The NICES Lab Operating Unit develops research and specialist scientific consultancy activities in the following areas:
Smart Grids & Sustainable Microgrids, with a focus on: - development of energy management platforms for applications at building and urban district level; - "day-ahead scheduling" algorithms for the optimization of production and consumption; - development of decision support systems for sustainable urban planning; - integrated BMS – EMS management systems for Smart City applications - applications of advanced non-linear control techniques for the primary and secondary control of microgrids in isolated configuration; - development of dynamic simulation models of electrical and/or thermal generation plants installed in microgrids.
Energy communities and energy markets, specifically: - optimal sizing of electrical and thermal multigeneration systems also equipped with accumulation systems serving energy communities; - business plan analysis; - distributed generation systems within the UVAMs (Mixed Enabled Virtual Units); - evaluation of the LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) of complex energy systems.
Integration of energy from renewable sources into electricity distribution networks, with particular reference to: - application of non-linear control techniques and optimization algorithms to photovoltaic and wind generating units for the supply of ancillary services and for the improvement of energy efficiency and quality of service; - development of functional specifications for plant controllers for large-scale renewable generation connected to medium or high voltage networks; - combined renewable source – storage unit systems - development of advanced control platforms for frequency support from production units under converter.
Electric mobility systems in the electricity networks of the future, with a focus on: - impact of recharging infrastructures on electricity distribution networks; - smart charging of electric vehicles; - use of V2G (Vehicle-to-grid) and V2B (Vehicle to building) technologies; - calculation models of road consumption of electric vehicles.
Electromagnetic compatibility in electrical power systems, in particular as regards: - modeling of transmission lines and analysis of electromagnetic transients induced on them by lightning phenomena; - application of advanced statistical analysis techniques for the evaluation of the "Lightning Performance" of a transmission/distrubution line system - definition of algorithms for the optimized design of lightning protection systems - Evaluation of the lightning effects on "tall" structures, in particular wind turbines -Use of pattern recognition strategies for nowcasting lightning events in order to predict extreme weather events (in collaboration with Prof. Gabriele Moser) or for lightning localization– Use of regularization techniques for current estimation of lightning starting from the measured fields (in collaboration with the research group of Prof. Andrea Randazzo).
Protection of electrical infrastructures from cyber threats. Development of Algorithms for detecting anomalies in Industrial Control Systems and Critical Infrastructures, also in view of the future 5G - OT Area - SCADA, with particular reference to the study of Cyber Physical Attack in Smart Grids and Distributed Energy and the correlation of events from domains different, such as physical and virtual accesses, physical and virtual presence, physical and cyber domain. Activity carried out in collaboration with Prof. Mario Marchese.
Contact person: Prof. Renato Procopio