The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s popular Renewable Power Generation conference will be making its first visit to Denmark this year. The conference, now in its 7th iteration, will be hosted by the Center for Electric Power and Energy at DTU, which also manages the world-class experiment platform for research and development of renewables integration – PowerLabDK.
Over 180 new research papers will be presented at the conference. Attendees will be able to find out the latest ideas and thinking around wind power plant modelling and control; wave and tidal energy; renewable energy forecasting; power conversion and grid interaction; Hybrid systems combining multiple energy sources; the impact of distributed generation and use of HVDC.
The conference offers a detailed technical forum for both industry and academia to share new ideas, results and projects to drive the industry forward, and explore new ways to overcome common challenges. Jacob Østergaard, Head of Center, Department of Electrical Engineering, DTU and conference chair for this year, said: “the biggest technological challenge is the efficient utilisation of the energy when it is available and get the energy for other sources when the renewables are not available – in a cost-efficient way”.
His committee co-member, David Infield of the University of Strathclyde, agrees: “the main challenge as the proportion of time-variable renewable energy generation increases is the stable and reliable operation of the power system. This requires a conventional plant to become more flexible, and a massively increased use of demand-side management for both power system balancing, and power system frequency stability”.
Planning for the future at both an industry and governmental level is also essential to grow the proportion of renewables generating a country’s energy. Attendees at RPG will hear new ideas around new market design and operation and long-term infrastructure planning and investment. Infield again: “there is concern that the present EU targets for renewable energy are not ambitious enough to provide sufficient market growth to justify increased investment in the renewable energy sector. This is especially important if the EU is to retain its international lead in wind technology. Governments need to listen more closely to the wind industry.”
Denmark leads the way globally in renewable energy, and visitors to the conference will also benefit from seeing two centres in action: PowerLabDK and EnergyLab Nordhavn. Nordhavn is a full-scale smart city energy lab and demonstrates the first integrated battery in an urban environment in Denmark, heat booster stations, intelligent buildings among other future energy solutions.
Ultimately, knowledge-sharing platforms can be one of the best ways for researchers from across the globe to collaborate and start their research on the route to commercialisation. The conference chair again: “new knowledge is the foundation for new technology solutions in the industry. Many of the solutions which are needed within the industry are complex technical solutions which must be based on research results. RPG is an important event for the dissemination of such results and a place for the industry to pick it up.”
RPG 2018 takes place at DTU, Copenhagen, Denmark on 26-27 September 2018. The full programme can be accessed at www.theiet.org/rpg, where it’s also possible to book tickets.