Mario Alejandro Useche-Arteaga
PhD
Optimal Design and Control of Energy Islands: From the energy challenges to a techno-economical solution for an efficient energy transition.
Host organisation
CITCEA - University Politècnica de Catalunya Barcelona Tech - UPC
Company
YouWind Renewables
Project Description
This project aims to study the energy islands and develop strategies for their optimal design, operation and control. The first stage of this work carries out an extensive review of energy islands with the objective of understanding the projects that are under construction, are being planned and future trends, and identify the challenges and gaps that this technology require to fulfil. Therefore, we will propose mathematical programming strategies for the optimal sizing of the subsystems of the energy islands. The strategies not only have as objective to reduce the installation cost of the energy island but also meets the requirements for an optimal operation that reduces its operational cost. In addition, an optimal algorithm for the automatic design of specific projects will be developed in this work.
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Supervisors
Dr. Marc Cheah Mañe
Dr. Vinícius Albernaz Lacerda Freitas
Dr. Oriol Gomis-Bellmunt
Dr. Pieter M.O. Gebraad
Background
Mario Useche was born in Colombia. He received the bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and the master’s degree in power systems engineering from the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira.
He also worked in various positions within the Colombian utility EDEQ for over seven years, specializing in the fields of power system protection, power quality, distribution system planning and power system analysis.
He is currently a doctoral researcher with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, working on the optimal design of energy islands for the Adored project of the European Union. His current research interests include mathematical optimization and control for power systems applications, renewable energies, energy storage devices, Power-to-X, and HVDC technologies.
Motivation
My main motivation for enrolling the ADoreD project is to develop essential knowledge and high-level skills to tackle the challenges of offshore wind energy and contribute to the acceleration of the deployment of this technology and the planning of the power system of the future through energy islands. I expect to foster effective cooperation and networking that allows me to participate in future collaborative research projects that address real-world challenges, achieve significant impact and leadership in applied research, technology, and innovation transfer, leveraging my experience in mathematical programming, power quality, power protection systems, and distribution system planning.