The Shape of Energy to come

Join us on May 27th at FEUP (Auditorium) for an enlightening event centred around the future of electrification and energy systems. We will explore the risks and opportunities of large-scale electrification with a keynote speech by Mladen Kezunovic. Then, we will discuss, in two different panels, a holistic vision for power system decarbonization and the role of creativity in energy research, featuring discussions on innovative solutions in the energy domain, led by experts from INESC TEC.

Don't miss this opportunity to gain insights into the future of energy and electrification. Join us for a afternoon of thought-provoking discussions and networking opportunities.

_ REGISTER HERE _

PROGRAM 

13:30  Registration

14:00  Introduction, Ricardo Bessa (INESC TEC)

14:15  Keynote speech, Mladen Kezunovic (Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M University, IEEE Fellow) | Risk management of future large-scale electrification

After a brief overview of the motivation for large-scale electrification, the lecture focuses on the associated risks and potential impacts that can propagate across multiple critical infrastructures. The sources of the risk are identified through analysis of the future evolution of the electric grid development where environmental impacts, deterioration of the legacy infrastructure, massive interfacing of distributed energy resources resulting in penetration of inverter-based resources, digitalization, and human behavior consequences are dominant. The focus then shifts to the new approaches for predicting the risk using advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches and then mitigating the risk impacts through various optimization objectives. The lecture ends by pointing out the importance of the societal, normative, regulatory, and legislative changes that need to take place for large-scale electrification not to pose a major risk to the welfare of individuals and the economic prosperity of a society. The key points are illustrated using the Use Case of state of risk prediction of the electric grid outages and future control and protection decision-making paradigm.

14:45 Panel 1 | A holistic vision for power system decarbonization

Adopting Renewable Energy Sources (RES) plays a crucial role in decarbonizing the electricity sector and society and helping to pursue overall targets on greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, with the increase in renewables integration, new challenges are constantly posed to power systems to ensure a safe and reliable RES integration, maintaining the resilience levels we are used to. This panel will discuss the challenges that are to come from different perspectives ranging from power system resilience, future grid operation, new markets & new players, and through the adoption of different energy vectors, anticipating how the research being conducted on INESC TEC will contribute to achieving a higher decarbonization level.

• Challenges towards 100% renewables with the same grid resilience level, João Peças Lopes (INESC TEC and FEUP)
• The innovative developments in electricity distribution systems, Clara Gouveia (INESC TEC)
• To what extent can markets help in achieving future challenges and goals?, José Villar (INESC TEC)
• Challenges for demand-side management, Zenaida Mourão (INESC TEC)

15:45 Coffee break and networking 

16:15 Panel 2 | Creativity as the new "fuel" for research in the energy domain

Society is swiftly advancing towards complete digitalization and automation, exemplified by the application of generative AI across various domains. For instance, looking ahead, the potential exists for AI to take on roles traditionally performed by humans, including programming, optimal system design, and even power system planning. However, creative thinking will always be a competitive advantage, particularly for scientists, and will remain irreplaceable to find out-sample solutions to complex problems. This panel will discuss creative solutions for the energy landscape, drawing on the research conducted at INESC TEC and covering areas like power system real-time operation, data markets, dynamic incentives for electrical mobility, and green hydrogen. The discussion connects algorithms, software, and hardware with creativity as a fundamental requirement. 

• Evolving symbolic models to assist human operators in control rooms, Francisco Fernandes (INESC TEC)
• Data sharing in the energy sector: the Data Market concept, Carla Gonçalves (INESC TEC)
• Dynamic incentives for green electrical mobility, Carlos Silva (INESC TEC)
• Power electronics and green hydrogen, Abdelrahman Elhawash (INESC TEC)

17:15  Synthesis and closing, João Claro (Chairman and CEO of INESC TEC)