PhD Position (Research and Teaching Assistant) in Smart Grids

The Smart Grids Group at the Institute of Networked and Embedded Systems of Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt has an opening for a research and teaching staff member position (“Universitätsassistent/in”). The start of employment is soonest with a contract duration of four years.

Your work will comprise:

• Research in the field of energy informatics with emphasis on state-of-the-art methods for smart microgrids
• Independent research with the aim to submit a dissertation
• Teaching in the field of electrical and computer engineering (e.g. “Smart Grid Lab” and “Circuit Systems”)
• Participation in administrative and organizational tasks of the Institute
• Student mentoring
• Assistance in public relations activities of institute and faculty

The Smart Grids Group led by Professor Wilfried Elmenreich works on the design, modeling, and analysis of solutions for future energy applications. Big challenges like the transition of our energy system to a smart, low-carbon emitting approach require an interdisciplinary research approach. The group, composed of engineers, computer scientists, and physicists is engaged in research on self-organizing systems, complex systems, communication networks and computational intelligence for this purpose.

Our team is very international and dedicated to quality research and teaching. The offices and laboratories are located in the well-equipped Lakeside Science & Technology Park. Working language is English. The Institute cooperates with national and international partners in research and industry. It is part of the research cluster Lakeside Labs (self-organizing networked systems) and the European Erasmus-Mundus Doctoral College (interactive and cognitive systems).

Required Qualifications:

• A university degree (Master or Diplom-Ingenieur) in the field of electrical engineering, computer engineering, communications engineering, power engineering, or physics graded with “good” or better
• Fluent in written and spoken English
• Experience in two or more of the following fields: energy informatics, power engineering, communication protocols, artificial intelligence, renewable energy generation, complex systems
• Good programing skills in C, Java or Python

Additional Qualifications

• Good social and communicative competences
• Basic knowledge of German
• First relevant scientific publications
• Relevant international experience

This position serves to enhance the expertise and scientific education of graduates of a Master or Diploma study program and aims at completing a PhD in Technical Sciences. Applications of people who already have a respective PhD cannot be considered.
The university strives at raising the number of female scientific staff members and therefore specifically invites women to apply. In case of equal qualifications, women will receive priority consideration.

Handicapped persons or persons with chronic illnesses who comply with the qualification criteria mentioned are specifically invited to apply.

The annual gross salary is € 2.022,40 (30 hours weekly according to Uni-KV: B1). It is intended to complement this with a 10 hours project contract depending on availability of funds.

Your application has to be uploaded before August 10 with the Human Resource Department at the University of Klagenfurt, reference 448/16. Please take the time to complete the online application form carefully, providing as much detail as possible. Once you have completed the form, please upload your application documents (cover letter, curriculum vitae, written documents, certificates, official records).

Further information can be obtained from Professor Wilfried Elmenreich (Tel.: +43-463-2700-3649).

Travel expenses in connection with the application procedure cannot be reimbursed.
The call for applicants is conformable to § 107 Abs. 1 Universitätsgesetz 2002. The official announcement in German language can be found in the Mitteilungsblatt 23_2015_2016.

Interoperability Between Smart and Legacy Devices in Energy Management Systems

Energy management systems can help to decrease energy consumption by giving user feedback or by directly controlling devices. Smart appliances create a network of devices that can be addressed and controlled via a defined network interface. However, legacy devices will establish a significant portion of a system’s power consumption and, therefore, need to be included into the management system. We propose an open architecture to integrate smart and non-smart devices by using smart plugs and non-intrusive load monitoring methods. Devices are connected either as (i) smart appliances via a fieldbus or wireless network, (ii) legacy devices connected to a smart plug, or (iii) other legacy devices being detected from a time sequence of power consumption values, which are disaggregated into the power draws of different devices. At a service layer, device properties are presented in a unified way including a machine-readable description of their features and properties. The data layer provides an abstract representation of data and functionalities. It connects to the application layer where different applications can access the data. The system supports mechanism for service discovery, service coordination, and service and resource description.

Paper:
D. Egarter, A. Monacchi, T. Khatib, and W. Elmenreich. Integration of legacy appliances into home energy management systems. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 2015.

