Imperial College London delegation, led by Prof Timothy Green, the director of Energy Futures Lab of ICL visited EE College of Zhejiang University this May. The two sides held the Second Zhejiang -Imperial College London (ICL) Workshop on Smart Energy Network and Storage from 18 to 19th May 2015. A total of 10 presenters shared with their ZJU and ICL partners their recent research fruits.
Professors from ICL and ZJU were making presentations during the workshop held at ZJU.
Electric power is currently entering its greatest revolution in a century, resulting in profound changes in its generation, delivery and consumption. With the development of information and communication technology (ICT), advanced power electronic devices and energy storage units, the electric power grid is on the way to becoming the backbone of future smart energy network. Moreover the increasing penetration of renewable energy resources and energy storage units lead to an analogy between internets which store and exchange information and smart energy network that furnish energy from generation, storage and consumption. In response to this paradigm shift, the UK, one of the leaders developing smart energy network technology, is pushing for major reforms for energy efficient and energy friendly economy. The electricity sector of China has become the largest electric power industry in the world, whilst taking advantage of smart energy network and storage for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The workshop indicated it was timely for both ZJU and UK side to share the vision, ambition and resources to address this global challenge, providing enduring solutions to China, the UK, EU, US and beyond. The prospect of electric power development worldwide provided chances for further research collaborations of the two sides in areas of common interest in smart grid technology.
The delegation visited afterward labs of Microgrid Experimental Platform that was attached to Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Electrical Equipments & Systems on Marine Renewable Energy. They meanwhile took the opportunity to visit Huadian Electric Power Research Institute, an institution belonging to China Huadian Corporation Science and Technology Institute（CHDI for short).
