Plenary Lecture

Distributed Multi-Generation Systems - Interacting Fields of Knowledge Meet the Research Challenges

Professor Gianfranco Chicco
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Politecnico di Torino
Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino
Italy
E-mail: gianfranco.chicco@polito.it

Abstract: The recent evolution towards designing and exploiting sustainable energy systems has given birth to a broad set of studies addressing technical, economic and environmental issues. In many cases, the related research has been carried out by setting the main focus on one of these issues, while the other ones have been either neglected or introduced in simplified forms, for instance as additional constraints. Nowadays, a new trend is emerging towards an integrated study of the multi-disciplinary aspects related to the energy sector. This trend has the beneficial effect of enhancing the interactions among different scientific areas and worlds. The sharing of concepts, problem formulations and solution methods adopted in different fields of knowledge is increasing on the one hand the complexity of the studies, but is providing on the other hand significant inputs to handle various kinds of complexity in an effective and coordinated way. The presentation addresses the emergent interactions among energy, environmental and economic aspects in the design, planning and operation of local systems for combined production of different energy vectors (such as electricity, heat, cooling, and other products). These systems are interconnected in different ways. Their interactions can be represented through various layers, including a physical layer formed by the network interconnections for exchanging different types of energy; an information layer for data management, communications and control; an economic layer dealing with markets, tariff systems, regulations, and contract provisions; and, an environmental layer dedicated to emission monitoring and trading, with the related regulation aimed at defending the human health and other receptors from the effects of possible hazardous pollutants produced by the energy systems.
The interconnected decentralized energy generation systems are analyzed under the distributed multi-generation (DMG) paradigm. According to this paradigm, a set of unifying approaches is developed to create a consistent framework of analysis. Suitable performance indicators are defined under this framework by exploiting the formal analogies obtained from reformulating specific problems from different fields of research in a consistent way. The DMG-related framework encompasses the already extensive concepts of energy saving, exergy, life cycle assessment, and asset management. Methodological aspects referred to setting up and solving suitable multi-objective optimization problems related to the exploitation of DMG solutions are pointed out. Finally, the perspectives for the scientific community to meet the today’s challenges in the combined energy production sector are outlined and discussed.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Gianfranco Chicco graduated in Electrical Engineering (honors) at the Politecnico di Torino (PdT), Torino, Italy, in 1987 and received the Ph.D. degree in electrotechnical engineering from the PdT School in 1992. In 1995 he joined the PdT, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Distribution Systems. In 1999, he visited the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL. In 2003 he was Member of the Administration Board at the PdT. He has been the scientific responsible or co-responsible of research projects funded by public and private Institutions. He has been the Chairman of the Sixth World Energy System Conference, Torino, Italy, 10-12 July 2006, and the co-Chairman of the Seventh World Energy System Conference, Iasi, Romania, 30 June – 2 July 2008. He is Senior Member of the IEEE PES (Power and Energy Society), Member of the AEIT (the Italian Association of Electrical, Electronic and Telecommunications Engineers), and a Registered professional Engineer in the Province of Torino, Italy. He is the President of the University Academic Planning Council in Electrical Engineering at the PdT. He taughs lectures at the Master and Doctoral levels and is an academic tutor of Doctoral students in Electrical Engineering at the PdT. He is author or coauthor of over 150 publications appeared in national and international journals or Conference Proceedings. He is a co-Guest Editor of two Special Issues dedicated to a selection of scientific papers presented to the Sixth World Energy System Conference, Torino, 10-12 July 2006, for the Energy and the Electric Power Systems Research journals. He has carried out various activities at IEEE Conferences, as Member of the Technical Committee, Track co-Chair of the Technical Program Committee, Conference Session Chairman, Tutorial Organizer and presenter, Member of the Best Student Paper Award Committee, and Reviewer of groups of papers. His research activities include power systems and distribution systems analysis, energy efficiency, distributed multi-generation systems, load management, competitive electricity markets, artificial intelligence applications to electrical systems, and power quality.