Plenary speakers

Frede Blaabjerg (S’86–M’88–SM’97–F’03) was with ABB-Scandia, Randers, Denmark, from 1987 to 1988. From 1988 to 1992, he got the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering at Aalborg University in 1995. He became an Assistant Professor in 1992, an Associate Professor in 1996, and a Full Professor of power electronics and drives in 1998 at AAU Energy. From 2017 he became a Villum Investigator. He is honoris causa at University Politehnica Timisoara (UPT), Romania in 2017 and Tallinn Technical University (TTU), Estonia in 2018.

His current research interests include power electronics and its applications such as in wind turbines, PV systems, reliability, Power-2-X, power quality and adjustable speed drives. He has published more than 600 journal papers in the fields of power electronics and its applications. He is the co-author of eight monographs and editor of fourteen books in power electronics and its applications.

He has received 38 IEEE Prize Paper Awards, the IEEE PELS Distinguished Service Award in 2009, the EPE-PEMC Council Award in 2010, the IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award 2014, the Villum Kann Rasmussen Research Award 2014, the Global Energy Prize in 2019 and the 2020 IEEE Edison Medal. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS from 2006 to 2012. He has been Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Power Electronics Society from 2005 to 2007 and for the IEEE Industry Applications Society from 2010 to 2011 as well as 2017 to 2018. In 2019-2020 he served as a President of IEEE Power Electronics Society. He has been Vice-President of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences.

He is nominated in 2014-2021 by Thomson Reuters to be between the most 250 cited researchers in Engineering in the world.

The world is becoming more and more electrified combined with that the consumption is steadily increasing – at the same time there is a large transition of power generation from fossil fuel to renewable energy based which all together challenges the modern power system but also gives many opportunities. We see also now big steps being taken to electrify the transportation – both better environment as well as higher efficiency are driving factors. One of the most important technologies to move this forward is the power electronics technology which has been emerging for decades and still challenges are seen in the technology and the applications it is used. This presentation will be a little forward looking (Quo Vadis) in some exciting research areas in order further to improve the technology and the systems it is used in. Following main topics will be discussed:

• The evolution of power devices
• Renewable Generation
• Reliability in power electronics
• Power Electronic based Power System stability

At last some discussions about other hot topics will be given.

Prof. Daniel Hissel obtained an electrical engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs Electriciens de Grenoble, France, in 1994. Then, he obtained a PhD in applied artificial intelligence from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France, in 1998. Until 2000, he worked for ALSTOM Company where he was system engineer on electrical and fuel cell buses projects. From 2000 to 2006, he has been an Associate Professor at the University of Technology Belfort. Since 2006, he is a Full Professor at the University of Franche-Comté and his currently the Vice-President for Innovation of this university. Since 2012, he is the Head of the “Systems, Hydrogen energy, Actuators, contRol, Production, storAge & electric energy Conversion” research team in FEMTO-ST (CNRS) Institute.

His main research activities are concerning hydrogen-energy systems dedicated to automotive and stationary applications, modelling, non-linear control, energy optimization and state-of-health estimation of these systems. Between 2012 and 2019, he has been the founding Director of the FCLAB Research Federation (CNRS), devoted to Fuel Cell Systems Research and Technology. Since 2020, he is the Deputy Director of the French national hydrogen research federation (CNRS), gathering about 300 researchers on hydrogen technologies in France. Since 2022, he is also a Chair Professor at the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF).

He has published more than 550 scientific papers in peer-reviewed international journals and/or international conferences. He has been awarded by the Blondel Medal in 2017 for his work towards industrialisation of fuel cell systems. He has also been awarded by the Innovation Medal of the CNRS in 2020 for his exceptional research work that has led to ground-breaking innovation in the technological field. He is a Fellow of the IEEE since 2021.

To face the dependency to fossil fuels and limit the carbon emissions, hydrogen-energy systems (electrolyzers, fuel cells, hydrogen storage and distribution devices) are very promising technologies and appear to be key candidates to face the increase of the energy demand and promote the energy transition and energy mix.

In the meanwhile, artificial intelligence techniques are more and more widely used for the design, modeling, control, state-of-health estimation, optimization of electric systems. This presentation will propose interesting and stimulating avenues of work in the field of the application of artificial intelligence to the research and development issues associated with hydrogen energy.

The following main topics will be discussed:

• Application of AI for the modeling of hydrogen-energy systems.
• Application of AI for the control of hydrogen-energy systems.
• Application of AI for the optimization of hydrogen-energy systems.
• Application of AI for the diagnostic of hydrogen-energy systems.
• Application of AI for the prognostic of hydrogen-energy systems.

Oriol Gomis Bellmunt received the degree in industrial engineering from the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB), Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain, in 2001 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the UPC in 2007. In 1999, he joined Engitrol S.L. where he worked as Project Engineer in the automation and control industry. Since 2004, he has been with the Electrical Engineering Department, UPC where he is a Professor and participates in the CITCEA-UPC Research Group. Since 2020, he is an ICREA Academia researcher.

In 2022, he co-founded the start-up eRoots Analytics focused on the analysis of modern power systems.

His research interests include the fields linked with power electronics, power systems and renewable energy integration in power systems.

Modern power systems are experiencing a deep transformation because of the massive penetration of renewable generation, the increased electrification of loads and the irruption of electric mobility. Power electronics-based systems are increasingly dominating generation power plants, while many active power converters are used to enhance the flexibility of power transmission and distribution networks.

Power electronics are used for energy storage integration and for High Voltage DC transmission systems and grids. The presentation will focus on present some challenges associated to the power system transformation and the need for new tools and solutions to analyze such systems.

The following main topics will be discussed:

• The role of power electronics and grid forming/following converters in renewable power plants.
• HVDC transmission systems and grids, hybrid AC-DC grids.
• Stability analysis of modern power systems.
• Short-circuit calculations of modern power systems.
• Grid equivalent representations for modern power systems.

Federico Baronti (Senior Member, IEEE) was born in Pisa, Italy, in 1975. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2001 and 2005, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor with Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell Informazione, University of Pisa.

He has worked on the design of innovative electronic systems aiming at improving the performance, safety, and comfort of road vehicles. His recent activities concern Li-ion battery modeling and the development of advanced battery management systems. He is or has been the principal investigator for the University of Pisa of 4 projects funded by the European Commission on the topic of electric mobility and autonomous driving.

He has coauthored around 130 publications on international journals and conference proceedings. He received the Best Paper Award of IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, in 2013. He served as Chair of the IEEE-IES Technical Committee on Energy Storage and the IEEE-IES Technical Committee on Resilience and Security for Industrial Applications. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics and the Open Journal of Industrial Electronics Society.

Electric car markets are seeing an exponential growth with about 14 million new electric cars on the road in 2023, accounting for almost 20 % of the total sales. This trend will lead to an increasing amount of retired batteries from electric vehicles (EVs), which still retain potentialities for a second-life application, especially for stationary energy storage.

To make this opportunity viable from both technical and economical points of view, the design of EV batteries, especially their battery management system (BMS), needs to be rethought to enable a seamless reuse in second-life applications. The main trends in the design of advanced BMS include the development of sensing and control techniques to enhance safety and avoid accelerated battery degradation, as well as to provide a fast, continuous and accurate assessment of the battery health to enable the battery passport concept.

The following main topics will be touched:

• Evolution of lithium-ion technology, market, and applications.
• Lithium-ion working principle, ageing mechanisms, and modelling approaches.
• Evolution of BMS architectures till the integration of the IoT paradigm.
• Evolution of cell monitoring and control techniques.
• Battery state estimation algorithms .