this are discussed but only a few instruments are already in place.


"Smart electricity exchange with neighbourhood battery and blockchain"
By Willem Poterman and Sven Drommel – HanzeNet

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14 March 2019
HanzeNet facilitates self-regulating energy neutral neighborhoods and encourages residents to be self-sufficient by generating and sharing renewable energy amongst each other. We call this Peer-to-Peer (P2P) trade, where people enter into mutual transactions without the intervention of a central authority. HanzeNet uses blockchain technology for reliable local administration.
In this session Hanzenet shows the results from the first pilot we implemented together with Greenchoice and a local Energy Cooperative. Further we’ll discuss the possible opportunities this might offer for expanding the local (neighborhood) economy and related social aspects by cooperating with local energy cooperatives and housing corporations.
Witteveen+Bos develops models to simulate the energy characteristics of future energy distribution systems (electrical, molecules and thermal). We know that the future energy system has to be more flexible as a result of increasing -weather dependent- green energy production. The solutions for flexibility is to store the energy in e.g. chemical bonds such as hydrogen or batteries such as the hydrogen bromine flow battery. Witteveen+Bos demonstrates their vision on how simulations can help understand complex energy systems by sharing two projects that we are currently working on.
In the first project we try to bring energy initiatives together in a smart green chemistry & energy hub in Deventer. How can we realize a sustainable world without the need to burn fossil fuels for heating and electricity and apply fossil base chemicals for production of all the equipment we use in our daily life? In Deventer we want to make green hydrogen and oxygen and heat from solar, hydro and wind power. And we are going to produce carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia from manure. All these components we can use either directly (H2  for an Asphalt factory, O2  for medical purposes) or convert into green chemicals like ethylene, methanol etc.
The second project we share our vision use of the hydrogen bromine flow battery of Elestor into a neighborhood to increase local flexibility of green energy. We have a fruitful collaboration with Elestor and see high potential for the use of this battery in future energy systems.


"The Energy Transition: Why renewables need more power engineers"
By Peter Vaessen - DNVGL Energy; professor TU Delft

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14 February 2019
Electricity is the fuel of choice for the future: there will be abundant variable renewables available and advanced power electronics will rule future power systems. Peter Vaessen, from DNVGL KEMA Laboratories and part time professor of EWI, will talk about the Energy Transition. After a brief outlook of the energy transition the key role of electricity is explained. Technological drivers are identified that will shape our future power system.  Development are presented, as well as governing physical principles. The CLP’s 100MW Veltoor Solar Power Project in India, the record-breaking Chinese 1100kV UHVDC project and HVDC circuit breaker testing at DNVGL KEMA laboratories project examples illustrate the bright and challenging future for power engineers.


Lectures & Events 2018


"Robust decentralized control in Power Systems"
By Claudio De Persis - University of Groningen, Professor with the Engineering and Technology Institute
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13 December 2018
Abstract: The conventional frequency restoration strategy in AC power systems, based on hierarchical control layers, is currently being challenged by an increasing volatility due to variable renewable generation, low-inertia sources and an ever-growing complexity of the power system.
To address this challenge, new secondary control solutions have been proposed ranging from semi-decentralized and distributed averaging schemes to primal dual methods, all of which require communication.
Due to security and robustness concerns, a pressing request for schemes that do not require communication has emerged, drawing attention towards decentralized integral control, though in practice this is known to suffer from poor robustness to measurement noise and delays.
In this talk, we discuss a conventional method to overcome these limitations, namely a fully decentralized "leaky" integral control with lag elements, and illustrate its steady-state frequency regulation, power sharing properties and robustness to disturbances affecting the dynamics and the controller.


"Gather-and-broadcast frequency control in Power Systems"
By Sergio Grammatico
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8 November 2018
The quintessential task of power system operation is to match electrical load and generation. The power balance in an AC power network can be directly accessed via the system frequency, making frequency regulation the fundamental mechanism to ensure the load-generation balance. This task is subject to operational constraints, system stability, and economic interests, and it is traditionally accomplished by adjusting generation in a hierarchical structure consisting of three layers: primary droop control, secondary automatic generation control (AGC), and tertiary control (economic dispatch). While centralized frequency control strategies, such as automatic generation control, suffer from a single point of failure, distributed or fully decentralized approaches often fall short in practical implementations and typically require a costly peer-to-peer communication architecture. In this talk, we discuss a novel frequency control approach which is in between centralized and distributed architectures.


