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IEEE Italy Section School on Future Energy Systems

The IEEE Italy Section in cooperation with the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Trento (Italy) and the Scientific Associations CMAEL, GMEE and GUSEE, organizes the second edition of the IEEE Italy Section School on Future Energy Systems (IEEE SFES 2016).

The goal of the School is to provide M.Sc. or Ph.D. students with state-of-the-art skills in this exciting and broad research field, thus helping them to bridge the gap between different and complementary subjects. The School offers a great opportunity not only to learn new skills, but also to create new connections between attendees and lecturers and to share experiences.

The 2016 edition of the School will be also supported by the Tyrol - South Tyrol-Trentino Europaregion within the Mobility Project “E3 - EUREGIO Education Training Network on Energy”.

The topic of the second edition is: energy efficiency and reliability.

The second edition of the IEEE Italy Section School on Future Energy Systems will be held at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Trento, from February 1 to February 5, 2016. The venue will be at the Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico "Fabio Ferrari", via Sommarive 5, Trento (Italy).

The School will be activated if a minimum of 15 participants is accepted.

Rationale of the School

Public administrations, companies and citizens are looking for the best policies and technologies to reduce energy waste in order to become more environmentally responsible and to achieve both sustainability and economic profitability.

Reducing energy consumption in buildings, providing smarter power grids, electric transportation, and optimizing industrial processes are certainly some of the main scientific and technical challenges to be tackled in the near future. State-of-the-art technologies for distributed and pervasive sensors, real-time communication networks, advanced measurement and control techniques, networked embedded systems surely play a key role to improve energy systems performances while taking into account uncertainty in power supply sources as well as bid and ask prices.

Moreover, modern energy systems management poses novel research challenges in the development of distributed intelligent applications, since different aspects related to generation, conversion, storage, distribution and efficient use of energy resources need to be jointly considered.

As a result, designing future smart energy systems is intrinsically a multidisciplinary problem that heavily involves different topics in power systems, electronics, networking, embedded system design, measurement science, control theory, computer science and telecommunications. In addition, energy systems management requires skills in economics and optimization studies.

Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the emerging field of future energy systems needs to bring together experts from several different and complementary subjects. A coherent and exhaustive exposure to such technical contents is generally not available in courses at the Ph.D. or at the Master levels.

Purposes

The School aims at:

  • bringing together experts presenting the state-of-the-art in energy systems
  • presenting various analysis perspectives and enabling technologies
  • identifying the current and most relevant advancements, challenges, and opportunities in the area of smart energy systems
  • interacting with distinguished scholars and establishing contacts between attendees and lecturers, so promoting future research collaborations

The students attending the School will learn how to apply techniques coming from different scientific communities and backgrounds to their own research domains.

The School is expected to be a unique opportunity to disseminate the research results and to share the experience gained so far by attendees.

The School can be also regarded as a forum to bring together researchers and practitioners from either academia or industry to address technical, social and economic issues related to modern and future energy systems.

General topics

The School covers key subjects and topics for smart grid and smart city development.

The lectures of the School will be in English.

The general topics of the School include, but are not limited to:

  • power generation, transmission and distribution with a special emphasis on Distributed Energy Resources (DER) deployment and management
  • energy conversion and storage technologies
  • platforms for energy monitoring, management and control
  • design principles and performance models
  • control and measurement techniques
  • signal processing algorithms for energy systems
  • communication technologies for smart grids (e.g. power line communications)
  • co-simulation of power and telecommunications systems
  • power electronics converters and power quality
  • electromechanical equipment
  • criteria for energy efficiency

The topic of the 2016 edition of the School is: energy efficiency and reliability.

Program and educational resources

All the lectures will be held at the Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico "Fabio Ferrari" (Povo 1 building, via Sommarive 5, Povo, Trento), in the room A103.

The lunches will take place in the same building (Povo 1 building), at the University canteen.

Monday, February 1, 2016
13.00 Registration
14.00 School Opening
 

Educational resources

14.30 Reliability and safety assessment: fundamentals and application to energy systems
Lecturers: Marcantonio Catelani, Lorenzo Ciani, University of Firenze (Italy)

Contents

Modern technologies and related business requirements lead to a significant growth in manufacturing product complexity and, at the same, more severe reliability and safety requirements. For these reasons the interest in RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety) and diagnostics measurements and evaluation is growing in many different manufacturing fields, in particular to avoid unexpected failure occurrences in the most critical components and so to optimize system’s availability. The first part of the lecture deals with the fundamentals of reliability theory. The second part focuses on the application of some reliability and safety analysis techniques applied to energy systems.

