E Lunch webinar: What are the challenges and opportunities for the Electricity System in Transition?
Watch back E Lunch webinar "The Electricity System in Transition"
In this lunch webinar, we are going to talk about some aspects of Prof Koen Kok's inaugural address "The Electricity System in Transition", which he delivered at Eindhoven University of Technology on 10 March 2023.
This will be an interesting talk on challenges and opportunities in the energy transition, focusing on the electricity system.
During the webinar, possible solutions in power grid operations will be discussed in more detail and highlighted, such as:
- clear simple explanation of the power grid and capacity constraints / possible solutions, suitable for a wide range of people
- operation of the electricity system and how coordination is possible in it
- solutions close to home, at neighbourhood, city, regional level are needed, but in connection with the larger system at (inter)national level.
- current capacity shortfalls: on connection capacity, simultaneity and peak loads that only occur for a few hours a year
- possible future market models with more dynamics in price
- role of the university: looking beyond the quick solutions that solve acute problems now, how do we build a future-proof energy system.
About the inaugural address
Prof Koen Kok was appointed full-time professor of Intelligent Energy Systems at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Eindhoven University of Technology on 1 September 2020.
Electricity plays a key role in the energy transition. Transition paths of various sectors are (partly) via a transition to electricity as an energy carrier. This, and an increasing supply of electricity from solar and wind, increases uncertainty in the system and means that grids are being used in ways that were not foreseen when they were designed. In his inaugural address, Koen Kok highlights a number of areas of tension that require attention in this transition.
The tension between solutions to urgent problems and the long-term transition. The tension between the regulated operation of infrastructure and the free market for energy. Between optimisations at local and national level, between energy from near or far. On this basis, he discusses open questions for the industry and science and possible solution directions based on digitalisation and modelling.
Speakers bio
Koen Kok (1969) successively studied Electrical Engineering at Hogeschool Alkmaar, Technical Computer Science at Rijkshogeschool Groningen and Computer Science at the University of Groningen.
In 1998, he started working at the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) in Petten, first as scientific programmer, later as Senior Researcher and Research Coordinator. From 2004, Kok has been closely involved in the development of the PowerMatcher, an intelligent coordination system that matches supply and demand in a local electricity system. In 2013, he received his PhD from the Free University on the theoretical foundations and validation of this system. Between 2011 and 2020, he is doing Smart Grid research at TNO, with a break from 2015 for a two-year period at the Danish Technical University (DTU). From April 2018, he joined TU/e's Electrical Energy Systems (EES) group part-time, with an appointment as part-time professor in November that year.
From 1 September 2020, he was appointed full-time professor in the same group. In his professorship, Koen Kok focuses on the impact of energy transition on power system operations and the role intelligent software can play in it.
Links
How are high-voltage substations and components being developed for future power grids?
Excursion Wind Farm and Solar Farm Weert
How does energy transition in the built environment work?