"Digitalization and Digital Twin in the electricity system "
by Christian Heuer; Energy Business Advisory - Siemens AG
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11 October 2018
Digitalization and Digital Twins have been around in the manufacturing sector under the term Industry 4.0 for a while and are transforming the industry. This presentation is explaining the core concepts of Digitalization and the Digital Twin in the context of infrastructure, looking into the applicability to the electricity system and giving some examples from Siemens of today’s and future applications.


"Autonomous bidding on the day ahead electricity market: How BiedOptimaal enables Dutch growers to focus on growing crops again"
By Peter Goudswaard - Product Owner at Eneco AgroEnergy
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13 September 2018
Energy consumption accounts for 30% of total costs for Dutch  greenhouse growers. Making the right bid for the day ahead electricity market can reduce costs significantly. However, this is complex and time consuming due to changing weather, unpredictable energy prices and fluctuating energy demand. In 2014 Eneco AgroEnergy developed BiedOptimaal together with a group of innovative growers. BiedOptimaal optimizes asset dispatching on a daily basis, and provides the accurate day ahead bid for every individual grower. This presentation gives an overview of the forecasting and optimization models applied in BiedOptimaal. In addition it provides insight in the current developments towards short term trading on the Intraday market.


"Hydrogen key to the Energy Transition"
By Ad van Wijk, sustainable energy entrepreneur and part-time Professor Future Energy Systems at TU Delft
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14 June 2018
Today solar and wind electricity produced at places with good solar or wind resources is already cheap, levelized cost of electricity in tenders is below 2 dollarcent per kWh. And the expectation is that these prices will drop further to around 1 dollarcent per kWh. But the question is, how to transport this cheap electricity to the demand, both geographically and at the right time. Conversion to hydrogen and transporting hydrogen by ship or pipeline is an economic interesting solution in many cases. And when there is an existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure, such an infrastructure could be relatively fast and cheap, converted to transport hydrogen. Hydrogen is therefore the energy carrier to transport and store renewable electricity all around the world. Hydrogen as an energy carrier can be used to decarbonize several segments of the energy system. Markets for hydrogen are the use of feedstock, high temperature steam in industry, mobility, electricity balancing and low temperature heat in houses and buildings. An overview of technology, economic and market developments will be given and will illustrate that hydrogen is key for the energy transition towards a sustainable energy system.


"Exploring Peer-to-Peer Returns in Off-Grid Energy Systems in Rural India: An Anthropological Perspective on Local Energy Exchanges"
By Abhigyan Sing, PhD canditate of professor David Keyson; Faculty of Industrial Design.
17 May 2018
Within the areas of off-grid and decentralized energy, there is a growing interest in local energy exchanges. A crucial component of an energy-exchange is a return provided by an energy-receiver to an energy-giver for the energy provided. The existing energy literature on such returns is primarily limited to monetary returns and lacks a critical discussion on the different types of monetary and non-monetary returns possible and their preferences. Based on an exploratory ‘ethnographic-intervention’ study conducted at two off-grid villages in rural India for 11 months, I present a classification of returns consisting of three types: in-cash, in-kind and intangible. Taking an anthropological perspective, I will discuss sociocultural dynamics of preferences of the three types of returns and demonstrate various issues with in-cash returns. Overall, I propose that: (a) the three types of returns can be viewed as forming a return-continuum, and (b) structuring and procuring a return is not merely an economic act but a complex sociocultural process. I suggest to energy researchers and practitioners that enabling diversity in returns in off-grid settings may be a better fit to the social, cultural, economic and moral life of people engaged in local energy system than solitary money-centric return.


"Smart Grids Developments and Research in Brazil: An Integrated Perspective"
By Paolo Ribeiro - Professor Federal University of ItajubĂĄ
9 April 2018
The presentation will show the developments of Smart Grids in Brazil from the Super Grid National System to several projects in Brazil including a Microgrid at an University Campus used as a living laboratory with implementation of renewables, storage and monitoring systems.  The presentation will also briefly share the initiatives related to smart grid education and philosophical frameworks for sustainable design.


"IT/OT Convergence Strategy by TEPCO IEC"
by Junya Yamamoto - TEPCO IEC

8 February 2018
After the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, and the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, TEPCO recognized the paramount importance of providing a stable and resilient supply of electricity to the region. This has caused the company to confront management reforms to realize this goal. The primary pillar of TEPCO’s new strategy is IT/OT convergence, an approach targeting advanced SCADA capabilities. This presentation will introduce IT/OT convergence techniques and the strategy TEPCO has employed to be successful.


