Australian Institute of Energy (Canberra Branch) and the ANU Energy Change Institute invites you to attend:

"Energy Conversations: Smart Grids"

This event will be made up of several short presentations from ECI researchers on the theme of smart grids. It aims to provide a forum for conversations between different parts of the local energy sector about emerging research and technology.

Nibbles will be provided.

This event is free and open to the public.Please RSVP for catering purposes.

About Energy Conversations

In 2015, the Canberra branch of the Australian Institute of Energy (AIE) will be running a new series, called Energy Conversations. The aim of these events will be to provide opportunities for AIE members to converse with other members and organisations in the local energy sector.

About the Speakers

Paul Scott – PhD Student, AI Group, Research School of Computer Science

Smart devices, storage and distributed generation provide a great opportunity for households to reduce their electricity costs and to assist the network with stability.  This talk will highlight one of the mechanisms ANU and NICTA have been developing to optimally coordinate the actions of thousands of households spread out across the electricity network. - http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~pscott/

Nick Engerer – Associate Lecturer, Fenner School of Environment and Society

"City-wide simulations of distributed photovoltaic power production”. Nicholas has developed a simulation system capable of producing estimates of power output from all the distributed photovoltaics arrays in a city-wide region.  This is accomplished using a selection of monitored PV systems to produce estimates of the power output from non-monitored systems.  Using Canberra as a proof-of-concept, he’ll present city-wide simulations of its 12,500+ embedded PV generators with an emphasis on critical ramp events. - http://www.nickengerer.org/

Hassan Hijazi – Senior Researcher, NICTA

Optimisation for Energy Systems. Widespread adoption of renewable and distributed generation is disrupting the top down structure of the power system, increasing its complexity, and reducing its robustness. 

This paradigm shift is calling for the development of reliable decision-support tools in this area. With billions of dollars spent on grid installation, expansion and maintenance, the potential cost savings produced by automated decision-support tools is substantial.  Researchers at the ANU and NICTA are developing cutting-edge decision-support tools for energy systems design and operations, aiming at reducing installation, expansion and maintenance costs of power grids, while increasing their self-healing capabilities. This talk will give a high-level overview of the optimisation technology used to tackle such complex decision-support problems. - http://org.nicta.com.au/people/hhijazi/