Educational resources

19.00 Welcome event at the S.A.S.S., Spazio archeologico sotterraneo del Sas (piazza Cesare Battisti, Trento); for more information about the archeological site please see here (Italian only)
   
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
08.30 Overview of electrical diagnostics techniques for medium/high voltage industrial induction machines
Lecturer: Sang Bin Lee, Korea University (Seoul, Korea)

Contents

Induction machines are undoubtedly the most dominant and important type of electrical apparatus used in industrial facilities in the power generation, petroleum and chemical, metals, pulp and paper, cement, and mining industries, etc. Continued operation of induction machines is critical for maintaining the productivity, efficiency, and reliability of the industrial facility. The objective of this lecture is to present an overview of electrical diagnostic techniques used in the field for off-line testing and on-line condition monitoring of medium~high voltage induction machines.
The subjects covered in this lecture include:

  1. overview of motor testing and diagnostics
  2. high resistance connections
  3. rotor cage testing
  4. airgap eccentricity / bearing testing
  5. stator magnetic wedge testing
  6. stator core testing
  7. stator winding insulation testing

A description of the fault, root causes and consequences of failure are given for each type of fault component, and the advantages and disadvantages of commercially available on-line and off-line technologies are presented. The typical causes of false positive and negative fault indications encountered in the field produced by commercial motor inspection methods such as steady state on-line spectrum analysis and off-line standstill testing are also given. The target audience is practicing engineers and researchers in the area of reliability, diagnostics, and prognostics for electrical machines in industrial environments. This course can also serve as an introduction/overview of electric machine diagnostics for attendees with undergraduate level knowledge of electric machines.

Educational resources

12.30 Lunch at the University canteen
14.00 Condition monitoring of electric machines and drives: towards fault tolerant processes
Lecturer: Alberto Bellini, University of Bologna (Italy)

Contents

Condition monitoring of electric machine and drives has a considerable influence on the operational continuation of many industrial processes. Correct diagnosis and early detection of incipient faults result in fast unscheduled maintenance and short downtime for the process under consideration. They also avoid harmful, sometimes devastating, consequences and reduce financial loss. An ideal diagnostic procedure should take the minimum measurements necessary from a machine and by analysis extract a diagnosis, so that its condition can be inferred to give a clear indication of incipient failure modes in a minimum time.
The lecture will cover the following topics:

  1. modeling and physical insight of main faults for induction machines: stator faults which are defined by stator winding open or short circuited; rotor electrical faults which include rotor winding open or short circuited for wound rotor machines and broken bar(s) or cracked end-ring for squirrel-cage machines; rotor mechanical faults such as bearing damage, eccentricity, bent shaft, and misalignment
  2. diagnosis of electric drives: pitfall and fallacies, failure of one or more power electronic components of the drive system
  3. signal processing of electric quantities for early diagnosis of fault under on-line operation
  4. from diagnosis to fault tolerant system; perspectives of a system approach to increase the reliability of electric drives

The target audience is practicing engineers and researchers in the area of reliability, diagnostics and fault tolerant electric drives; system designers of industrial applications with electric drives.
This course can also serve as an introduction/overview of electric machine diagnostics for attendees with undergraduate level knowledge of electric machines.

Educational resources

Wednesday, February 3, 2016
08.30 Classification in Iso-Attention classes of HV transformer fleets
Lecturer: Massimo Pompili, Sapienza Università di Roma (Italy)

Contents

The largest electrical Operators (TSO) may have in service some hundreds of HV power transformers. It means that failures are to be expected along their operational times with possible heavy consequences in case of fire or explosion or other negative events. The traditional approach for preventing failures and their consequences is normally based on periodical evaluations of some physical, chemical and electrical parameters of the insulating oil and/or of the equipment but these data do not give any information on the overall “state of health” of the units when the observed properties are below the values assumed by the different existing Standards as acceptable limits. Also these data are not related to failure consequence.
With this aim, a more complete risk evaluation has started to be applied as an innovative powerful tool for preventing negative situation due to transformer failures and for classifying these electrical units in iso-attention classes. This risk is formed by three partial components, which are: 1) causes of the failure, 2) probability that a failure may provoke a damage and 3) type and entity of damages (magnitudo).
This approach may be an useful tool for supporting decisions and addressing periodical investments of electrical operators and utilities having in service transformer fleets.
With this aim, approximately 700 different HV transformers of one of the biggest electrical operator have been examined, evaluating the single components forming their risks. This analyses has permitted to establish which transformers may be considered more critical with possibility to better address the successive maintenance strategies.

