Carlo Alberto Nucci graduated with honors in electrical engineering from the University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, in 1982. He is a Full Professor and Head of the Power Systems Laboratory of the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi”, University of Bologna. He is an author or coauthor of over 370 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals or in proceedings of international conferences. Prof. Nucci is a Fellow of the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE), of which he is also an honorary member, and has received some best paper/technical international awards, including the CIGRE Technical Committee Award and the ICLP Golde Award. From January 2006 to September 2012, he served as Chairman of the Cigre Study Committee C4 System Technical Performance. He has served as IEEE PES Region 8 Rep in 2009 and 2010. Since January 2010, he has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Electric Power Systems Research journal (Elsevier). He has served as the President of the Italian Group of the University Professors of Electrical Power Systems (GUSEE) from 2012 to 2015. He is an Advisor of the Global Resource Management Program of Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education and Science, and has represented PES in the IEEE Smart City Initiatives Program since 2014. Prof. Nucci is Doctor Honoris Causa of the University “Politehnica” of Bucharest and a member of the Academy of Science of the Institute of Bologna.

Speech Title: Smart Grids-Districts as enablers for Smart Cities
Making full use of, and derive benefits from, the still unexploited potential that smart districts, smart building/homes and micro-grids (MGs) can have in terms of achieving an overall more flexible energy demand represent a challenge in the sector of energy for the near future. The smart districts of interest include the presence of electric vehicle recharging stations, of buildings with thermal and electrical storage as well as of thermal and electrical controlled loads that can therefore allow for flexible demand control. Scarce attention has been paid, so far, to the impact of a coordination among new functions provided by large clusters of micro-grids and smart districts on the electric power system flexibility. The keynote aims at illustrating the relevant, inherent potentialities in terms of contribution to the overall power system efficiency (both technical and economical), sustainability and security. The keynote will therefore cover the smart city definition and requirements, in terms of key technologies and modeling tools that are expected to be applied for future smart cities development. As the smart grid is generally considered as the key enabler for the implementation of the concept of smart city, a brief survey of the power systems evolution in the last decades will be given too. ICT and storage technologies enabling the transition from the traditional structure standing on centralized generation and control to supply customers through AC transmission networks and distribution feeders with unidirectional energy flow, to the new structure in which more renewable generation is deployed also through DC/AC converters at the distribution level by prosumers, will be briefly surveyed.

Dean Sharafi is heading System Management, the operator of South-West Interconnected System in Australia. Dean holds a degree in Applied Physics, a degree in Electrical Engineering and also a degree in Business Management. He has over 25 years of experience in power system engineering which includes Power System Protection, High Voltage Systems, Asset Management and Power System and Electricity Market Operation.

He is a member of Australian Institute of Management, Cigre, Engineers Australia and a senior member of the IEEE. Dean has been actively involved with IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) initiatives and Cigre Working Groups over the last decade and is a member of the Governing Board of the IEEE PES.

Dean has published many papers on power system protection, condition monitoring, asset management and power system operations. He has been also an invited guest industry lecturer on Power System Earthing at Curtin University in Western Australia.

Speech Title: Towards 100% Renewable Energy
The shift from production of energy using fossil fuels, to renewable sources is commonly referred to as energy transformation. This transformation has created many challenges for power system operators, because renewable sources by nature create a variable supply of energy. Currently, grid operators manage the electricity demand levels using a mix of conventional generators which can operate up their maximum capacity levels when required, and the variable renewable generators, which can only operate to a level that their fuel (wind, solar energy, etc) allows them. The trend in future generation investment in most advanced countries is a shift from conventional generators to renewable variable sources; the question is how much renewable energy can be accommodated in future to keep the supply of electricity at the demand level all the time. Can we shift to a 100% renewable energy in the future?

Aoife Foley is a Reader and Advisor of Studies with the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in Queen’s University Belfast. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Elsevier’s Renewable Energy and the Editorial Panel of the Institution of Civil Engineers Proceedings in Transport. She is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Authority and a member of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) and Power Energy Society (PES). She has a BE(Hons) (1996) (Civil & Environmental Engineering) and a PhD (2011) (Energy Engineering) from University College Cork and an MSc (1999) (Transportation Engineering) from Trinity College Dublin. Dr Foley returned to full-time academia in 2009 after 12 years in industry, since then she has accessed more than €3 million in research. Her research focuses on wind forecasting, wind power integration, power and gas systems and transport electrification.

Speech Title: Decarbonization, Mysticism and the Sustainable Energy Transition
The Paris Agreement prioritises finance, technology and capacity-building to rapidly deploy renewable and sustainable energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in answer to the challenge of climate change. As these technologies grow globally many aspects of the natural, human and built environment will need to be rethought. This talk examines the mysticism of decarbonisation and the sustainable energy transition considering the hubris of people balanced with the planet and profits.

Yusheng XUE received the Master degree in Electrical Engineering from EPRI, China in 1981 and the PhD degree from the University of Liege, Belgium in 1987. He has been an elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering since 1995. He is now the Honorary President of State Grid Electric Power Research Institute (SGEPRI or NARI), China, and Adjunct Professor in dozens of universities in China and a conjoint professor of the University of Newcastle in Australia. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy, as well as Chairman of the Technical Committee of Chinese National Committee of CIGRE since 2005.

