Keynote Speakers

ACM e-Energy Keynotes

Anuradha Annaswamy, MIT

Anuradha Annaswamy, MIT

June 23, 2020

Optimization and Control for High Penetration of Renewables in Power Grids

Abstract: Significant changes have occurred all over the world even over the past decade in the energy landscape. Globally, there’s a big push towards a 100% incorporation of wind and solar power for electricity production, with synergistic support from various technologies. For example, in the US, natural gas prices have declined, costs of renewable energy technologies have come down, and large-scale battery energy storage technologies have advanced rapidly. There are however a host of challenges, most of which are due to the intermittency and unpredictability of the renewable energy resources. This talk will focus on some of the solutions for the deep integration of these renewable resources for electricity production that are control-centric. A distributed optimization approach that judiciously combines renewable generation with storage and flexible loads has the possibility for ensuring power balance even with growing penetration of renewables. Flexibility in other interdependent infrastructures such as train networks can be integrated with solar and wind power generation nodes, storage sites, and flexible consumption can lead to real-time power balance and optimal power flow. This presentation will cover some of these challenges, highlights of the current research in distributed optimization, and use-case studies that illustrate the role of distributed and dynamic optimization in renewable-rich power grids.

Biography: Dr. Anuradha Annaswamy is Founder and Director of the Active-Adaptive Control Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Her research interests span adaptive control theory and its applications to aerospace, automotive, and propulsion systems as well as cyber physical systems such as Smart Grids, Smart Cities, and Smart Infrastructures. Her current research team of 15 students and post-docs is supported at present by the US Air-Force Research Laboratory, US Department of Energy, Boeing, Ford-MIT Alliance, and NSF. She has received best paper awards (Axelby; CSM), Distinguished Member and Distinguished Lecturer awards from the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) and a PYI award from NSF. She is the author of a graduate textbook on adaptive control, co-editor of two vision documents on smart grids as well as the two editions of the Impact of Control Technology report, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee Study on modernizing the US Electric System. She is a Fellow of IEEE and IFAC. She is currently serving as the President of CSS.

Anuradha Annaswamy’s Homepage

David Edwards, Horizon Power

David Edwards, Horizon Power

June 24, 2020

Abstract: The Carnarvon DER trials are setting a visionary destination for grid automation in high penetration DER microgrids using VPP technology to optimise network operation through orchestration of customer rooftop solar and battery storage. This presentation covers some of the key learnings so far, highlighting how the project has employed IoT and IoE, forecasting, predictive analytics, machine learning and customer value exchange. The goal is a new operational model using clean energy technology that will assist economic development in regional and remote communities.

Biography: David Edwards is the Digital Strategy and Innovation Manager at Horizon Power, Australia

David Edwards’s LinkedIn Page

Pierluigi Mancarella, University of Melbourne

Pierluigi Mancarella, University of Melbourne

June 25, 2020

Digital energy system platforms to provide flexibility and resilience services to low-carbon electricity grids

Abstract: Digital energy systems (DES) are highly distributed cyber-physical systems in which small-scale distributed energy resources such as solar PV, different types of storage, controllable loads, etc., can be actively monitored and controlled via pervasive availability of ICT and smart grid technologies. This keynote address will discuss opportunities and challenges for emerging DES platforms in the context of low-carbon electricity grids with deep penetration of renewables. Particular focus will be put on how DES could be intelligently orchestrated to provide grid flexibility services and participate in different energy markets, as well as autonomously controlled to respond to extreme (for example, weather-driven) events, thus enhancing grid resilience. Specific applications that will be shown will cover technical, commercial and regulatory aspects of DES from a number of recent projects in Australia, UK, and Europe. The final aim is to illustrate how development of DES platforms for smart buildings, smart communities, microgrids, virtual power plants, and distributed energy marketplaces can facilitate an affordable, secure and resilient transition towards a low-carbon energy future.

Biography: Pierluigi Mancarella is Chair Professor of Electrical Power Systems at The University of Melbourne (Australia) and Professor of Smart Energy Systems at The University of Manchester (UK). He received his MSc and PhD in Power Systems from the Politecnico di Torino (Italy), before working as a post-doc researcher at Imperial College London (UK). Pierluigi has also held visiting positions at NREL (USA), Tsinghua University (China), Ecole Centrale de Lille (France), NTNU (Norway), and Universidad de Chile (Chile).
Pierluigi has been involved in/led more than 50 research projects worldwide and is author of several books and over 300 research publications. His research interests include techno-economic modelling of integrated multi-energy systems, grid integration of renewables and low-carbon technologies, energy infrastructure planning under uncertainty, and reliability and resilience of future networks.
Pierluigi is an IEEE Power and Energy Society Distinguished Lecturer, holds the 2017 veski Innovation Fellowship by the Victorian Government for his project on urban-scale virtual power plants, and is a recipient of an international Newton Prize 2018 for his work on power system resilience in Chile. He is also an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and IEEE Systems Journal, and the Convenor of the Cigre Working Group C6/C2.34 “Flexibility provision from distributed energy resources”.

Pierluigi Mancarella’s Homepage

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