Effective integration of Smart Appliances into Demand Response programs. HE-MSCA-PF-2021. Prof. Moreno-Munoz. University of Cordoba (UCO, Cordoba, Spain)

Prof. Antonio Moreno-Munoz Ph.D. is Full Professor at the Dept. of Electronics and Computer Engineering, University of Cordoba (UCO), Spain where he is Chair of the Industrial Electronics and Instrumentation R&D Group. From 1981 to 1992 he was with RENFE, the Spanish National Railways Company. Since 1992 he has been with Universidad de Córdoba, where he was the Academic Director of Master of Distributed Renewable Energy at the University of Córdoba mainly focused on Smart Grids. He has been Head of the Department of Computer Architecture, Electronics and Electronic Technology at the University of Cordoba, Spain.

Member of European Technology & Innovation Platforms (ETIP) Smart Networks for Energy Transition (SNET) WG4. He has been a member of the IEC/CENELEC TC-77/ committee. SC-77A/WG-9. Senior Member, Technical Committee on Smart Grids IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. Senior Member, Technical Committee on Smart Grids IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. ISO International Organization for Standardization AEN/CTN-208/SC-77-210 Committee member. CIGRÉ/CIRED JWG-C4.24 "Power Quality and EMC Issues associated with future electricity networks" Committee member. He is an auditor of projects of R&D for European Quality Assurance (EQA), Springer Science editorial consultant. Editor in Intelligent Industrial Systems Journal, (Springer Science), Journal of Energy, Hindawi, Editor in The Scientific World Journal Hindawi, Review Editor, Frontiers in Energy Research, Energy Systems and Policy and reviewer of numerous IEEE, IET and Elsevier (IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, Applied energy, Energy and Buildings). He has participated in the scientific committees of 4 international congresses and in the Organization of 3 international congresses. His areas of scientific specialization are focused on: Smart Cities, Smart Grids, Power Quality, Internet of energy.

Prof. Moreno-Munoz has taken part in 21 funded R&D projects, including the management of 10 of them. He has authored 3 monographs; 1 Hand-book for engineer and students; 135 Scientific Papers in Journals and Conference Proceedings or Records: Conference Proceedings (80), Journals (43), Book series (12). He has been General Co-Chair of the 3rd International ICST Conference on IT Revolutions 2011 23-25 March 2011 Cordoba, Spain.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT:

Demand response (DR) can be defined as changes in electricity usage by end-use customers from their normal patterns in response to changes in the price of electricity over time or to incentive payments designed to induce lower electricity use at times of high wholesale market prices or when system reliability is at risk. DR includes all intentional modifications to the patterns of electricity of inducing customers that are intended to alter the timing, level of instantaneous demand, or the total electricity consumption. Actions are generally in response to an economic signal (e.g., energy price, or government and/or utility incentive). For automatic DR it is essential to select an internationally recognized standard such as OpenADR 2.0. It is expected that DR programs will be designed to reduce electricity consumption or shift from on-peak to off-peak periods depending on consumers' preferences and lifestyles. Whilst it has no formal definition, within this framework, the term "Smart Appliance" refers to any appliance that serves the electric grid, including, for example, simple deferment options to wait until electricity is out of peak hours. The idea flying over "Smart Appliance" is to simplify customer participation in DR and to allow them to earn more revenue from DR programs by eliminating the requirement to physically press buttons on appliances. Thus, the main objective is to investigate the potential of smart appliances to assist in the management of the energy distribution system.

If you are interested in pursuing this opportunity, please forward your CV and a short motivation letter including your research area, project idea, and how you, and your research, could contribute to my research lines.

REQUIREMENTS

We are seeking an excellent postdoc researcher with R&D experience and the following key requirement: Degree in Electronics Engineering or equivalent.

Needed Skills: Experienced programming knowledge (MCU Assembly, C/C++, Java, Python). Recommended familiarity with OOP, and statistical computing. Experienced on low level programming for microcontrollers, embedded programming and communication protocols. Emulation environments for development and debug. Debugging low-level software and hardware issues. Implementing drivers and test content. Debug tools including JTAG and kernel debuggers. Knowledge and experience on electronic circuit design (PCB, schematics, data sheets, BOM,) and components assembly. Knowledge in EMI/EMC. Extensive knowledge on the use of regular laboratory instrumentation such as multimeters, power supplies, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, etc. Knowledge of Labview. Knowledge of SCADA systems, specific industry protocols (such as ModBus, Profinet).

