Geert Deconinck of KU Leuven

If there is no electricity, society comes to a standstill. However, we need to radically decarbonise our energy use to release less greenhouse gas and be more energy efficient. Digitalisation is a key enabler for this. The presentation starts from the current state  of affairs of smart electricity grids and shows how a paradigm shift towards decentralised electricity generation and data-driven demand management is necessary to reach climate-neutral future energy system.

Biography:

Research and Publications

His research focuses on robust distributed coordination and control, specifically in the context of smart electric distribution networks. Main interests include smart grids, user-centric energy systems, smart metering, distributed control, robust system design, sustainability, multi-energy systems, infrastructure interdependencies and dependability modelling, all in a context of energy and data infrastructures. Both simulation and experimental validation are key.

In this field, he has authored and co-authored approximately 500 publications in international journals and conference proceedings. He authored or co-authored 7 books and edited 4 more. On Web-of-Science, 275+ publications are listed with 2380+ citations and an h-index of 25; Google Scholar count 7210+ citations, and h=41. He has been principle investigator in projects, worth over 10 M€ budget over the last 5 years. (Internal funds, Hercules, European projects, FWO, VLAIO, bilateral with industry, etc.). Up to August 2020, he has been (co)supervisor for 36 successful PhDs, and is currently supervisor or co-supervisor of 8 PhD students. He was the general chair of the 2nd IEEE Int. Forum on Smart Grids for Smart Cities (Nov 2018).

Career @ KU Leuven

Since April 2012, he is head of the research group ELECTA (Electrical Energy Systems and Applications) at the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), which consists of 6 professors, 4 research management staff, 10 postdoctoral researchers, 50+ PhD students and 12 administrative and technical staff. ELECTA focuses on different research aspects related to electrical energy (smart distribution grids, electric power systems, HVDC, power electronics, techno-economic analysis of energy markets, etc.), from fundamental research to applications in collaboration with industry.

He is active in the research centre EnergyVille, the research centre on energy for sustainable cities, where he is scientific leader for the research domain ‘algorithms, modelling, optimisation’, applied to smart electrical and thermal networks. Since October 2016, he is head of the KU Leuven division EnergyVille (grouping 18 KU Leuven professors).

He received his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (maxima cum laude) and his Ph.D. in Engineering Science (summa cum laude) from the KU Leuven, Belgium in 1991 and 1996 respectively. In 1995-1997, he received a grant from the Flemish Institute for the Promotion of Scientific-Technological Research in Industry (IWT). He was postdoctoral fellow of the Fund for Scientific Research - Flanders (Belgium) in the period 1997-2003, visiting professor (bijzonder gastdocent) at the KU Leuven in 1999-2003, associate professor (hoofddocent) in 2003-2006, professor (hoogleraar) in 2006-2010, and full professor (gewoon hoogleraar) since 2010.

Chairman and Membership

He is a fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) (M 2006, F 2013), co-chair of the IEEE SMC Technical Committee on Infrastructure Systems and Services, a senior member of the IEEE and of the IEEE Reliability, Computer, SMC and Power & Energy Societies (sM 1988, M 1996, SM 2000), National representative for Belgium on Cigré SC C6 (active distribution systems and distributed energy resources) and member of KBVE and ie-net. He is associate editor for IET Energy Systems Integrations, and for Springer Electrical Engineering Journal, and editorial board member of Energies (MDPI).