Title of talk: Digitalization in Electric Distribution Grids – Technological Trends, Opportunities and Challenges
17 June 2024 11:45 till 12:45 - Location: EEMCS faculty, Chip Hall - By: Communication EWI | Add to my calendar
Digitalization is finally arriving in electric distribution grids. This is made possible by decreasing ICT costs as well as new requirements on grid operation, first and foremost the grid integration of renewable energy sources and new loads such as heat pumps and electric vehicles. Digitalization in electric distribution grids brings several new opportunities such as more realistic and hence also more adequate data-driven grid planning methods as well as more sophisticated energy management schemes. However, new challenges arise as well, namely in the form of cyber-security risks.
Prof. Andreas Ulbig leads the Chair of Active Energy Distribution Grids, part of IAEW, at RWTH Aachen University. He is also group leader for electric energy systems at the newly founded Fraunhofer Center Digital Energy, a cooperation of Fraunhofer FIT and RWTH Aachen to foster interdisciplinary research at the connections of energy systems and computer sciences. He is a board member of the Energy Technology Society (ETG) of VDE as well as vice president of the Swiss Energy Foundation (SES). He was previously a co-founder and COO of ETH spin-off company Adaptricity, developing SmartGrid simulation and analytics tools as well as part-time lecturer for electric power systems at ETH Zurich.
He received his M.Sc. from Supélec, Paris in 2006, his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Engineering Cybernetics from the University of Stuttgart in 2007 and a PhD from ETH Zurich in 2014. Previous work positions include the R&D department of RTE, the French transmission grid operator, an academic stay at Caltech and the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris. During his PhD studies at the Power Systems Lab of ETH Zurich, he was an academic visitor at the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) and the University of California in Berkeley.