Conference in energy area gathered more than 230 participants in Porto

Conference in energy area gathered more than 230 participants in Porto

The second edition of the SEST Conference (Smart Energy Systems and Technologies) was held at the premises of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) between 9 and 11 September. 

13th September 2019

Around 230 participants gathered at this conference, organised by INESC TEC and FEUP, which aimed at debating the several engineering challenges in the design and operation of smart energy systems, focusing on advanced methods and practices in order to design different components and integrate them within the grid.

João Catalão was the general chair of SEST 2019, Sérgio Santos was the organizing chair and Mohamed Lotfi was the publications chair, all of them being researchers from INESC TEC's Centre for Power and Energy Systems (CPES), with Paula Castro also collaborating in the organisation of the conference.

The second edition of this conference was attended by researchers and industry representatives from 46 countries, in which 170 articles were presented.

“Offering smart energy systems and technologies promises to enhance the operational efficiency and the energy supply on a national scale through the distributed generation with bidirectional energy and electricity flow. This goal can be achieved by allowing a smart monitoring and control of different components within the distribution and transmission lines, as well as other systems ranging from utilities of natural gas, thermal energy, electricity and water on the one hand, to the end user on the other hand, while maintaining the energy and quality, security, reliability and safety with minimum environmental impact. The fact that governments around the world are investing considerably in smart energy management systems, which present enormous engineering challenges in terms of engineering, is at the origin of SEST 2019”, explains João Catalão, INESC TEC's researcher and major organiser of SEST 2019.

Besides the participants, the conference also had a set of national and international Keynote Speakers of great importance in the energy area. Names such as Bikash Pal, Ozan Erdinc, Javier Contreras, Alberto Borghetti, Nikos Hatziargyriou and Vladimiro Miranda – the latter being an Associate Director of INESC TEC – who left their mark on the transformation of the electricity sector over the years, were present at the conference.

The conference also featured a panel of sessions dedicated to the European projects INTERPLAN, FEEdBACk and EU-SysFlex, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme. The goal was to debate and to exchange knowledge on the best design and implementation practices of smart energy systems. The FEEdBACk and EU-SysFlex projects had the participation of INESC TEC, and in the first one the institution is the coordinating partner. 

The first edition of SEST took place in 2018 in Seville (Spain), in which INESC TEC had already participated with the presentation of papers.

More information on SEST 2019 may be found on the conference’s web page: https://web.fe.up.pt/~sest2019

The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC and UP-FEUP.