Speech Title: TBA

Pierluigi Mancarella is Chair Professor of Electrical Power Systems at The University of Melbourne, Australia, and part-time Professor of Smart Energy Systems at The University of Manchester, UK. He received the MSc and PhD degrees from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, worked as a post-doc at Imperial College London, UK, and held several visiting positions in US, France, Chile, and China. His research interests include multi-energy systems, energy system planning under uncertainty, and reliability and resilience of future networks. He has been involved in/led around 50 research projects worldwide, including leading the Melbourne Energy Institute’s power system security assessment studies in support of the “Finkel Review” of the future Australian energy market scenarios. Pierluigi is author of several books and of over 200 research publications. He is also an Editor in the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and IEEE Systems Journal, the convenor of the Cigre C6/C2.34 Working Group on “Flexibility provision from distributed energy resources”, the first and immediate past chair of the energy working group of the IEEE European Public Policy Initiative, and a Power and Energy Society Distinguished Lecturer. Pierluigi holds the 2017 veski Innovation Fellowship by the Victorian Government and was recently awarded a prestigious international Newton Prize for his work on power systems resilience in Chile.

Speech Title: TBA
Will be updated soon

Fushuan Wen received the B.E. and M.E. degrees from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 1985 and 1988, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1991, all in electrical engineering. He joined the faculty of Zhejiang University in 1991, and has been a full professor and the director of the Institute of Power Economics and Information since 1997, and the director of Zhejiang University-Insigma Joint Research Center for Smart Grids since 2010. He is currently a professor in energy systems in Tallinn University of Technology, taking leaves from Zhejiang University. He is concurrently a part-time university distinguished professor in Shanxi University, China.

He has been undertaking various teaching, research and visiting appointments in National University of Singapore (NSTB Postdoctoral Fellowship, Research Fellowship), Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Research Fellowship, Visiting Assistant Professorship), University of Hong Kong (Research Assistant Professorship), South China University of Technology (University Distinguished Professorship), University of New South Wales in Australia (ARC Project Senior Fellowship, Senior Visiting Fellowship), Queensland University of Technology in Australia (CSIRO and ARC Project Visiting Fellowship), Brunei University of Technology (Professorship in Power Systems), Technical University of Denmark (Otto Monsted Guest Professorship in Power Systems), Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (Visiting Fellowship), Murdoch University in Australia (Adjunct Professorship).

His research interests include: 1) power economics and electricity markets; 2) power system investment, planning and operation optimization; 3) smart grids and electric vehicles; 4) power system alarm processing, fault diagnosis and system restoration. He has published 650+ journal papers including 170+ SCI-indexed papers, 460+ EI-indexed papers, and 610+ Scopus-indexed papers. His publications have been cited for 12000+ times. He has completed and is undertaking more than 160 grants and projects from governmental organizations and industry.

Prof. Wen has received many awards both at the national level and provincial level, including the most prestigious National Natural Science Award of China. Prof. Wen is listed in "Most Cited Chinese Researchers" in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 by Elsevier, and is the author of one of the China's 100 Most Influential Domestic Academic Papers in 2016.

Prof. Wen is an editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Systems and IEEE Power Engineering Letters, a subject editor in power system economics of IET Generation, Transmission and Distribution, associate editor of Journal of Energy Engineering (ASCE) and Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy (Springer). He is also on the editorial boards of more than 10 journals.


Speech Title: Planning of Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles with Actual Applications
In this speech, the planning of charging facilities for electric vehicles will be systematically addressed, with actual applications demonstrated. The following topics are included: 1) overview of electric vehicle development around the globe with special emphasis on China; 2) charging load prediction model; 3) siting and sizing of EV charging facilities; 4) impacts of EVs on distribution substations; 5) EV charging load sensitive analysis. Actual planning procedure and attained planning scheme of EV charging facilities in Hangzhou city, China will also be presented.

Luis (Nando) Ochoa is Professor of Smart Grids and Power Systems at The University of Melbourne, Australia and part-time Professor of Smart Grids at The University of Manchester, UK. His expertise in network integration of distributed energy resources (DER) and his extensive portfolio of industrial and academic projects have led to 150+ publications, 60+ technical reports, and two patents, one filed by Psymetrix Ltd (now part of GE) and one filed by The University of Melbourne. Prof. Ochoa is an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer and is also Editorial Board Member of the IEEE Power and Energy Magazine. Prof. Ochoa is an IEEE Senior Member since 2012. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from UNI (Peru), and a Research MSc and a PhD in Electrical Power Engineering, both from UNESP Ilha Solteira (Brazil).

Speech Title: Increasing the PV Hosting Capacity of Distribution Networks: The Role of Smart Inverters and Storage
Australia has currently the largest residential photovoltaic (PV) penetration in the world, with almost 1 in 5 houses with the technology. Battery storage systems are also becoming attractive as they allow storing excess PV generation during the day to use it later at night. To remove barriers for the widespread adoption of residential PV systems, speed up connection times, and reduce costs, it is crucial for Distribution Network Service Providers to increase the PV hosting capacity of their low voltage and medium voltage networks. Adequately exploiting the capabilities of Smart Inverters (found in most PV installations) and residential battery storage systems will be key in this endeavour. This talk presents and discusses different aspects required to assess the residential PV hosting capacity of distribution networks. It explains and demonstrates the benefits but also the potential challenges from exploiting the capabilities of smart inverters (Volt-Watt, Volt-var, export limits) and residential storage systems to increase hosting capacity. Real case studies from Australia are used to demonstrate the quantification of PV hosting capacity considering potential strategies to make the most of smart inverters and storage.