PhD position on analyzing the effects of the offshore market design on system reliability and stability

KU Leuven boasts a rich tradition of education and research that dates back six centuries. The university’s basic research orientation has always been and will remain fundamental research. At the same time, the university remains vigilantly open to contemporary cultural, economic and industrial realities, as well as to the community’s needs and expectations. KU Leuven is currently by far the largest university in Belgium in terms of research funding and expenditure (EUR 455.1 million in 2015). KU Leuven conducts fundamental and applied research in all academic disciplines with a clear international orientation. In the Times Higher Education ranking KU Leuven is ranked as the 12th European university, while in the Reuters Top 100 of the World’s most innovative institutions, KU Leuven is listed as the first European university.
The ELECTA research group of the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT) of KU Leuven performs research on aspects of generation, transmission, distribution and rational use of electrical energy. Topics covered are smart grids, reliable power systems with high penetration of renewable energy sources, HVDC and LVDC, energy markets, integration of renewable energy sources on transmission and distribution. Seven professors lead the group. They manage the research assisted by a team of senior researchers, post-doctoral researchers and about 50 PhD students.
EnergyVille is an association of the Flemish research institutes KU Leuven, VITO, imec and UHasselt in the field of sustainable energy and intelligent energy systems. EnergyVille brings research, development, training and industrial innovation together under one name, in close cooperation with local, regional and international partners. EnergyVille strives to become one of the top five European institutes in innovative energy research. For that reason, the center was embedded in big national and international networks from the start.
The employment will be at KU Leuven and the position will contentwise be located within the Energy Transmission Competence Hub – ETCH of EnergyVille, facilitating the utilization of underground and HVDC transmission for future-proofing transmission grid.

Project

The development of offshore wind energy hubs, such as the Princess Elizabeth Island in Belgium, is expected to play an important role in reaching the European Union’s ambitious energy and climate targets. To ensure an efficient integration of these offshore generation hubs and related grid capacity in the EU internal energy market, offshore bidding zones have been put forward. We are searching for a PhD candidate with background on power system modelling and optimisation to analyse how the reliability and stability of the power system will be affected by the choice of the market design, and capacity allocation in offshore grids. To that end, the aim is develop suitable optimisation models that allow to assess the behaviour of the system in case of large scale outages, for different initial conditions as a result of the chosen market design. Furthermore, the candidate is expected to analyse the balancing needs for different market designs, and how especially HVDC technology can help to decrease such balancing needs. 

The position is situated in the recently established Energy Transmission Competence Hub – ETCH within EnergyVille, facilitating research HVDC and underground cable competence centre and will be conducted within the research project CROCODILE -  Cross-border Coordination of Offshore Grids under Different Designs for Day-Ahead and Ancillary Service Markets

Profile

• You have a MSc degree in electrical engineering from a reputable institute with a solid background in operation, control and stability of power systems, and the knowledge of (stochastic) mathematical optimization techniques is a plus.
• You have good programming skills, preferably in Julia. 
• You have the ambition to publish your work in top scientific journals in the field and present your work in international conferences. 
• You are a team player and interested to work in a team with experts studying different aspects power systems. 
• You should be willing to occasionally travel in the framework of your PhD. 
• You are able to communicate fluently in English, both orally and in writing. Please consult the language requirements for Arenberg Doctoral School.
• You are willing to contribute to teaching activities for a limited number of hours.

Offer

• A four-year doctoral scholarship starting in as soon as possible with a net monthly salary of approximately €2500, leading to a PhD degree in Engineering, if successful. 
• Multiple benefits (health insurance, access to university infrastructure and sports facilities, etc.).
• Guidance from an experienced faculty, who will teach you the fundamentals of applied, academic research using different research methodologies.
• Training on research methodologies and soft skills through access to internal and external courses. 
• The opportunity to develop a professional network within academia and industry. 
• The opportunity to work in an ambitious and reputable team that encourages personal growth, creativity and taking responsibility. 
• The opportunity to gain experience in the role of project management, after a sense of organizational skills have been demonstrated.

Arenberg Doctoral School
EnergyVille

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. ir. Hakan Ergun, tel.: +32 16 32 10 42, mail: hakan.ergun@kuleuven.be.

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