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Alexander Micallef is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Malta, Malta. Since 2015, he is also a guest lecturer at the Center for Research on Microgrids, Aalborg University, Denmark. He is an Associate Editor for IEEE Access and IET Smart Grids, a senior member of the IEEE, the vice-chair of the IEEE Malta Section and a member of the IEEE P3105 working group. He was involved in the IEEE PES SBLCS Technical Committee where he was the Chair of Smart Buildings and Customer Systems Subcommittee. He has authored 25+ articles and conference proceedings.
The keynote will present an overview of the electrification activities occurring in the maritime sector depicted as Maritime Microgirds. A brief overview of hierarchical microgrid architectures is provided followed by state of the art in shipboard power system architectures, modelling and control, integration of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and fuel cells, cold-ironing, and power quality phenomena.
Nikos Hatziargyriou is with the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), professor in Power Systems, since 1995, and Professor Emeritus, since 2022. He is Part-time Professor at the University of Vaasa, Finland. He has over 10 year industrial experience as Chair and CEO of the Hellenic Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO) and as executive Vice-Chair and Deputy CEO of the Public Power Corporation (PPC). He is author of more than 300 journal and 600 conference proceedings papers, he is included in the 2016, 2017 and 2019 Thomson Reuters lists of top 1% most cited researchers and 2020 Globe Energy Prize laureate.
The transportation industry has a big impact on the environment, contributing to over 25% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. More EVs are hitting the road in recent years, thanks to the availability of various EV charging alternatives and support schemes. Uncontrolled EV charging in this regard could cause serious grid problems that would necessitate substantial infrastructure upgrades. The talk will go over smart charging and V2G techniques that can lessen the effect of uncontrolled charging on the network. In addition, synergies between EV charging and Renewable Energy Resources (RES) will be presented, showing how the demand for EV charging can be effectively shifted towards times when RES are more abundant and the potential to increase both the number of EV chargers and the grid’s capacity to host RES.
Eleonora Riva Sanseverino is full Professor at the University of Palermo. She serves as the scientific coordinator for a number of research initiatives with businesses and research groups including with Vietnamese institutions (Electric Power University and the Institute of Energy Science), as well as Aalborg University, Denmark, and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Since january 2020 she is national expert in Cluster 5 of Horizon Europe on Climate, Energy and Mobility and national stste representative in Driving Urban Transition and 2zero partnerships. She has authored 250+ articles, edited books and book chapters, and conference proceedings. She is the Editor–in-Chief of the UNIPA Springer Series.
Blockchain technology is more and more an accepted solution in many fields. The energy application area appeared one of the most promising ones, but still regulatory issues and a few technical constraints hinder its widespread usage. The speech will cover the European policy background on energy and digitalisation, and then will focus on two interesting application areas of BC technology to Demand Response and Vehicle To Grid programs showing potential benefits towards decarbonization, disintermediation and electricity price mitigation.
Joseph Vassallo graduated B. Elec. Eng. (Hons.) from the University of Malta in 1991 and furthered his power systems engineering studies at Nottingham University in 1993. He worked on generating plant maintenance and projects with Enemalta at the Marsa and Delimara power stations. In 2005 he obtained his Ph. D. from Nottingham on high-power multilevel power-electronic converters for fuel-cell energy storage applications for power systems, following which, he worked on HV distribution network projects including the first Malta-Sicily 245kV interconnector and later, on HV network maintenance. He joined Interconnect Malta in 2022 focusing on the second HV interconnector.
Malta derives its electricity from local generating plant fuelled with natural gas, from renewable energy sources, mostly photovoltaic, and from a 200MW, 50Hz interconnection with the ENTSO-E grid in Sicily. The country is experiencing a high rise in electricity demand due to an increase in population and employment, improvements in air quality, higher living standards, and the trend is to continue with electrification of road transport. As part of a national strategy to achieve carbon emissions neutrality by 2050, a decision was taken to implement a second electrical interconnector improving security of supply, and enabling the integration of large-scale RES.
Alex Papalexopoulos is an authority in energy market design and implementation. He is the CEO of ECCO International a specialized consulting and software company based in San Francisco, CA which provide energy market design services to Governments, Regulators, Utilities TSOs and Power Exchanges. Over the last 20 years he has designed 15 energy markets in North, Central and South America, Western and Eastern Europe and Asia. He is also the CEO and Chairman of the Board of ZOME Energy Networks, based in San Francisco, CA which focuses on smart grid development services and CEO and Chairman of the Board of World Energy Consortium, based in Estonia, which focuses on developing blockchain technologies and token economic for the emerging decentralized Transactive Energy future in the energy sector. He has published hundereds of papers in refereed scientific journals, he is the 1992 recipient of PG&E’s Wall of Fame Award and the 1996 recipient of IEEE’s First Prize Paper Award. In 2016 he was bestowed the award of the honorary Professor at the University of Patras, Patra, Greece
This keynote proposes energy market interventions to lower the impact of gas prices on the wholesale electricity market prices and consequently the prices paid by consumers. The objective of the interventions, based on sound economic principles, is to maintain the basic structure of the EU internal energy market.
Ivan Matejak is Operations Director at European Energy Research Alliance (EERA). In this capacity, he contributes to developing the association’s performance goals and long-term strategic plans. By coordinating more than 250 universities and public research centers in 30 countries, EERA represents a research pillar of the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan). Structured in 18 joint research programmes covering the whole range of low-carbon technologies and systemic and cross-cutting topics, its mission is to catalyse European energy research for a climate-neural society by 2050. He holds a PhD in Geopolitics and Geo-economy from the University of Trieste, Italy.
The keynote will address the need to reach climate neutrality by not focusing exclusively on advancing the performance and competitiveness of a set of low carbon technologies but rather through the adoption of an impact-driven, multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral approach to steer the required profound economic and societal transformation. The presentation provides an overview of the main achieved goals and criticalities of 15 years of policies in the matter of low-carbon technologies and outlines the perspective and ambitions of the revised SET Plan in the context of the current energy crisis.
