INESC Porto Description

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INESC Porto is a private non-profit association, recognized as Public Interest Institution, which after having been classified as Excellent in the institutional evaluation of the Science and High Education Ministry (MCES), has been appointed as Associated Laboratory to the MCES. INESC Porto was created in December 1998, as result of a process of independence of Porto site of INESC, having as founding associates INESC, University of Porto and Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto. In June 2006, the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and the Polytechnical Institute of Porto also became INESC Porto's associates. INESC Porto is devoted to scientific research and development as well as technology transfer, consultancy and advanced professional training, having 480 people well balanced between university and polytechnic staff (150 PhD), technical and administrative staff and grant holders. INESC Porto, Associated Laboratory, has the following strategic areas of activity: Telecommunication and Multimedia, Power Systems, Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Communication and Information Systems, Optoelectronics and Electronic Systems and Innovation and Technology Transfer.

The Power Systems Unit of INESC Porto with 55 researchers (15 of them holding a PhD) developed expertise in several research areas:

• Integration of renewable generation and wind parks in the network – the Power Systems Unit of INESC Porto has a long experience in this area both coming from its participation in consultancy projects. Next a set of relevant projects are described:

  • Evaluation of the impact of the integration of dispersed generation in the networks – consultancy study for the Portuguese Regulatory Board aimed at analyzing the technical impact of connecting several electricity sources to distribution grids;

  • Participation in the CARE and MORECARE Joule EU financed projects aiming at analyzing the integration of renewable generation, namely wind parks and storage, in isolated systems, like islands, including and enhancing the economic modules to model market issues, unit commitment and dispatch problems as well as stability issues;

  • Development of several consultancy studies for wind park developers related with steady state and dynamic behavior analysis for the integration of wind parks in Portugal, Cabo Verde, Hungary and Brazil.

• Development of several advanced scientific modules to be integrated in a DMS (Distribution Management System) of a Portuguese industrial company (EFACEC) that acts in the international market. Development and testing of new models for transmission and distribution networks management and control;

• Wind Power Forecasting, through the development of specific tools for wind power forecasting for 72h ahead, presently used to forecast wind power generation in wind parks located in Portugal and amounting to about 800 MW, and through the participation in the ANEMOS.Plus EU FP7 research project and participation in the ARGUS project (under development for the Argonne National Laboratory – USA);

• Dynamic studies – project developed with REN (Portuguese TSO) to perform stability studies for tuning PSS (Power System Stabilizers) for generating units of the Public Power System;

• Microgeneration – participation in the EU financed MicroGrids and MoreMicroGrids projects aiming at studying the technical and economic feasibility of large scale integration of micro generators in LV distribution networks both in a grid connected mode and in an isolated situation;

• Specific consultancy for the TSO of Brazil (ONS – Operador Nacional do Sistema) to define the grid code requirements for the connection of wind generation in Brazilian electrical grids;

• Development of studies for the TSO of Portugal and of Spain (REN and REE) to evaluate the reserve requirements of both generating systems through reliability analysis, considering large scale renewable energy sources penetration. Chronological Monte Carlo simulation to obtain reliability indices (conventional and well-being) was used. Renewable generation comprised mainly hydro, wind, small hydro power sources, although other sources such as solar were also modeled;

• SmartMetering through the participation in the InovGrid project, developed by EDP in Portugal, where INESC Porto contributed with the definition of the reference model and specification for the development of a Smart Metering infrastructure capable of dealing also with the integration of microgeneration and electric vehicles;

Key Personnel

Prof. João Peças Lopes obtained a degree in Electrical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of Porto University (FEUP) in 1981. In 1988 he completed his Ph.D. and in 1996 he obtained his Aggregation degree both at FEUP. He is presently Full Professor at FEUP where he is also Director of the Sustainable Energy Systems PhD program. From April 1996 to 2000 he collaborated with Iowa State University as Professor Collaborator. Presently he is one of the members of the board of Directors of INESC Porto. He was responsible by INESC Porto activities in EU research projects MicroGrids and More MicroGrids. He has been responsible for a very large number of consultancy and research projects in Portugal, Cape Verde and Brazil under contracts with the industry and research national projects. He was also the technical and scientific responsible of projects developed for ERSE. He served also as a consultant of ERSE for the definition of the model of Iberian Electricity Market. He was also Chair of the steering committee of the public tender launched in 2005 by the Portuguese government for new 1800 MW of wind generation. He is also responsible by the participation of INESC in the Green Islands project. Dr. Peças Lopes has published more than 200 papers and supervised more than 20 post graduation students.

Prof. Manuel Matos graduated in Electrical Engineering in FEUP (1977), and got his Ph.D. in Power Systems in 1988, also from the University of Porto. In November 1996 he received the aggregation title from the University of Porto. In 1978 he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering of FEUP, where he is Full Professor since 2000. Since 1996 he is Coordinator of the Power Systems Unit. He was involved in several national, EU and international RTD projects and in development contracts and consultancy for utilities, TSO, industrial partners, government agencies and for ERSE. His research interests include classic and fuzzy modelling, optimization and decision-aid.