DENSE

Dependable engineering of Smart Energy Systems (DENSE)

Funding Agency: Horizon Europe MSCA (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network)
Start Date: January 2024
Duration: 4 years
Total budget: €2.6m
Website: dense-dn.eu
SPS Lab: sps-lab.org/project/dense

What is DENSE?

DENSE (Dependable Smart Energy Systems) is a 4-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network (HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-DN) funded under Horizon Europe. It brings together 10 partners from applied research, academia, and industry across 6 countries, with the aim of implementing 12 doctoral research projects.

The network trains early-stage researchers in the innovative dependable engineering of Smart Energy Systems (SESs), with a main focus on robustness as well as preventive and corrective actions under uncertainty.

Why it matters

The European Green Deal aims to transform the EU into a climate-neutral, fair, and prosperous society by 2050. DENSE supports this ambition by training and connecting the next generation of researchers and innovators needed to progress toward dependable Smart Energy Systems.

Dependability of complex networks such as SESs characterizes their ability to deliver service that can justifiably be trusted. It comprises attributes such as availability, reliability, safety, integrity, and maintainability. DENSE tackles this challenge with a focus on operational robustness and preventive/corrective actions in SESs.

Research objectives

1. Methods for designing scalable, hierarchical, and predictive coordination and operation algorithms for SESs at transnational and communal level
2. Tools for robust data-driven planning, control, and adaptation, including open-source solutions for joint planning and optimization across heat and power
3. Methods for robust estimation, fault detection, and preventive security management in SESs under uncertainties and disturbances with different time-scales
4. Software and hardware demonstrators of systems and components with control, management, and analysis tools from individual doctoral projects
5. Advanced validation methods for performance and functionality assessment of SESs, including heat pumps, green mobility, and cross-sectoral applications in smart communities and buildings

My role

As a Doctoral Candidate in DENSE, my research focuses on the optimal operation of electric vehicles and heat pumps within active distribution networks, in collaboration between the Cyprus University of Technology (SPS Lab) and the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC).

Related publications

• Tuning performance of grey-box models for thermal building applications
• Optimal operation of electric vehicles to enhance the flexibility provision in active distribution grids
• Impact of uncontrolled electric vehicle charging on unbalanced suburban low-voltage networks
• A thermal-electrical co-optimization framework for active distribution grids with heat pumps

Source

Project page adapted from the Sustainable Power Systems Lab – DENSE description.