Energy

On this page you may find examples of successful projects developed in the area of Energy by Engineering researchers at the University of Groningen and public and private partners.

Energy-based analysis and control of the grid: dealing with uncertainty and markets

A team of researchers consisting of Prof. Claudio de Persis, and Prof. Jacquelien Scherpen from the Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen, Prof. Arjan van der Schaft (Johann Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science) and colleagues from TU Delft, DNV KEMA and TSO TenneT are developing a new approach for the modeling, analysis and control of smart grids based on energy functions. Their project “ Energy-based analysis and control of the grid: dealing with uncertainty and markets (ENBARK)” focuses on dynamic pricing algorithms that formulate the maximization of the social welfare as the stabilization of an equilibrium point. The combination of economic and energy considerations in a unifying energy-based framework has no precedent in the literature and will lead to a breakthrough in how future smart grids will be operated. ENBARK was awarded by the National Scientific Organization within its research program Uncertainty Reduction in Smart Energy Systems (URSES) that supports the Energy Top Sector .

The Ocean Grazer project

Through the Ocean Grazer Project,  Dr. Antonis Vakis, Prof. Bayu Jayawardhana from the Engineering and Technology Institute at the University of Groningen and Drs. W.A. Prins (innovator and project manager) cooperate with academic and private partners from the Netherlands and abroad to develop a new, adaptable device for the collection and storage of multiple forms of ocean energy. The project has the endorsement of the Provincial Executive of the province of Groningen.

Sustainable buildings

The Sustainable Buildings initiative, a spin-off of the Distributed Systems research group (under the leadership of Prof. Marco Aiello) at the University of Groningen has as main goal to make office buildings more energy efficient and therefore sustainable. Sustainable Buildings offer customized solutions for consumption and environment monitoring, and for manual and automatic control. To do that, they provide a SaaS cloud platform that enables organizations and businesses to save up to one-third of energy in their buildings. The spinoff also focuses on public energy dashboards that make users of buildings more aware of energy they consume at work, on energy dashboards for management that help managers get better insights into energy consumption in their buildings and on automating the control of energy consuming devices using intelligent algorithms.