Knowledge of network protocols and topics (MQTT, HTTP, TCP/IP, Proxy…) is a plus. Knowledge in power Electronics is a plus. Excellent verbal and written skills. Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. Fluent in English is mandatory. Knowledge of Spanish and/or German is a plus.

Expressions of interest must be forwarded before 18^th May 2021 to amoreno@uco.es stating in the subject “EoI_MSCA-PF-2021”. The selected candidate will be invited to work in the application together with Prof. Aurora Gil de Castro and the International Projects Office from UCO from the month of May’2021. Please, ensure your agenda allows for full dedication to the proposal preparation during the summer months since the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship deadline is 15^th September 2021.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH GROUP:

The Industrial Electronics and Instrumentation (IEI) TIC-240 group located at the School of Engineering Science, University of Cordoba, is one of the leading R&D groups in Spain in the field of Smart Grids. The Smart Grid refers to the application of ICT to the electric power sector to improve reliability, reduce cost, increase efficiency, and enable new components and applications. The emergence of Smart Grids together with smart meters, sensors, devices and appliances promises new financial and environmental advantages in the energy market and the overall economy.

The IEI group includes significant research capabilities and activities related to Advanced Electrical Distribution protection and automation, Power Quality troubleshooting, Micro Grids, Advanced Instrumentation, sensors and signal conditioning, Large scale grid integration of renewable energy sources, Communication infrastructures and wireless technologies, Smart Metering, Smart Lighting, Stochastic modelling of energy consumption, HEMS, BEMS, Demand Response (DR). And facing the challenges of Smart Cities and Communities or the Internet of Energy.

Our researchers are actively involved in several standardization committees: IEC, CENELEC, AENOR, CIGRE, CIRED; and in different IEEE technical Societies, like the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society or IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, e.g. organizing both the IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics - Berlin (IEEE ICCE-Berlin 2014) and the IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics- Las Vegas 2016 (ICCE-Las Vegas 2016)

The IEI group carries out research in close collaboration with industry and research partners nationally and internationally, supported by a wide range of research grants, strategic partnerships and industrial R&D projects. With some 19 research staff and postgraduate research students, and a substantial portfolio of aligned research activities it is one of the most dynamic research group in the region of Andalusia. This research leverages a number of relevant technology solutions developed, including:

• A new system for sensing, monitoring and treatment of the information in real time for a pioneer MW grid-connected PV park pilot with storage capability
• Stochastic modelling for Demand Response in the residential sector
• Smart wireless street lighting system

HOST INSTITUTION:

The University of Cordoba (UCO, Cordoba, Spain), established in 1972, is a non-profit High Education and Research Institution considered at the forefront of research in Andalusia and ranking among the top research institutions at the National level. With more than 24 000 students, 1 250 professors, and 800 employees in 2020, UCO has the capacity and dynamism to face the third decade of the 21^st century as a university of high teaching quality and proven scientific solvency. UCO commits with society, promoting innovation, research, and technological development as an instrument for social and economic progress, and has received the "Human Resources Excellence in Research" (HRS4R) European Commission Award, which publicly recognizes that we have improved our human resource policies to align them with the principles of The European Charter for Researchers and The Code of Conduct for Recruitment of Researchers.

Three main offices related to international promotion, funding, transfer of knowledge, and protection of results operate at UCO: the International Relations Office (ORI), the Results Transfer Office (OTRI), and the International Projects Office (OPI). Thanks to their support, UCO has a large experience in coordinating, managing, and implementing international projects since the 2^nd Framework Programme (2FP_1987–1991). During the last Framework Programme (H2020_2014-2020), UCO obtained 45 projects funded, plus 47 projects funded by other European programmes, meaning almost 20 M€ in income.

UCO is equipped with cutting-edge centralized research facilities (SCAI), located at the Rabanales Campus, including a Scanning Confocal Electron Microscope (SCEM), a Genomics and Proteomics Unit, a NIR/MIR Spectroscopy Unit, a Mass Spectrometry Unit, and a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Unit, among others. UCO also has greenhouses, its own Meteorology Station, and a Central Animal Experimentation Unit, which complies with national and European legislation concerning research with genetically modified animals.