Justino Rodrigues, INESC TEC researcher, was the big winner of the REN 2023 awards, in the category of “Best PhD thesis” in energy. In his thesis, developed within the scope of the Doctoral Programme in Sustainable Energy Systems of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) – and supervised by two INESC TEC researchers, Carlos Moreira and João Peças Lopes – Justino Rodrigues was able to test the incorporation of new functionalities for smart transformers applied to microgrids and multi-micro-grids; thanks to his work, the researcher received €30K.
The goal of the work “Advanced Control Functionalities for Smart-Transformers Integrating Hybrid MicroGrids” was to improve and consolidate the control of hybrid microgrids and multi-micro hybrid networks, considering the expected increase in the integration of distributed energy resources.
“Devices like smart transformers make electricity distribution networks more flexible and intelligent; they could play a vital role in the energy distribution networks of the future”, explained Justino Rodrigues.
The second place, with a prize of €15K, was granted to Ana Sofia Silva, also a researcher at INESC TEC; she received the “Best Master’s Thesis” award with the project “Dynamic behaviour of transmission systems with reduced inertia”.
The INESC TEC researcher studied the use of synchronous compensators to support the dynamic stability of a network with significant renewable production through electronic converters – based on climate goals (e.g., carbon neutrality by 2050) that lead to a new paradigm of the electrical system, which will be characterised by a significant increase in electric mobility, self-consumption and energy communities. Ana Sofia Silva’s thesis was supervised by INESC TEC researcher Carlos Moreira.
REN was established in 1995; each year, they award the top students who carry out activities in the field of energy. Over the past few years, several INESC TEC researchers have reached the top spots at the REN awards, in different categories. In the last five years, INESC TEC researchers were able to win the first prize in four occasions (Fabian Heymann in 2021, João Pedro Graça Ramos in 2020, Diogo Varajão in 2019, and Bruna Tavares in 2017).
The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC and UP-FEUP.
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