SS23 International collaborative projects for the energy transition and rural electrification in India

ABSTRACT

India is undertaking ambitious policies and strategies for the energy transition, while striving to increase electricity access and reliability of supply. To facilitate this transition, international collaborative research projects are currently taking place. The EU-India RE-EMPOWERED project is developing and demonstrating novel tools for microgrids / energy islands, including planning and operation tools, digital platforms, power electronic converters etc. Similarly, the EU-India SUSTANANCE project develops smart technological concepts to allow higher share of local renewable energy and efficient integrated energy solutions for the electrical, heat, water, waste as well as transportation infrastructure. The USA-India project UI-ASSIST aims to bridge the gap between smart grid, storage, and renewable energy research and facilitate its subsequent adoption by utilities around the world in their distribution system operation and planning. UK-India projects JUICE and SOL-DEV address the integration of renewable generation, energy storage and demand side management focusing mainly on India. Finally, the Norway-India project MULTIGRID focuses on rural mini-grids and develops synchronization strategies for multiple mini-grids.
This session will present these interesting projects, including technical highlights and achievements, in order to foster the exchange of knowledge and best practices

CHAIR

Dr. Panos Kotsampopoulos, National Technical University of Athens
Prof. Nikos Hatziargyriou, National Technical University of Athens

SPEAKERS

Dr. Panos Kotsampopoulos, National Technical University of Athens
Dr. Rakesh Sinha, Aalborg University
Prof. Miroslav Begovic, Texas A&M University
Dr. Thomas Joseph, Imperial College London
Dr. Salvatore D’Arco, SINTEF

SHORT BIO

	Dr. Panos Kotsampopoulos received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering and his PhD degree from NTUA in 2010 and 2017 respectively. Since 2010 he has been working on research projects at the Smart RUE research group of NTUA, where he is currently a senior researcher and also adjunct lecturer at NTUA. He was a guest researcher at the Austrian Institute of Technology AIT in 2012 and 2013. He is chair of the IEEE PES Task Force “Innovative teaching methods for modern power and energy systems” and active member of several IEEE Task Forces and Working Groups. He is member of the Editorial Board of the “IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy” and the journal “Energies”. He is chair of the IEEE Young Professionals Greece and co-founder of the energy community “Collective Energy”. He is senior member of IEEE and recipient of the 2020 best paper award of the IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy. His research interests include real-time simulation, control of distributed energy resources, power system dynamics, microgrids and engineering education.
	Dr. Rakesh Sinha received his Bachelor in Engineering in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Kathmandu University, Nepal (2005). M.Sc. in Energy Engineering, Aalborg University, Denmark (2013). PhD in Flexible Control for Local Heating and Transportation Units in Low Voltage Distribution System (2019) from Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark. Currently he is working as Post-Doc Researcher at Department of Energy, Aalborg University, Denmark. His research focus are in the area of active distribution grids, integrated energy systems and sustainable energy technologies.
	Miroslav M. Begovic (LFIEEE, CIGRÉ) is former Department Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering, currently the Moore Professor at Texas A&M University. Prior to that, he was Professor and Chair of the Electric Energy Research Group in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and an affiliated faculty member of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems and University Center of Excellence in Photovoltaic Research at Georgia Institute of Technology. For the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996 in Atlanta, Drs. Begovic and Rohatgi designed and oversaw construction of a 340 kW PV system on the roof of Aquatic Center at Georgia Tech, the largest roof-mounted PV system in the world at the time. Prof. Begovic has been a member of the IEEE PES Power System Relaying Committee for two decades and chaired several of its working groups. Dr. Begovic delivered over 110 keynote and invited presentations worldwide. Dr. Begovic served in technical and administrative functions over 35 years of his membership at IEEE, among others as Chair of the IEEE PES Emerging Technologies Coordinating Committee, IEEE PES Treasurer (2010-2011), IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer from 2011, and served as President-Elect, President and Immediate Past President of the IEEE Power and Energy Society (2012-2018). He is the recipient of 2019 IEEE PES Meritorious Service Award and 2022 Ramakumar Family Renewable Energy Excellence Award.
	Dr. Thomas Joseph is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London and is working on Renewable Energy Empowering European and Indian Communities (RE-EMPOWERED), an EU-India H2020 project. Thomas obtained his PhD degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India in 2021 and his MTech. degree in electrical engineering (instrumentation and control systems) from the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, India, in 2012. His research interests include optimal control, dynamic state estimation, microcontroller application in power converters, tool development for microgrids and renewable systems etc.
	Dr. Salvatore D’Arco received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Naples “Federico II,” Naples, Italy, in 2002 and 2005, respectively. From 2006 to 2007, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA. In 2008, he joined ASML, Veldhoven, the Netherlands, as a Power Electronics Designer consultant, where he worked until 2010. From 2010 to 2012, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Electric Power Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. In 2012, he joined SINTEF Energy Research where he currently works as a Senior Research Scientist. He is the author of more than 130 scientific papers and is the holder of one patent. His main research activities are related to control and analysis of power-electronic conversion systems for power system applications, including real-time simulation and rapid prototyping of converter control systems.