A study by Pablo Rodríguez Pajarón on methods to ensure safer and more efficient power networks is the winner of the second edition of the EDP Labelec Merit Award. Under the title "Probabilistic assessment of power quality in residential distribution networks", the work of the young researcher from the Polytechnic University of Madrid was honoured for its contribution to ensuring that the energy transition does not lead to a loss of security, efficiency or quality in electricity networks.

Jointly promoted by EDP Labelec and EDP New - two areas of the group dedicated to developing innovation projects - this award for academic excellence seeks to encourage research into energy and, at the same time, help find new approaches with the potential to be applied to business reality.

Following the success of the first edition in 2022, the EDP Labelec Merit Award once again received applications from all the geographies in which the EDP group operates, with doctoral theses on the energy sector, especially in the areas of renewable energy, networks, distributed generation and electric mobility, green hydrogen, energy storage and decarbonisation.

In this second edition (which once again awards a prize of 20,000 euros), the winning thesis has developed methods that analyse and evaluate energy quality levels in a probabilistic way, considering the uncertainty patterns of current devices. It also makes it possible to estimate power quality levels in real time. The work of the winner Pablo Rodríguez Pajarón - who specialises in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and is part of the research group on 'electrical generation with wind energy' - can be consulted at this link. The summary of the thesis can be seen in this explanatory video.

A jury made up of Ana Paula Marques (executive director of EDP), Georgios Karionotakis (professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris), Nikos Hatziargyriou (professor at the National Technical University of Athens), Fátima Montemor (professor and vice-president of the Instituto Superior Técnico) and Koh Leong Hai (director of research and development at the Unit. National Metrology Centre of Singapore) analysed all the works.

Rewarding excellence and innovation

Launched in January 2022, the EDP Labelec Merit Award received nearly 60 applications in its first edition from areas such as renewable energy production and integration and decarbonisation, smart grids and energy distribution, new clean energy solutions and innovation technologies and digital solutions.

In this first edition, the EDP Labelec Merit Award was given ex aequo to two doctoral theses focussing on renewable energies. Carla Sofia da Silva Gonçalves, from the University of Porto, was awarded for her work "Renewable Energy Forecasting - Extreme Quantiles, Data Privacy and Monetisation" (PhD in Applied Mathematics) - a thesis that aims to contribute to increasing the share of renewable energy sources in three ways: helping decision-makers by modelling extreme power quantiles given weather forecasts; ensuring that various energy agents can carry out collaborative forecasts; and developing a data market to promote such collaborative forecasting.

The other award went to Simon Camal, from the MINES Paris Tech School, Paris Science and Letters University (PhD in Energy and Processes), for his thesis on "Forecasting and optimisation of ancillary services provision by renewable energy sources". In this case, his research work points to a solution that reduces uncertainty in aggregating dispersed renewable production to obtain a smoother production profile and operation within a virtual power plant control system. This thesis proposes forecasting methods for aggregated renewable production and strategies for the joint supply of renewable energy and services.

With this award, EDP reinforces its mission to actively contribute to the development of the energy sector, with a clear and solid commitment to innovation and the energy transition. The group, currently present in 29 markets spread across four hubs, is fully committed to participating in a collective response to the challenges that are needed to ensure the sustainability of the planet and the EDP Labelec Merit Award is another important step in this direction.