My talk at Workshop Energieinformatik 45. GI-Jahrestagung "Informatik, Energie und Umwelt":

Slides from Wilfried Elmenreich

Mjölnir: The Movie

Because of the great interest in Mjölnir, we decided to maka a short introduction video providing a walk through the system.

Find out more about the idea behind the system in

A. Monacchi, F. Versolatto, M. Herold, D. Egarter, A. M. Tonello, and W. Elmenreich. An open solution to provide personalized feedback for building energy management. ArXiv preprint arXiv:1505.01311, 2015.

or download the software at mjoelnir.sourceforge.net.
 

Building Management with Mjölnir

We recently announced the release of the stable version 0.2 of our open source energy management system Mjölnir at http://mjoelnir.sourceforge.net.

While the tool targeted so far mostly "disaggregated" device-level energy and power usage, we have now introduced full support for circuit-level measurements (buildings, rooms) which unlocks a considerable potential for further data analysis.

The DIN-RAIL module running the measurement system

As most of energy meters use the industrial automation system ModBus, we have been looking for possible shields to extend our open hardware solution with RS485 communication. We finally selected this RPi hat from Libelium while the meter is the Carlo Gavazzi EM24. The implementation is eased by the Libelium ArduPi library, which makes the C code written for Arduino compatible with the Raspberry Pi. The data is then being sent to our servers through a REST interface.

The overall component shown on the picture is therefore a low cost solution able to retrieve remote measurements via the RS485/ModBus and the USB/ZigBee network. This opens for the future integration of other measurement units, such as water and gas meters.

The support of circuit-level measurements required changes on the Mjölnir system.

The system is now organised in buildings, rooms and devices. A circuit is described by its ID and can be associated to a single building or room.
As usual, the code of the gateway is available on SourceForge, along with the dashboard system.

Bibliography:

1. A. Monacchi, F. Versolatto, M. Herold, D. Egarter, A. M. Tonello, and W. Elmenreich. An open solution to provide personalized feedback for building energy management. ArXiv preprint arXiv:1505.01311, 2015.

Call for Papers Conference on Innovative Smart Grids Technologies Latin American

October 5-6-7, 2015

Hotel Radisson Montevideo, Uruguay

isgtla.org

chairs@isgtla.org

Radisson Montevideo (CC-BY-3.0 Rodrigo uy)

The IEEE PES Conference on Innovative SMART GRID Technologies (ISGT-LA 2015) Latin American, sponsored by the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) and hosted by IEEE URUGUAY SECTION and PES local CHAPTER, will be held on OCT 5, 6 and 7th, 2015.

The Conference will be a forum for the participants to discuss state-of-the-art innovations in Smart Grid technologies, to attend tutorials and Industry Panels.

Conference TOPICS are:

- Renewable Energy Sources and Smart Grid (Hydro, Tidal, Wind, Solar and Electric Vehicles, Storage technologies), Wind Integration, Resources forecast (water, wind, weather), Environmental Impacts and Climate change mitigation,

- Energy and Distribution Management Systems, Wide Area Monitoring, Control and Operation (SCADA Systems), Call Center solutions for Smart Grid

- Computational methods and optimization techniques in Smart Grids; Big Data, Massive Grid Data, Data Mining of Smart Grid, Geographic information system (GIS) technology and Smart Grid, Multi-agent Based Applications for Smart Grids

- Smart Grid Impact on Electric Power Systems (Generation, Transmission and Distribution), Grid modeling, analysis and simulation, real time and co-simulation, Stability

- Demand Response, Demand side management, Customer aspects, user behavior and Flexible Demand,

- Smart Grids Information and Communications Technologies (I.C.T): Communications, System Architecture, Operations Support System (OSS), WANs and LANs Networks, 3G/4G networking. Control and Information Systems: Cyber Security Systems, Intelligent Monitoring and Outage Management

- Power System Instrumentation and Measurements, Metering Infrastructure and Instrumentation, Smart Meters, Components Reliability and Diagnostics, System and Components Asset Management

- Power Quality, Energy Efficiency and Smart Grid, Power Electronics Devices: modeling, application, control. FACTS: flexible alternating current transmission system power electronics and Smart Grid

- Protection in Energy Systems, PMUs and Wide Area Monitoring, IEC 61850, distributed IEDs, Synchrophasors in Distribution

