SS02 A role of flexibility in enabling net-zero energy systems

ABSTRACT

The shift in how we generate and consume electricity has a significant impact on the operation of energy systems, including power networks, which are becoming a backbone for the integration of renewable resources at all voltage levels. In order to harness this renewable energy generated by variable resources, it is necessary to relay on provision of flexibility by various participates in order to maintain secure network operation, while keeping reinforcement an operational cost at bay. This panel will look into a role of flexibility in enabling net-zero energy systems and will investigate different solutions applied to manage integration of new devices both from technical and economic aspects. This will include investigation of how to manage flexibility in the system, including of battery energy systems owned by prosumer, as well as organization of the local energy markets as one of the novel ways to trade flexibility. Furthermore, the panel will look into integration of different energy vectors and aggregation of smaller providers via Virtual Power Plants to help with system operation as well as ways to provide new business opportunities to various market participants. The panel will also present and discuss solutions applied in different parts of the world.

CHAIR

Ivana Kockar, University of Strathclyde, UK

SPEAKERS

Gregor Verbic, University of Sydney, Australia

Dimitrios Papadaskalopoulos, University of Patras, Greece

Vedran Peric, Technical University Munich, Germany

Ivana Kockar, University of Strathclyde, UK

SHORT BIO

	Gregor Verbic is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Future Energy Networks based in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering. Prior to this, he was an assistant professor in Laboratory of Power Systems at University of Ljubljana, where he is now an adjunct professor and where he received his PhD in electrical engineering. In 2005, he was a NATO-NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo, Canada under supervision of Prof Claudio Cañizares. Between 2008 and 2010 he was head of the investment department in Interenergo, Ljubljana, Slovenia. The company invests in renewable energy in the Balkans region, with a particular focus on small hydro. His current research is motivated by the evolution of power systems to future grids, dominated by intermittent renewable energy sources, aiming to develop tools and methods that will enable a paradigm shift in power system operation, from generation following load to load following generation.
	Dimitrios Papadaskalopoulos received his Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, in 2008 and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College London, United Kingdom, in 2013. He was then employed by Imperial College London, firstly as a Postdoctoral Research Associate (2013-2017) and later as a Research Fellow in Decentralised Energy Systems (2017-2022). In 2022, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Patras, as Assistant Professor in Economic Operation and Analysis of Advanced Electricity Systems. His research focuses on modelling, analysis and design of national and local electricity markets, including assessment of the role of renewable and distributed generation, energy storage and flexible demand technologies, and employing optimisation, game-theoretic and machine learning principles. Dimitrios has been involved in over 20 national and international research and consultancy projects conducted in close collaboration with the energy industry, governments and regulators. Dimitrios is a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE).
	Vedran S. Perić received the master’s degree from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and the Ph.D. degree from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm in 2016. He was a Research and Teaching Assistant with the University of Novi Sad and Visiting Researcher with the Delft University of Technology. He held positions of Senior Power System Engineer with GE Grid Solutions Research and Development Department, Senior Power System Consultant at GE Energy Consulting, and as a Senior Business Analyst with Regional Security Coordinator, TSCNET Services GmbH. He is currently a Head of Research Center for Combined Smart Energy Systems (CoSES) at the TUM Institute of Integrated Materials, Energy and Process Engineering (MEP). His research interests include a wide range of topics related to power systems dynamic stability, operation and control of smart grids, with the particular focus on integration of electric systems with district heating/cooling grids.
	Ivana Kockar received her MEng from University of Belgrade (Serbia) and MSc and PhD degrees from McGill University (Montreal, Canada), all in Electrical Engineering. Currently, she is a Reader within the Institute for Energy and Environment at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. Her research is in the area of power system operation, planning and economics, including new centralised and decentralised tools for integration of Distributed Energy Resources into networks and markets. Her work also extends to assessment of a transition towards a DSO, as well as interactions between TSOs and DSOs, as well as development of Virtual Power Plant modeling and tools for small energy pools. This includes a number of research projects funded by EPSRC, Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as EU Hor2020 projects on TSO-DSO interactions and associated market designs, as well as on implementation of VPPs. The industrial work includes funding to look into energy solutions related to various aspects of Distributed Energy Resources integration as well as whole