Educational resources

12.30 Lunch at the University canteen
14.00 Information theoretic modeling in power systems
Lecturer: Vladimiro Miranda, University of Porto (Portugal)

Contents

The adoption of Information Theoretic concepts allows a finer extraction of information from data, leading to the construction of better models. Although not currently usual in Power Systems, these concepts have already proven valuable in several domains.
The lecture will digress through basic concepts of Information Theory and focus on concepts of Entropy, Correntropy and Mutual Information. Then, applications of these concepts will be discussed, touching the following topics:

  1. training of autoassociative neural networks (autoencoders)
  2. designing missing sensor signal restoration systems
  3. clustering, information theoretic mean-shift algorithms, and application to transformer fault diagnosis systems
  4. reliability assessment of power systems via Monte Carlo - acceleration with neural networks and with entropy methods

These topics will be adequately linked with the smart grid paradigm whenever appropriate.

Educational resources

19.30 Social dinner at the Ristorante Due Mori - Antica Trattoria (via San Marco 11, Trento)
   
Thursday, February 4, 2016
08.30 A power electronics perspective on system stability in microgrids
Lecturer: Paolo Mattavelli, University of Padova (Italy)

Contents

The increasing number of renewable energy sources and energy storage devices connected to the grid has the potential to progressively increase the network performance in terms of efficiency, stability and demand response, while allowing full exploitation of any kind of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). For this purpose the electronic power processors (EPPs) interfacing the power sources o storage elements with the distribution grid must be driven properly, controlling their active and reactive currents and harmonic distortion so as to improve power sharing, voltage stability and distribution losses. This lecture is aimed to give the fundamental knowledge of stability of electronic power processors used in Distributed Energy Resources in future microgrids, including basic operation of EPP and the analysis of stability based on the impedance concept.

12.30 Lunch at the University canteen
14.00 No energy autonomy without increased energy efficiency
Lecturer: Wolfgang Streicher, University of Innsbruck (Austria)

Contents

The background of the lecture is a work for the Austrian Minister of Environment conducted in 2011. It tried to give answer to the questions: Is energy autarky technically possible in Austria, what part takes energy efficiency and what part renewable energies? After an introduction of the background and the boundary conditions for the scenarios, available technologies are described. Then the potential of renewable energy carriers in Austria are derived and the current energy demand of the sectors buildings, production and transportation are given. Two scenarios based on constant or growing energy services demand are discussed. Finally the needed efficiency increase for the two scenarios and possible energy flows for the two scenarios are presented, the impacts on the energy system and political decisions are discussed and conclusions are drawn.

Educational resources

16.00 Electrical machines for high efficiency and reliable application
Lecturer: Luigi Alberti, Free University of Bozen - Bolzano (Italy)

Contents

Electrical machines are more ad more used in many applications such as renewable energy systems, more electrical vehicles and variable speed applications. This is thanks to their high efficiency and control flexibility which allow to obtain significant developments in various fields. The talk will presents the main sizing criteria of the electrical machines for high efficiency and reliable systems. After a recall of the basic theory, the specific aspects of the design are introduced considering various application examples and case studies. Various aspects (electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical) will be considered and discussed.

Educational resources

Friday, February 5, 2016
08.30 On-line monitoring and diagnosis of photovoltaic modules
Lecturer: Giovanni Spagnuolo, University of Salerno (Italy)

Contents

On line monitoring and diagnosis techniques, especially if embedded into photovoltaic (PV) module-dedicated electronics, allow to check the state-of-health of the module and also of its power processing system. Some data are acquired during the normal operation of the PV generator and feed the prognostic algorithms in order to program the plant maintenance for minimizing the impact on the power production. An overview of the state-of-the-art and some novel approaches presented in the current literature are given in the lecture.

Educational resources

12.30 School Closing
13.00 Lunch at the University canteen

Attendance rules

In general, full-time student attendance is required to complete the School.

Single day registration and attendance is possible only for senior researchers and/or professionals from companies.

At the end of the School participants will receive a certificate of attendance; the certificate will be issued upon verification of the signatures daily taken during the classes.

Target audience and eligibility

The School is open to both students and practitioners interested in learning the most recent advancements in the broad area of energy and power systems.

The potential audience of the School includes last-year M.Sc., Ph.D. students and young researchers with a background in engineering or other scientific disciplines. Engineers and technicians employed in universities, research centers or companies are also invited to apply. All of them may greatly benefit from the broad vision provided by the School.

Admission to the School is decided on the basis of the applicant's background and curriculum vitae (CV). The CV will have to be uploaded through the online application form and should be preferably prepared according to the EUROPASS format

The M.Sc. and Ph.D. students from the University of Trento, the Free University of Bozen - Bolzano and the University of Innsbruck may apply also for one of the mobility grants offered by the Tyrol - South Tyrol-Trentino Europaregion within the mobility project “E3 - EUREGIO Education Training Network on Energy”. Further details are provided in the next paragraph EUREGIO mobility grants.

