Alessandra Parisio – Research interests

I am currently involved in research projects related to Energy Systems, Smart Grids and Smart Buildings, in particular:

• within the European project EIT ICT Labs (http:www.eitictlabs.eu), I am the leader of two tasks, Virtual Micro-Grid Laboratory“ (action line Smart Energy Systems) and HVAC testbed” (action line Cyber Physical Systems). Several laboratories of European universities, research centers and industries are virtually connected in order to set up a Micro-Grid equipped with loads (both critical and controllable), local generators (fuel cells), solar panels and wind turbines, batteries and electrical vehicles. Within this virtual environment, several case uses are dened to be tested;

• within the Stockholm Royal Seaport (http:stockholmroyalseaport.com/), which is a project about transforming the Stockholm seaport in a world-class sustainable city district, I am the responsible for KTH. I am mainly involved in the Active House subproject, which aims at developing a Home Management System (HMS) that optimally schedules smart appliances in an apartment and manage the electrical energy consumption so that the user can choose to be either cheaper or cleaner, or care about both energy costs and CO2 emissions. New buildings have been already built in the Stockholm seaport area and families and couples have agreed to move in and use the HMS. The buildings will be then supported by a Micro-Grid, meaning that they will be equipped with solar panels and storage systems;

• within the KTH HVAC testbed project, I am in charge of developing an Occupancy-based Model Predictive Controller (MPC) to reduce the energy consumption of the HVAC system while keeping the same level of occupant comfort. The controller will be implemented and tested in an actual environment (laboratories, seminar and student rooms) and it will be further virtually connected with a solar plant and a storage systems to gain insights in their capability of reduce both energy costs and demand peak. I am presently supervising a master student working on the HVAC experimental system.

During my previous experience as research assistant in Italy, at the Group for Research in Automatic Control Engineering (GRACE), University of Sannio, I have been working on optimization and control of Micro-Grids, which includes storage systems as dynamic systems whose state is the stored energy level. I developed an MPC controller to optimally manage the power dispatch and the commitment of all the components of a Micro-Grid (loads, both controllable and critical, Distributed Generators (DG), storage systems, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and the interaction with the utility grid). Curtailment policies charge of handling the Micro-Grid components in order to optimize a given performance criteria. are also considered. The Micro-Grid Operator is in order to optimize a given performance criteria. I was the lead user for the Stochastic Optimal Predictive Control for Microrids (SOCP-MicroGrids)", within DERri (http:www.der-ri.net), a collaborative European research project; the MPC controller for Micro-Grids I developed has been tested on the experimental Micro-Grid located in Pikermi-Athens, Greece, on the premises of Center for Renewable Energy Sources and Savings (CRES). The CRES Micro-Grid is grid-connected and comprises solar panels, resistive (electrical and thermal) loads, one co-generator, one fuel cell and one battery. Further, I was involved (and I am still involved as consultant) in two European projects concerning Micro-Grids and Smart Cities:

• e-Gotham (Sustainable Smart Grid Open System for the Aggregated Control, Monitoring and Man- agement of Energy) (http:e-gotham.eu/), which aims at dening a complete solution for Micro- Grids in the residential, tertiary and industrial sectors that include dierent congurations of loads, distributed generators and energy storage components;

• I3RES (ICT-based Intelligent management of Integrated RES for the smart grid optimal oper- ation) (http:cordis.europa.euprojectsrcn/106338_en.html), which aims at integrating RES in the distribution grid by incorporating intelligence at three dierent levels: in the integration of RES and the development of control and management mechanisms that reduce the impact of its intermittency; in the facilitation of the participation of all actors in the electricity market; and in the overall operation of the network. Further, as a researcher within GRACE, I experienced teaching activities both as assistant and as external course teacher. I also have been the co-supervisor of several undergraduate and master students. Within European projects and academic research, I had and I have the inspiring opportunity to discuss and collaborate with people from Academy, Research Institutes and industries (e.g., Ericsson, Siemens, ABB), having dierent backgrounds, nationalities and ages. I always seek to understand others’ viewpoints and their motivations and clarify mine in order to work with them to dene and achieve our research objectives. I have also contributed to the white paper Vision for Smart Grid Controls: 2030 and Beyond, (Project Lead: Anuradha Annaswamy, Chapter Leads: Massoud Amin, Anuradha Annaswamy, Christopher De- Marco, and Tariq Samad), which is to be published in 2013.