PhD Position at DTU

I contact you to kindly ask you to share the information about a PhD position in our group with potential candidates in your group or network. This position is about integrated energy systems with a start-date of October/December 2020. The main focus will be the investigation of uncertainty propagation among energy sectors, the systemic risk analysis, and eventually the design of systemic-risk-aware markets for integrated energy systems. Further information can be found in the file attached.

Best regards,

Jalal

Jalal Kazempour
Associate Professor

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Department of Electrical Engineering
Center for Electric Power and Energy
Elektrovej, Building 325, Room 142
2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
Email: seykaz@elektro.dtu.dk
Web: https://sites.google.com/site/jalalkazempour/

Fully funded PhD scholarship in “market design for cost-optimal and anti-fragile integrated
energy systems”

The Centre for Electric Power and Energy (CEE) at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU) invites applications for a 3-year fully-funded PhD position in “market design for cost-optimal and anti-fragile integrated energy systems”. The PhD project is funded by DTU joint alliance research program, aiming at strengthening the research collaborations with alliance universities.

This specific project targets a research collaboration between DTU and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The successful applicant will be placed at DTU Electrical Engineering Department for two years, and as a visiting guest PhD student, will stay at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management of NTNU for one year. The final PhD diploma, if the project is successful, will be issued by DTU – this is not a double-degree PhD position between DTU and NTNU.
The project is expected to start in the first of November 2020 (or the first of December 2020 by latest). A start-date in 2021 is not possible.

Responsibilities and tasks

This is a scientifically ambitious and multidisciplinary project, aiming to develop advanced game-theoretic, optimization, and machine learning techniques to design efficient market and coordination schemes for integrated energy systems, including power, natural gas, heat and hydrogen systems. The overall goal is to illustrate the path towards cost-optimal and anti-fragile integrated energy systems.
Coupling energy sectors unlocks flexibility for renewable energy integration. However, the existing approaches to operation of integrated energy systems are naive with respect to “uncertainty propagation” and “systemic risk”. Overlooking systemic risk in sector coupling necessarily leads to potentially harmful propagation of uncertainties (mostly induced by renewables) among sectors. It compromises the reliability and resiliency of comparatively fragile sectors, and through uncertainty propagation (even possible cascading failure), the reliability of the integrated energy system as a whole.
This project tackles such a challenge by (1) exploring the uncertainty propagation among energy sectors induced by renewables, (2) quantifying the systemic risk, and (3) introducing new market designs and/or new market products/players to enhance the reliability of the entire integrated energy system against the systemic risk.
Qualifications
Candidates should have a two-year master’s degree (120 ECTS points) or a similar degree with an academic level equivalent to a two-year master’s degree. A successful candidate will have a strong background in most of the following points:
Knowledge of power and energy system operation, renewable integration, power system
economics and energy markets
Knowledge of convex optimization, game-theoretic complementarity models, and stochastic
programming to model uncertainty, ranging from scenario-based stochastic optimization to
chance-constrained programming and robust optimization
Knowledge of programming tools such as Julia and Python

Excellent use of the English language

Ability to present results in technical reports, and prepare scientific papers for publication in
international journals

Supervisors

The main supervisor will be Associate Professor Jalal Kazempour from DTU. The co-supervisor will be Professor Ruud Egging-Bratseth from NTNU.
We offer DTU is a leading technical university globally recognized for the excellence of its research, education, innovation and scientific advice. We offer a rewarding and challenging job in an international environment. We strive for academic excellence in an environment characterized by collegial respect and academic freedom tempered by responsibility.
Salary and appointment terms
The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of
Professional Associations. The allowance will be agreed upon with the relevant union. The period of employment is 3 years.
Are you interested to learn more about this position or to apply?
Please contact Associate Professor Jalal Kazempour (seykaz@elektro.dtu.dk) at your earliest convenience.