Twente Energy Seminar | EWI

We initiated the Twente Energy Seminars (TES) with the objective of inviting speakers from different research groups and professional backgrounds to present their work relating to the energy transition. This hopefully leads to an enlightening discussion and opportunities for possible collaborations. The Twente Energy Seminars occur on alternate Fridays. Speakers may choose to give a physical or an online presentation. The presentation can be anywhere between 15 to 30 mins long and an informal environment can be expected. After the presentation we open the floor for questions and hopefully a stimulating discussion.

Please feel free to contact Aditya or Leander (contact information below) in case you would like to present and engage in a discussion about your work, ideas or a past/prospective paper relating to the energy domain or the energy transition. We would also like to extend an open invitation to everyone interested in the energy transition to join the Twente Energy Seminars physically as an audience member.

The Twente Energy Seminars are hybrid (online and physical). They take place from 9am to 10am on alternate Fridays in building Zilverling, room 4070, University of Twente campus. Get in touch with us so that we can add you to the mailing list and inform you about the upcoming TES speakers (and let you know if a seminar is cancelled as well).

Upcoming speakers

Previous speakers

2026

Astrid Nieße, 20-03-2026

Speaker: Astrid Nieße

Title: An overview on current work in the fields of digitalised energy systems from an energy informatics perspective

Abstract: Energy informatics has become a cornerstone of the global energy transition. In this talk, Astrid Nieße provides a comprehensive overview of current work from her group in this field, highlighting key research areas such as self-organizing safety-critical infrastructures, flexibility modeling, and other approaches in the field of digitalised energy systems. Drawing from ongoing projects, she illustrates how these innovations address pressing challenges, and includes a view on the change to FAIR data.

Slides

Xihai Cao, 06-03-2026

Speaker: Xihai Cao

Title: Cluster-level Load Management for EV Charging: Mitigating Phase Unbalance in Practice

Abstract: The rapid growth of electric vehicles (EVs) charging demand poses new challenges for distribution grids, particularly when multiple chargers share a common connection point. In such clustered environments, coordinated load management is essential to ensure efficient power allocation and grid-compliant operation. One key issue is phase unbalance, which can arise from concentrated single-phase EV charging types.

This presentation presents a cluster-level load management framework that integrates charging-type-aware function with overall charging coordination. The proposed approaches enable EV charging clusters to operate within the cluster capacity while also mitigating phase unbalance and satisfying user charging demands. Beyond simulations, the developed control methods have been implemented and validated in a real-world charging cluster. The practical results provide insight into both the effectiveness of coordinated control and the operational challenges that emerge under user charging behaviors and system limitations.

Slides

Ece Cigdem Karakoyun, 20.02.2026

Speaker: Ece Cigdem Karakoyun

Title: Optimal hour-ahead commitment and storage decisions of wind power producers

Abstract: We consider the joint energy commitment and storage problem for a wind farm paired with a battery. Each hour over a finite horizon, the producer chooses the next-hour commitment (dispatch or purchase), wind generation, and battery charging/discharging. The power producer pays a penalty cost if they do not fully meet their commitment. Using a Markov decision process model under uncertainties in electricity price and wind speed, we first prove the optimality of a state-dependent threshold policy for the power producer’s problem. This policy partitions the state space into several disjoint domains, each associated with a different action type, making it optimal to bring storage and commitment levels to different threshold pairs in each domain. We then employ our structural results to develop a heuristic solution procedure. Numerical results show the high efficiency and scalability of this procedure. It provides solutions with an average deviation of only 0.3% from optimality and achieves a speedup of two to three orders of magnitude compared to the standard dynamic programming algorithm, reducing computation times from several hours to just a few minutes.

Slides

Maëva Courcelle, 06-02-2026

Speaker: Maëva Courcelle

Title: Unlocking Demand-Side Flexibility through Voltage-Based Load Control

Abstract: The increasing integration of distributed energy resources reduces the flexibility traditionally provided by centralized generation. To maintain reliable grid operation, flexibility must increasingly be delivered by distributed solutions. Electrical loads, rather than remaining passive, can actively contribute by adapting their power consumption to system needs. This talk presents voltage-based load control as a means to provide demand-side flexibility in a multi-voltage network architecture. The approach is demonstrated through a Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) experiment conducted at the Energy Lab, highlighting the potential of controlled voltage variations to enable flexible load behaviour.

Slides

Jamal Faraji, 23.01.2026

Speaker: Jamal Faraji

Title: Energy Communities in Service of Local Energy and Flexibility Markets

Abstract: This presentation explores how energy communities can move from simple self-consumption to actively supporting the power system. We show how jointly managing local resources (like solar panels, batteries and flexible demand) can lower members’ energy costs, improve use of renewables, and provide flexibility that helps keep the grid reliable at distribution level.

2025

Charlotte Cambier van Nooten, 04-04-2025

Speaker: Charlotte Cambier van Nooten

Abstract: Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have shown promise in modelling complex graph-structured data within power distribution systems. However, their application remains limited by the absence of uncertainty quantification (UQ) techniques, which are crucial for decision-making. This paper presents a deep ensemble framework for GNNs that generates uncertainty estimates in n-1 contingency criterion classification predictions, an important task for distribution system operators (DSOs) to evaluate network reliability. This paper demonstrates that our approach enhances prediction reliability by providing uncertainty measures, showcasing the effectiveness of deep ensembles for uncertainty quantification (UQ) in GNNs. This capability makes it a valuable tool for supporting decision-making in power system operations.
The speaker is a PhD researcher at Radboud University, as well as Alliander's AI for Energy Grids lab

Tony Xiang, 21-03-2025

Speaker: Tony Xiang

Abstract: In this presentation, the speaker will discuss the design and implementation of high-performance load flow solvers. He was the lead developer for power-grid-model, an open-source load flow solver which is hundreds of time faster than currently used open source packages such as panda power. After the presentation there will be a short demo. After this there is plenty of room for questions

Tony Xiang is currently part-time assistant professor at TU Eindhoven, as well as Principal Scientist at Alliander.

Samuel Bruin, 11-3-2025

Speaker: Samuel Bruin, Neel Lodha, TU Delft

Jorrit Nutma, 10-01-2025

Topic: Smart Energy Research @ TNO

Speaker: Jorrit Nutma, TNO