- Smart Grids Interoperability, Regulation and Policies, Codes, Standards, Public Policies for implementation of Smart Grids, Testing and certification

-Integration of Distributed Energy Resources, Distributed Generation Islanded Systems and Microgrids: operation, control, monitoring and technologies, Low-voltage direct current (LVDC) distribution networks

- Home and Building Automation, Smart Cities, Cross Energy-domain solutions, Smart Sensors, Convergence of Smart Grid and the Internet of Things,

- Smart Grid Projects, Field Tests, large-scale demonstrations and deployment experiences, Future trends: technologies, researches, standards, incentives, opportunities

- Smart Grid Agenda; Smart Grid Roadmaps, Smart Grid Infrastructure Investments, Planning and Budgets, Cost and Benefits Analysis, Grant Programs,

- Smart Grids and Electricity Markets, Economics and incentive Regulations for Smart Grids, Impact of Smart Grids in Regulation and Energy Pricing, Smart Grids and Sustainable Developement,

- Smart Grid Utility Assets; Smart Grid Assets Management, urban enviroment, self-healing techniques, underground grids, Smart Wires, GIS for Smar Grid,Substation Equipment and Smart Grids; Transformers, Circuit Breakers, Switches

ISGT-LA Sample Papers;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5mRMHjp1zrIa0NiTlVmZDJva0k/view?usp=sharing

Important Dates:

March 15, 2015 EXTENDED ABSTRACT Submission Deadline
June 15, 2015 Notification of paper ACCEPTANCE
August 15, 2015 Camera-ready / FINAL PAPER Submission Deadline
October 5-6-7, 2015 Conference at Radisson Montevideo Hotel

Evolving a Self-organizing Energy Market for Microgrids

Graphical user interface of the FREVO plugin

Andrea Monacchi and Wilfried Elmenreich went to Zurich to present their paper about a home energy market simulator at Energieinformatik '2014.
In the presented work, self-organizing behavior between prosumers is implemented at device level via market-based energy allocation solutions. The approach is implemented in a simulator extension to the open framework FREVO, which is released for open use. With the help of FREVO, artificial neural network controllers for energy prosumers are designed using an evolutionary algorithm. Minimizing individual and overall running costs enables a better use of local energy production from renewable sources, while considering residents' necessities to minimize discomfort.

• Andrea Monacchi, Sergii Zhevzhyk, Wilfried Elmenreich. HEMS: A Home Energy Market Simulator. Energieinformatik. Zurich, November 2014.

HEMS: A Home Energy Market Simulator from Andrea Monacchi

Impressions from IEEE Conference on Smart Grid Communication 2014

The IEEE Conference on Smart Grid Communication 2014 was held from November the 13th to 14th in Venice. Wilfried Elmenreich, Dominik Egarter and Andrea Monacchi from our group participated at this event.

The conference was organized in 5 different symposia:

• Communications and Networks to enable the Smart Grid
• Cyber Security and Privacy
• Architectures, Control and Operation for Smart Grid, Microgrids and Distributed Resources
• Demand Response and Dynamic Pricing
• Data Management and Grid Analytics

Dominik presented his paper Load Hiding of Household's Power Demand, (Dominik Egarter, Christoph Prokop, Wilfried Elmenreich) in the session on "Cyber Security and Privacy".

Andrea gave a talk about his paper GREEND: An Energy Consumption Dataset of Households in Italy and Austria (Andrea Monacchi, Dominik Egarter, Wilfried Elmenreich, Salvatore D’Alessandro, Andrea M. Tonello) in the "Data Management and Grid Analytics" session.

How the Smart Grid will Improve our Live

WhatIsSmartGrid.org blesses us with a happy video about the Smart Grid: "3 Ways the Smart Grid Improves How We Live". Although the video is a bit uncritical on the challenges and implementation costs, the video is interesting and summarizes expected advantages for the customer in a nutshell: By the way, the three things addressed in the video are reliability, cost-savings, and flexibility.

GREEND: An Energy Consumption Dataset of Households in Italy and Austria

Some days ago, we got notice that our paper "GREEND: An Energy Consumption Dataset of Households in Italy and Austria" is accepted at the IEEE SmartGridComm 2014. The SmartGridComm 2014 will take place in Venice, a fascinating and marvelous Italian city, on November 3-6, 2014.

