Postdoctoral Researcher Position: Multicriteria Optimization of Positive Energy District

University: UCLouvain (Louvain School of Engineering)

Department: Institute of Mechanics, Materials, and Civil Engineering

Lab: Sustainable Energy Systems

Professor: Hervé Jeanmart

Field: Energy System Modeling

Contract Duration: 24 months (Full-time), start 01/01/2024

Funding: Horizon Europe - FEDECOM / InterPED

Position Description:

As a senior researcher, you will lead a team of 3 researchers within the InterPED project. This role involves close collaboration within the research team and project partners, scientific leadership, and ensuring UCLouvain meets project targets. Working alongside a team of 4 researchers (2 PhDs and 2 Postdocs), you will focus on developing and applying models to enhance the integration of renewable energy sources at the community level and optimize the utilization of excess and waste heat. Using a Life-Cycle-Based approach, the key messages will be nuanced with additional indicators (global warming potential and planet boundary indicators). The project builds upon existing models, EnergyScope [1-3] and REHO [4-6], co-developed by EPFL and UCLouvain, and the Dispa-SET model used for dispatch optimization [7]. These models will be applied to real cases to evaluate development scenarios based on techno-economic and life-cycle indicators. The research outcomes will contribute to the establishment of Positive Energy Districts  (interPED project) and Energy communities (FEDECOM project [8]).

What We Offer:

• Participation in both methodology development and application-driven projects, fostering contributions to the research community and society.
• Collaboration with world-class international research groups at UCLouvain and EPFL.
• Career development and networking opportunities through conferences, seminars, and workshops.
• Access to a network of leading researchers in energy system modelling and participation in the core development team of EnergyScope [5] and REHO [6].
• Competitive salary (~€2,800 per month).

Qualifications and Requirements:

• A Ph.D. in energy system modelling, energy, or optimization.
• Proven experience in energy systems, life cycle assessment, and/or optimization.
• Proficiency in both spoken and written English.
• Strong programming skills (Python, Julia, Git, etc.) and expertise in optimization tools (AMPL, Pyomo, Jump, Gurobi/Cplex, or other MILP tools).
• Team spirit and a collaborative mindset.
• Experience in European research projects (desirable, but not mandatory).

How to Apply:

Interested candidates should submit the following documents to herve.jeanmart@uclouvain.be  and gauthier.limpens@uclouvain.be :

• Motivation letter
• CV (maximum 2 pages)
• Recommendation letter
• A brief analysis of the project idea and how you would contribute (maximum one page)

Appendix 1: details of tasks, researchers team and project

Role of the Postdoc Researcher

The Postdoc will closely collaborate with other researchers, mentor PhD candidates, and coordinate the FEDECOM project for UCLouvain.

Key tasks include:

• project coordination
• application of energy system optimization models to real case studies
• modification and enhancement of models for waste heat representation
• application of life-cycle assessment methods
• presentation of prospective scenarios to industrial partners
• contributions to the scientific community.

Interactions with other researchers:

The models used have active international communities [3,6] and provide opportunities for collaboration, learning, and knowledge dissemination. Possibility for mobility at EPFL (IPESE lab [9]).
 

Research Group Environments:

The collaboration between the Sustainable Energy Systems lab (UCLouvain) and IPESE [9] (EPFL) offers unique advantages for the Postdoc researcher, including co-supervision and access to the expertise of both labs. Strong initiatives have been started and/or endorsed by the group such as the Carnot Initiative [10], Ingé en transition [11] or NegaWatt Belgium [12].

Project description:

InterPED aims to enable the concept of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) via sector coupling, cross-vector integration, demand flexibility and consumer engagement, while improving utilisation of local renewable energy sources (RES), storage and excess/waste heat (E/WH) sources. InterPED will couple RES, storage and excess/waste heat (E/WH) sources (community assets) available in the pilots with the necessary know-how and ICT expertise to ensure improved operation of PEDs and grid robustness. This will allow InterPED’s end users (aggregators, service providers, urban planners) to deliver benefits to both grid stakeholders (DSO/TSOs) and final consumers (and prosumers). To do so, InterPED will deliver a scalable and adaptable cloud-based platform composed of analytical, modelling and optimization services for planning, supervision and control of integrated PEDs (including power, heating and cooling, and mobility). Optimized PED operations will be demonstrated at pilot sites while enabling a cooperative demand response (DR) strategy at community/district level. In addition to automated control-actions, InterPED intends to engage the consumers via community building (e.g. CECs or RECs), representing a still largely untapped source of flexibility, while enabling them to play an active role in grid balancing. By making it cloud-based and by ensuring system interoperability (both syntactic and semantic), InterPED will enable aggregators and actors positioned to adopt the proposed business model (e.g. ESCOs, energy retailers, DSOs) to deploy the InterPED solution immediately almost anywhere, while reducing the cost to its scalability. The key strategy to ensure solutions will work well in the everyday context of consumers is that InterPED will involve the consumers (community) and service providers in the design of the solutions through participatory co-design processes. InterPED will verify the technical and commercial feasibility of its integrated package in four large-scale pilots, each representing an existing PED.

Bibliography:

[1] Limpens, G., Moret, S., Jeanmart, H., & Maréchal, F. (2019). EnergyScope TD: A novel open-source model for regional energy systems. Applied Energy, 255, 113729.

[2] https://energyscope.readthedocs.io/en/master/

[3] Link to join the EnergyScope community (slack platform): https://join.slack.com/t/energyscopecommunity/shared_invite/zt-235qev7qb-Gx1Jpr3BucKjN1Ny5LlusQ

[4] Middelhauve, L. (2022). On the role of districts as renewable energy hubs (No. 9562). EPFL.

[5] https://reho.readthedocs.io/en/main/

[6] Link to join the REHO community (slack platform):
https://join.slack.com/t/renewableener-a6i3215/shared_invite/zt-263jc51d3-jbkbIqD2BR4H1axpZfGoaA

[7] https://www.dispaset.eu/en/latest/
[8] https://fedecom-project.eu/

[9] https://www.epfl.ch/labs/ipese/

[10] https://uclouvain.be/fr/chercher/louvain4energy/initiative-carnot.html

[11] https://sites.uclouvain.be/ingesentransition/

[12] https://www.negawatt.be/