"From BYOD to BYOE; Extending the Energy Marketplace"
By Huib Pasman - Amsterdam Innovation Arena
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11 January 2018
At the Amsterdam ArenA a large set of batteries will be installed to enable a large buffer enabling novel energy applications such as peak shaving in the public grid, accumulation of PV generated energy, back-up power for large scale events, as well as bidirectional V2G. Will this be the beginning of game changing – micro – business models enabling new energy use cases. And do we need new technology to provision a BYOE market following the present home to grid model.


Lectures & Events 2017


"Energy profile analysis & Machine learning; A data-driven approach to reducing energy use in the built environment"
By Tim Tijsma - DWA

14 December 2017
With a share of 40%, the built environment makes up a large part of our total energy consumption. Achieving the current climate goal therefore requires intervention in both our new buildings and existing building stock.Currently the approach of reducing energy use is mainly model based. There are some important downsides of this approach, it requires a detailed understanding of the energy systems in the building and uses the optimal performance of components as input.  At the same time we see in practice that these components generally don’t perform as they should. As a result the calculated effect of energy saving measures is often under- or overestimated.

A data driven approach can overcome some of these important issues by looking at the actual behaviour instead of what is promised by manufacturers or designers. Methods such as “Energy profile analysis” and “Machine learning” map the behaviour without the need for having a detailed understanding of the system and with the use of generally available data. Subsequently this can be used to predict future performance, detect defects and inefficiencies , or for matching supply and demand when electricity is generated and stored locally or on district level.


"How to make money with smart grid. today. A startup story"
By Wouter Robers - Peeeks

12 October 2017
Wouter Robers tells about how the startup Peeeks generates revenue from controlling Electricity producers and users and improve the use of renewable energy in the meantime. He is an expert on flexibility, curtailment, demand-response and batteries. In 2006 he co-founded "Cleantech startup of the decade" Epyon, which developed fast chargers for electric cars which can be found along practically every highway in the Netherlands.


"The Port of Rotterdam: the largest 'capacitor' of The Netherlands"
By Rob Stikkelman - TU Delft
14 May 2017

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"Internet of Energy: Storage <-  -> Sharing"
By Jos Blom - Alliander
11 May 2017

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"Modelling the meteoric rise of electric vehicles from different perspectives"
By Auke Hoekstra; Twente University; Spark City, E-laad
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13 April 2017
Car batteries are becoming ever lighter and their price has fallen tenfold since the start of this millennium. The recent GigaFactory and advances in lithium sulfur and solid-state batteries will drive the price down still further. Already battery costs are offset by the costs of energy and maintenance. This will drive the swift adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). EVs are interesting from different perspectives. Their importance for car and battery manufacturers is obvious. From a global/national policy perspective they are interesting because they can reduce CO2 emissions. From a local policy perspective because they reduce air and noise pollution. From an energy production and grid-operator perspective because their can either unbalance the grid or (by using smart charging) balance the grid. And finally from a consumer perspective because EVs provide instant torque and cost much less to maintain. How do you combine these perspectives to create a "quantified narrative" that can predict pathways of adoption? Auke recently made a best guess report for parliament (with Ecofys) but to make really good predictions he is working on an agent-based buying, charging, driving (ABCD) model, together with students from Delft, Eindhoven and Utrecht. This lecture will outline what the recent developments in electric vehicles are and how you can predict what their future looks like.


"DSO-TSO interactions in local flexibility contracting"
By Ariana Ramos - VITO, KU Leuven, Belgium
9 February 2017
In a world where renewable energy is integrated into the distribution network users are empowered to make decisions for themselves. Distribution grids are first in line to feel the effects of a rapidly changing network topology. Flexibility procurement is a possible solution to deal with the integration of distributed resources. Given the different objectives of system operators and market participants, coordination mechanisms are necessary for flexibility contracting. Market design propositions enabling the short-term contracting of location specific flexibility resources are analysed for both local and system-wide use. The need for local congestion management is handled through local procurement taking into account the different objectives of the system operators and market participants.


