The final review of the project RESERVE took place in Brussels.

Gonca Gürses-Tran participated in a workshop on "Needs, challenges and opportunities of TSO-DSO coordination". There she presented the business use cases (IEC 62559-2), identified for the demo sites of the H2020 project, Coordinet. The presenters closed the workshop with a panel discussion.

PlatOne is a 4 year H2020 project led by ACS. The consortium includes E.DSO, equipment and software manufacturers and DSOs in Italy, Greece and Germany.
Volatile renewable energy sources in combination with less predictable consumption patterns call for higher levels of observability and exploitation of flexibility. While these two challenges are traditionally treated with separate means, PlatOne proposes an innovative approach to a joint data management for both. Fully respecting the existing regulatory framework, a layered set of platforms will allow to meet the needs of system operators, aggregators and end users. A blockchain based platform is the access layer to generators’ and customers’ flexibilities able to break traditional access barriers by providing certified measures to all the players. In conjunction, certified data and signals will be used for an innovative DSO platform to locally maintain system integrity fostering confidence in flexibility operations. An upper layer will implement a new concept of blockchain-based open market platform to link the local system to the TSO domains and enhance the overall system cost efficiency. Because flexibility means customer involvement, PlatOne puts the grid users at the centre, investigates their needs and expectations and uses the underlying blockchain to unlock the potentials of higher dynamics of response. The platforms will be tested in 3 large pilots in Europe and analysed in cooperation with a large research initiative in Canada. Thanks to strategic partnerships and a unique consortium structure with an excellent network, PlatOne can offer an unprecedented effort of dissemination and exploitation with focus on DSO experts and final users.

Prof. Monti, Gianluca Lipari and Gonca Gürses-Tran attended the technical meeting on Monday where the consortium defined the next steps to develop further the demonstration campaigns.

On Tuesday, essential results of the first work package have been presented to the advisory board and external stakeholders. Among the other presentations, Gonca summarized the business use cases that have been developed to link harmonized services, products, and market models, with the scope and objectives of the CoordiNet demos.

Hendrik Flamme and Nikolaus Wirtz participated in the kickoff meeting of the project PHOENIX hosted by the project coordinator Capgemini at their new office building "147" in the Paris region. The PHOENIX consortium is comprised of 24 partners from 11 countries, cooperating to increase resilience of the European Electic Power and Energy System (EPES) by protecting it against cyber and privacy incidents and attacks.

PHOENIX is part of the EU's largest research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. The project will run for three years.

RESERVE developed technical solutions in voltage and frequency control of LV and MV grids to enable up to 100% RES. As well as this, RESERVE made updated and new Network Codes and Ancillary Services. The Network Codes are in the process of standardisation. This event was about bringing the message to political decision makers, based on a set of proposals for citizens' discussion.

Dr. Pau presented two papers on "Impact of Network Parameters Uncertainties on Distribution Grid Power Flow" and on "A Compressive Sensing Approach for Fault Location in Distribution Grid Branches" at the 2nd International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and Technologies (SEST), held in Porto, Portugal.

The kickoff meeting of the project "Blockchain Real Laboratory in the Rhineland Territory" was held today. Representatives of RWTH Aachen University met Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitisation and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Düsseldorf.

The trainees Philipp Dreßen and Intan Purnamasari both successfully completed their vocational training to MATSE at the Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems. We congratulate them and wish them success for the future.

On August 21 and 22, the project consortium of the N5GEH project met at the E.ON ERC in Aachen to advance the joint platform development. During the two days performance tests were analyzed and the joint software development was homogenized.

Diala Nouti, Gaurav Roy and Sebastian Schwarz represented ACS during the official iELECTRIX kick-off meeting that was hosted by the techical project director E.ON at their premises in Essen. The consortium includes 15 European partners from 9 European Union member states and Tata Power from India with the overall objective of increasing the role of Local Energy Communities (LECs) in speeding up Renewable Energy Sources (RES) integration in power grids.
iELECTRIX is part of the EU's largest research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. The project will run for three and a half years.

Stefan Dähling participated in the 5-days kickoff sprint of the project AGENT hosted by Bosch at their research campus in Renningen. The project partners discussed goals, methods and interfaces for their cooperation. An initial architecture for the agent-based building automation system was developed. Moreover, a detailed work plan for the next six month was compiled.

Andrea Angioni successfully defended his dissertation "Uncertainty modeling for analysis and design of monitoring systems for dynamic electrical distribution grids".