Non-EU citizens will be required to upload (through the online application form) a copy of their valid permit of stay for EU Countries or a copy of their passport (with Schengen visa, if required).

EUREGIO mobility grants

The M.Sc. and Ph.D. students enrolled at the University of Trento, the Free University of Bozen - Bolzano and the University of Innsbruck may apply for one of the mobility grants offered by the Tyrol - South Tyrol-Trentino Europaregion within the mobility project “E3 - EUREGIO Education Training Network on Energy”.

Applicants from other institutions are not eligible for this grant and will be automatically excluded.

Each grant will cover:

  • the registration fee
  • the travel costs (public transport only)
  • accommodation costs (not for University of Trento students)

for the whole duration of the School.

Interested students may apply for one of the available mobility grants through the online application form used to apply for the School. In addition to the CV and to the permit of stay or passport (for non-UE citizens only - see the paragraph Target Audience and Eligibility), a student applying for an EUREGIO mobility grant is also required to upload the following further documents:

  • a one-page motivation letter explaining how the topics of the School are related to his/her current research activity or study plan
  • a copy of the graduation diploma or an equivalent certificate with the final grade (for Ph.D. students) or a copy of the transcript with examination grades (for M.Sc. students)

The mobility grants will be assigned on the basis of the following criteria:

  • degree level
  • relevance of the current and future applicant's activities within the topics covered by the school
  • final grade of the M.Sc. degree (for Ph.D. students) or average examination grade (for M.Sc. students)
  • professional record and publications
  • other achievements (awards, patents, etc.)

The students admitted to the School, but NOT selected for the EUREGIO mobility grant, will be able to complete the registration to the School in any case, but all the costs (registration fee, travel and accommodation) will be at their own expense.

Application

The application to the School requires filling out the online form available at this web page; once the deadline has passed, the form online will be automatically disabled.

The application deadline has been postponed to November 26, 2015, 13.00 Italian time (previous deadline November 19, 2015).

The applicants will be notified about admission by December 2, 2015 (previous deadline November 25, 2015); the admitted applicants will also receive the information about the registration fee and the payment.

Registration and payment

All admitted applicants have to confirm their participation to the School by following the registration procedure described below.

1. Check carefully the registration fee in the table:

  whole School single day 2
Student euro 300 ---
Student, IEEE member 1 euro 250 ---
IEEE member 1 euro 350 euro 80
non IEEE member euro 400 euro 100

 

(1) The IEEE membership number (already inserted in the application form) has to be specified also in the registration form
(2) The total amount depends on the number of days of attendance specified in the application form

The registration fee covers:

  • course materials
  • lunches, coffee breaks
  • access to the University of Trento wireless network.

Dinners, accommodation and transportation instead are not covered.

2. Fill in the online registration form completely (once the deadline has passed, the link to the online form will be automatically disabled)

a) Applicants from abroad research institutions and/or from private (both Italian and abroad) companies can decide if they prefer to pay the registration fee directly or through their own administration. The details for correct invoice issuing should be provided accordingly. Payment can be either through bank transfer or credit card.

b) Applicants from Italian public institutions whose registration fees can be covered by their own institution or by the EUREGIO Mobility Grants (students from University of Trento and Free University of Bozen - Bolzano only) must NOT pay the registration fee directly: they have to provide all details for the correct issuing of the electronic invoice ("fattura elettronica"). To this purpose, in the "Invoice Denomination" section of the online form, they have to select "Institution of affiliation" and insert the full address of the institution along with the VAT number and the so-called "Codice Unico Ufficio". Applicants that do not have such information are invited to ask them to their own administration. Payment can be performed only through bank transfer.

c) Applicants that register privately (e.g. not eligible for refunding) should provide their own billing details and can pay either through bank transfer or credit card.

3. After submitting the registration form, attendees will receive an e-mail notification, reporting the instructions for payment. If the payment has to be done by the applicant’s institution, it is his/her responsibility to forward these instructions to his/her administration staff.

DISCLAIMER. The University of Trento and IEEE Italy Section are not responsible for missing, wrong or incomplete billing information that may cause problems to attendees when they have to be refunded by their own Institution.

The deadline for registering is December 17, 2015 (previous deadline December 10, 2015).

For possible technical problems or doubts with the registration procedure please write to the Scientific Coordinators: ieeesfes@unitn.it

Venue
University of Trento
Department of Industrial Engineering
Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico
"Fabio Ferrari"
Trento, Italy

 

Important dates
November 26: application deadline
December 2: acceptance notification
December 17: registration deadline

CONTACTS

Scientific Coordination
Department of Industrial Engineering
University of Trento
ieeesfes@unitn.it
 

Organizing Secretariat
Communication and Events
University of Trento
comunicazione-collina@unitn.it