"Wireless Power Web"
Prof.dr. Braham Ferreira

12 January 2017
The electric grid is defined by a network of copper and aluminium conductors that connects loads and sources to distribute and transmit electricity over large geographic areas and distances. A power system without this backbone of overhead and buried cables, transformers and substations was never an option until now. A more flexible and adaptable alternative has become feasible potentially much lower cost which has a smaller impact on the environment. The network of conductors is becoming optional because of the availability of “wireless energy” from the sun in combination with wireless communications.


"Numerical Mathematics for Power Networks"
Prof.dr.ir. Kees Vuik
8 December 2016
Networks for the high-voltage distribution of electrical energy are currently undergoing far reaching developments. National power grids are evolving from static entities, producing mainly a uni-directional flow from generation to loads, to more dynamic and decentralized structures.These emerging power systems should accommodate the local generation by renewable sources and peak demands of electrical vehicle charging. The cross-border interconnection of power grids further imposes new challenges in the design, planning and daily operation of these networks. In this presentation an overview of the various research projects done in the chair of numerical analysis at the TU Delft are presented.


"Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage Smart Grids"
Dr.ir. Tamas Keviczky; TU Delft
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8 September 2016
Roughly 2000 Aquifer Thermal Energy Systems (ATES) are installed in the Netherlands. Within 10 years, it is expected that this number will increase to 20.000 leading to a reduction of 11% in CO2 emissions of the built environment, along with estimated savings of 4 billion euros in the coming 30 years. At a global scale, the energy saving potential of ATES is even bigger. However, current performance of ATES does not live up to expectations and the projected efficiency remains below earlier prognoses. The disappointing actual contribution of ATES to energy efficiency is mainly due to current operation and regulation practices that cannot cope with uncertainties in aquifer characteristics, interaction of neighbouring systems, and variability in weather conditions and use of buildings. ATES interact via the groundwater aquifer in a way comparable to how distributed sources and sinks of electricity are interacting via the electricity grid. In ATES, however, the links are dynamically time-varying and plagued by uncertainty due to the absence of models and cooperation regarding interaction of nearby systems. Distributed Model-based Predictive Controllers (DMPC) promise significant benefits by ensuring near-optimal operation and regulation of ATES grids while enforcing critical operating constraints. However, stochastic uncertainties with probabilistic time-varying constraints have never been incorporated in the design of such a distributed control network. This research sets out to deliver a proof-of-concept for the potential of DMPC in the development of ATES systems into ATES Smart Grids.


"Technologies and Policies for the Transit to a Clean and Low Carbon Energy Economy in China"
Professor Xiliang Zhang
4 July 2016
The talk will firstly present China’s energy dilemma in its modernization process and its motivations for the transit to a clean and low carbon economy. Then it will explore the technological and policy options for achieving sustainable energy system transformation to address both climate change and air pollutions, by applying an integrated assessment modeling framework developed jointly by Tsinghua University and MIT. It will give an overview of the major policy measures that the Government has adopted over the past decade to promote the transformation and also introduce some new policy initiatives for the 13th Five-Year-Plan.


"Future transmission grids, trends and long term needs"
Peter Vaessen DNV GL
12 May 2016
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"Uniper Benelux - The optimization of combined heat and power assets in an uncertain market"
Rick van Staveren en Thijs Paes UNIPER (E.ON)
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14 April 2016
First we will give insights in the current business of Uniper Benelux. In the Netherlands Uniper operates three coal plants (including one brand new unit) on the Maasvlakte in the Rotterdam harbor and many gas plants that are all connected to district heating systems. We will explain how we currently operate these plants and share our vision on the current developments in the energy market.Secondly, we will use some examples which will show the optimization issues we do not have a solution to yet, and hope we can get a lively discussion about how to come closer to possible solutions. These issues include a new electric boiler, which will mainly run on electricity from the imbalance market, which by definition is difficult to forecast. Furthermore, our district heating networks are becoming opened up to more producers, however, most producers operate on both the electricity market and the heating market and production offers are mutually exclusive while the markets are not integrated, this makes it difficult to optimize the system. Finally we are currently making plans to communicate hour-to-hour heat prices to some of our greenhouse costumers which will hopefully use demand response and make the entire system cheaper to operate, however, the impact of the demand response will change the price of the heat, especially if all greenhouses respond in the same manner to the communicated prices.