With his master thesis "Parallel Optimization in Demand Response Architectures - Challenges, Requirements, Applications" Sebastian Schwarz won the Best Diploma Thesis Award 2019. The price was awarded on the Power Engineering Student Summit in Magdeburg.

The project eSafeNet is featured in the annual report "Innovation durch Forschung" 2018 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Projects funded by the ministry, that are contributing to the energy transition, are featured in this brochure. It is available as download or print media at the link.

Dr. Pau presented the software tool developed in ACS for the generation of realistic PV profiles for distribution grid simulations at the 7th International Conference on Clean Electrical Power (ICCEP), held in Otranto, Italy. The software tool is freely downloadable at the link.

Chijioke Eze, Abhinav Sadu, Marija Stevic and Nikolaus Wirtz represented ACS in the DEFENDER project meeting in Brétigny-sur-Orge (France), hosted by Engie SA. In addition to the meeting, several DEFENDER components and the DEFENDER security platform have been demonstrated and evaluated in a local testing area.

ACS participates at the faculty football tournament, which will take place on 12.07. from 10:00 to 15:00.

Marco Pau represented ACS during the SOGNO project meeting in Craiova, Romania. The meeting was hosted by CEZ Romania, one of the DSOs hosting a field trial for the project. More information about the project can be found at the SOGNO website.

Prof. Antonello Monti has been selected by the IEEE Global Public Policy Committee to be part of this committee. It prepares reports and position papers to directly advise the European Parliament in the development of legislation related to Energy.

Dr. Gianluca Lipari and Gonca Gürses-Tran joined the meeting for WP1 and WP2 task leaders in Milan. They presented the draft for the finalization of CoordiNet Task 1.5 on business use cases of the demonstration campaigns in Greece, Spain and Sweden.

Robert Ferdinand successfully defended his dissertation "Grid Operation of HVDC-Connected Offshore Wind Farms: Power Quality and Switching Strategies".

Ting Wang has given an oral presentation about his research work in FEN research Project about the protection of DC distribution grids on 04.06 in the conference PEDG 2019 in Xi'an, China.

Dr. Marco Cupelli, Henning Wilms and Gonca Gürses-Tran each presented a poster on their research activities covering advanced control schemes and forecasting techniques with reference to the H2020 INTERFLEX project.

Gonca Gürses-Tran and Hendrik Flamme represented ACS at the IHK Aachen workshop on challenges and opportunities associated with the imminent structural transformation in the Rhenish lignite mining area. In this context, future scenarios were developed and it was discussed how regional research facilities could contribute to realize those scenarios. In particular, the focus of the event was on digitalization and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Pau presented the tool developed in the SOGNO project for the optimal placement of switches in distribution grids at the 1st International Conference on Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Area (SyNERGYMED), held in Cagliari (Italy).

Prof. Ferdinanda Ponci and Wilbert Tarnate represented ACS in ASSET's kickoff meeting. ATOS, the project coordinator, hosted the meeting from May 27 to May 28, 2019, in Madrid, Spain. Around 30 participants from academic and industry partners from 6 European countries are present in the meeting. ASSET aims to establish a sustainable ecosystem for energy transition and education stakeholders. In ASSET, ACS will lead the preparation of learning contents for university programs and MOOCs.​

Robert Uhl attends the biennial workshop on system identification at the ELEC department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium, from 27.5. until 21.6.2019. More information on the workshop can be found at the link.

Bettina Schäfer and Diala Nouti represented ACS during the coordination kick-off meeting that was hosted by the project coordinator Enedis at their premises in Paris. The consortium includes 15 European partners from 9 European Union member states and Tata Power from India with the overall objective of increasing the role of Local Energy Communities (LECs) for speeding up Renewable Energy Sources (RES) integration in power grids. ​​​

Prof. Ponci participates to the Administration Committee meetings of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society in Auckland, New Zealand. An intense week culminating in the full day AdCom meeting, to serve the IMS members at best.

The kickoff meeting of the new BMWi project AGENT was held on 23rd May at the Bosch Research Campus in Renningen. ACS was represented by Igor Sowa and Stefan Dähling. AGENT deals with agent-based energy management systems in nonresidential buildings. Project partners are Robert Bosch GmbH, FAU Erlangen and RWTH Aachen University with the two institutes EBC and ACS.

Prof. Ponci presents the new OS-based low cost PMU and a contactless sensor for domestic power measurement in Auckland, New Zealand at I2MTC 2019, the flagship conference of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society.

The RESERVE Open Day was held at ESB Networks in Dublin, Ireland on 15.05.2019. ESB is running 7 field trials of the voltage control techniques developed in RESERVE to support 100% renewable energy source penetration.  Pictures from the Open Day are at the link. Also, a project meeting was held at UCD in Dublin.