GREEND: An Energy Consumption Dataset of Households in Italy and Austria, 
Andrea Monacchi, Dominik Egarter, Wilfried Elmenreich, Salvatore D’Alessandro, Andrea M. Tonello

Home energy management systems can be used to monitor and optimize consumption and local production from renewable energy. To assess solutions before their deployment, researchers and designers of those systems demand for energy consumption datasets. In this paper, we present the GREEND dataset, containing detailed power usage information obtained through a measurement campaign in households in Austria and Italy. We provide a description of consumption scenarios and discuss design choices for the sensing infrastructure. Finally, we bench- mark the dataset with state-of-the-art techniques in load disaggregation, occupancy detection and appliance usage mining.

An authors' version is available in arXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.3100

The GREEND dataset is publicly availble, donwload the newest version at https://sourceforge.net/projects/greend/files/GREEND_0-2_300615.zip

Workshop on Human Centered Energy Management

1st Interdisciplinary Workshop on Human Centered Energy Management
to be held from 7th to 11th of July 2014
at Lakeside Science & Technology Park, Klagenfurt, Austria.

An inter-faculty research field “Energy Management and Energy Technologies”, staffed by academics from a wide range of disciplines, has recently been established at the Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt (AAU Klagenfurt). Research efforts focus on energy management and energy innovation, networked and de- central energy systems. Together with the Faculty of Technical Sciences (TeWi), the Faculty for Management and Economics (WiWi) and the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF), this new research area will be further developed in cooperation with external partners such as the Lakeside Park.







The Lakeside Park is a platform for cooperation between enterprises and university institutions in the information and communication technology (ICT) sectors. A place of interdisciplinary research and development, training, production and services. The focus of the Lakeside Park is on selected topics of information and communication technology and complementary technologies such as energy systems. In the Interreg IV projects “Smart Energy” and “Efficient, Effective, Smart” the Lakeside Park establishes inter-regional contacts to strengthen collaborative research and development. Therefore, the Lakeside Park and the AAU introduce this novel interdisciplinary workshop with focus on “Human Centered Energy Management”.

Lakeside Park Klagenfurt with a view to the Wörthersee

Human Centered Energy Management

To ensure an efficient production, supply and consumption of energy, it is necessary to introduce novel technologies. Energy monitoring units, new smart control and managing techniques shall improve energy efficiency in the smallest entities of the common power grid – the Smart Building with its inhabitants and its neighborhood. In that respect the individual human being plays a crucial role for energy management tasks. On the one hand it is necessary to improve the energy efficiency of the costumer’s home to reduce energy consumption and costs. On the other hand also the decrease of environmental pollution by optimal utilization of energy resources is a major task of future energy systems.

The proposed workshop “Human Centered Energy Management” takes up these tasks and tries to identify problems and solutions for human centered energy management tasks in an interdisciplinary manner.

Format and Objectives

The aim of the workshop is to give regional experts, such as local professors and young researchers of the AAU, the opportunity to discuss and elaborate ideas with world-wide experts and to introduce and to discuss further ideas in an interdisciplinary setup. Therefore, participants with academic backgrounds and an interest on novel smart energy management systems as well as companies and research institutes are welcome to present and to discuss their research tasks and ideas.

The workshop will have a dedicated “industry day” providing the companies a platform to introduce their problems and to elaborate possible solutions and ideas with experts in the field of energy systems from different disciplines. The general format of the workshop lasts one week with key-speaker inputs and group work with discussions and presentations. Therefore, the event provides an excellent platform for scientific exchange, networking, establishment of international collaboration and the initiation of joint research projects.

Addressed Topics:

• ICT solutions and approaches for smart home management and systems for integrated energy management.
• Integration of smart and legacy appliances, renewable energy sources and storage systems in buildings to improve energy efficiency and awareness of inhabitants.
• Identification, modeling and simulation of energy systems and human behavior
• Energy data analysis and feedback approaches and behavior influencing information systems
• Economics and law aspects of human centered energy managements systems in respect to smart homes, smart metering and energy data analysis as well as for renewable energy production and storage systems.
• Market and business models for ICT-based energy services designed to improve the recent power grid and homes.

For more information about the workshop and how it is possible to participate, please contact dominik.egarter@aau.at.