“Smart Grids need Smart Buildings”
Theo Rieswijk PRIVA
11 March 2016
When realizing smart grids, the automation of the nodes (e.g. buildings) in these grids will play an important role. Therefore Priva, a manufacturer of automation and advisory solutions for climate and energy management in the utility and the horticulture, can be seen as an important player in this process. To illustrate this several relevant research, innovation and development projects will be presented. In order to make a building “smart” a number of subsequent steps will be illustrated, departing from a system overview of the relevant climate and energy management processes in a building, focusing on heating and cooling.


"How Good are The Traditional Optimal Energy Scheduling Approaches?"
German Morales; TU Delft
11 February 2016
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"Cyber Security and Smart Energy Grids"
AndrĂŠ Teixeira; TU Delft
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14 January 2016
Smart Energy Grids are increasingly more dependent on ICT infrastructures, which facilitate the real-time monitoring and operation of energy systems so that stringent operational requirements can be met. Consequently, Smart Energy Systems and their physical infrastructure also become vulnerable to cyber incidents, which may span from software flaws and hardware malfunctions of ICT devices, to malicious actions such as remote access over communication networks, Denial-of-Service, and false-data injection attacks. This talk discusses some of the cyber security challenges faced by Smart Energy Grids.  A special focus is given to the notion of “risk” and the characterization of adversarial models and threat scenarios, which are a cornerstone for performing risk analysis of such threats and to develop suitable risk mitigation approaches. Examples spanning from false-data injection attacks on power transmission networks and adversarial actions on voltage control schemes for distribution networks are presented.


"Grid Modernization with Energy Storage"
Johan Enslin EPIC
6 Janary 2016
The presentation will discuss the role of energy storage technologies in grid modernization. Priority will be provided to technologies and approaches that provide clean power integration, energy efficiency, stacked performance and business case solutions in modernizing the grid.


Lectures & Events 2016

"How FLEX should the Dutch energy system be? Five challenges for the grid operator!"
Marjolein Hulsebosch; STEDIN
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10 December 2015
Due to the growth of renewable sources, the electrification of demand and active participation of consumers, Stedin (Dutch grid operator) and other players in the energy market are dealing with the question: how to keep the energy system reliable, affordable and sustainable? Facilitating, retrieving and using flexibility in the energy system can be one of the answers. The current market for flexibility is driven by balancing the system and managing volatility. The flexibility market for (local) congestion management will develop in the coming years. Therefore Stedin is dealing with: when and where will congestion occur? What is the value of flexibility(f.e. storage)? What will be our role in this new market? By means of trends, current research and pilots I will share a vision on flexibility and the main challenges Stedin is facing.


"Integration of photovoltaics in future electricity systems"
Miro Zeman; Professor EEMCS TU Delft
12 November 2015
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"Tackling Wicked Problems with Trading Agent Competitions: The Power TAC Experience"
Wolf Ketter;  RSM
8 October 2015
The shift towards sustainable electricity systems is one of the grand challenges of the twenty-first century. Decentralized production from renewable sources, electric mobility, and related advances are at odds with traditional power systems where central large-scale generation of electricity follows inelastic consumer demand. Information Systems innovations can validate new forms of dynamic electricity trading that leverage real-time consumption information and that use price signals to incentivize sustainable consumption behaviors. However, the best designs for these innovations, and the societal implications of different design choices are largely unclear. We are addressing these challenges through the Power Trading Agent Competition (Power TAC), a competitive gaming platform on which numerous research groups now jointly devise, benchmark, and improve potential solutions to the sustainable electricity challenge. Based on the Power TAC community's results, we give preliminary empirical evidence for the efficacy of competitive gaming platforms, and for the community's contributions towards resolving the sustainable electricity challenge.


"Grounding heat energy sources and storage"
Phil Vardon; professor TU Delft
10 September 2015
The search for novel materials, energy sources and the holy grail of energy management, energy storage, is ongoing.  Among all of the renewable energy sources, there is one source that is prevalent everywhere – the ground.
The ground acts as a large natural solar collector – and due to its properties of relatively high thermal capacity and low thermal conductivity, is able to store large quantities of energy near the surface. It is possible to inject heat into the ground to store excess heat produced from other processes and to extract heat to use as space heating during the winter, usually with the use of a heat pump. However, this does not come without problems.  The heat is low grade. The ground is heterogeneous.  Multiple users would like to use the same piece of ground.  Systems don’t often perform as designed. In this talk, the potential benefits of using the ground as a heat source/store will be outlined, a viewpoint on where ground-source heat and storage can fit into the wider energy landscape will be given and an opinion of future research directions will be given.