Dr. Pau and Prof. Monti presented the SOGNO and RESERVE project at the InnoGrid conference in Brussels. InnoGrid is a EU event on innovation in electricity networks organised by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and the European Distribution System Operators for Smart Grids (EDSO), which showcases the most innovative projects at European level in the field of electrical transmission and distribution grids.

Prof. Monti, Gianluca Lipari and Gonca Gürses-Tran followed up on the work for load forecasting in the Malmö area. The forecasts will be implented on the future TSO-DSO platform for the project demo in Sweden. 

Since April, Dr. Stefan Lankes is member of the executive committee of the section PARS and the technical committee ARCS of the "Gesellschaft für Informatik".

Together with the colleagues from Systems Software Research Group at Virginia Tech, we develop the unikernel HermiTux, which is binary compatible to Linux and able to run native Linux executables. For a detailed description please read the Hermitux paper, which was presented at 15th ACM SIGPLAN/SIGOPS International Conference on Virtual Execution Environments (VEE’19) and won the best paper award.

A delegation from the University of Melbourne visited the E.ON ERC on 8.4. and toured the laboratories in the main building. In the following Prof. Monti and Prof. Mancarella (UoM) discussed via teleconference with a group of colleagues in Australia about possible future cooperation. In the afternoon of the same day Prof. Mancarella gave a very interesting seminar about the current situation of the energy system in Australia and the challenges related to power systems dynamics with high penetration of renewables.

The 2-day project meeting was hosted by Vattenfall in Stockholm. On the first day, the focus was on the identification of the business use cases (BUCs) based on the IEC 62559 standard. For this, Gianluca Lipari and Gonca Gürses-Tran organized an interactive session to share the progress and discuss and develop the current status of the BUCs of the demos in Greece, Spain and Sweden.

Nikolaus Wirtz presented DEFENDER at the fit4sec network meeting in Berlin. fit4sec is a program by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and is aiming to strengthen German security research by providing support in writing proposals and building consortiums targeting EU research programs.

On tuesday, 9th April 2019 at 14:30 (date changed!) the next FEIN e.V. Colloquium will take place in the E.ON ERC in room 00.23. Prof. Pierluigi Mancarella will be a guest speaker and talk about: "Reliability and resilience in low-carbon power systems: challenges and solutions down-under". More detail about the invitation can be found at the link.

On March 26th and 27th, the consortium meeting of the ENVELOPE project takes place, where the latest research results are being discussed.

Tim Schlösser successfully defended his disseration "Methodology for Holistic Evaluation of Building Energy Systems Under Dynamic Boundary Conditions".

Prof. Monti, Marco Pau and Jan Dinkelbach represented ACS during the SOGNO review meeting held in Brussels. The SOGNO consortium presented the status of the activities after the first year of work as well as the main innovations proposed within the project.
More information about the project can be found at the SOGNO website.

eSafeNet has studied how to make a secure communications architecture for distributed energy grids. At the final project meeting the work of ACS in developing a method to use locally available distributed energy generation and storage resources to autonomously and automatically recover from blackouts was demonstrated. A second demo concerned the joint work of ACS and Ericsson to develop a method to ensure that the locally available distributed energy generation and storage resources are able to communicate with LTE during the blackout (in the situation where the blackout emergency causes the mobile network operator to reduce access of subscribers to the network in order to ensure continued access of emergency services).

Abhinav Sadu, Marija Stevic and Nikolaus Wirtz represented ACS in the DEFENDER project meeting in Bled (Slovenia), hosted by Jožef Stefan Institute​ and the Institute for Corporate Security Studies.

The results of the H2020 ADMS project, ended in 2018 have been summarized in a YouTube video available at the link below.

The ENSURE Cluster 4 workshop was held on 27th February at Nexans in Hannover. ACS was represented by Igor Sowa and Stefan Dähling. Besides the review of the current progress in the cluster "New Technologies", the participants also discussed the planning of the subsequent project phase

The GA of the Association DERlab (in which ACS is member since 2018) was held together with a workshop on 25th and 26th of February at the Enel Green Power Innovation Hub in Catania, Italy. ACS was represented by David Raisz, who gave a short introduction to the Institute's research on 5G technology, used in RESERVE, NRG5 and SOGNO.

In cooperation with Systems Software Reserch Group of the Virginia Tech (USA), the first version of HermiTux was published. A corresponding paper will be presented on the 15th ACM SIGPLAN/SIGOPS International Conference on Virtual Execution Environments.