Published:
Merlinda Andoni, a second-year PhD student in the Smart Systems Group, has been selected as a finalist for the Academic Award in the Young Professionals Green Energy Awards 2017.
I am truly honoured to have been shortlisted for the Young Professionals Green Energy Awards 2017. This experience empowers me to try even harder to achieve solutions that enable a sustainable energy future.
Merlinda, who is working within the the Institute of Sensors, Signals and Systems (ISSS) is researching renewable energy sources (RES) integration, a key challenge for ensuring a sustainable and carbon-free energy future.
Her research findings have already been presented at several international conferences and workshops and received the best paper accolade at the International Workshop on Complex Negotiations ACAN.
As renewable technologies are intermittent and difficult to predict, RES generation is often “wasted” or curtailed to ensure safe operation and power system stability. This leads to lost revenues for producers but can also discourage long-term RES investment.
As a result, curtailment is a crucial issue for renewable generators installed in remote areas of Scotland, such as Orkney and Shetland. In areas like these renewable generation is high and the network capacity is inadequate to transfer the energy elsewhere.
Through her research, Merlinda is exploring artificial intelligence and game-theoretic techniques to actively manage electricity networks in weak grid environments and to model strategic interactions between RES investors and system operators.
Merlinda Andoni said: “I am truly honoured to have been shortlisted for the Young Professionals Green Energy Awards 2017. Being nominated has been a huge confidence boost and is a great opportunity to communicate my research findings to the broader renewable energy community in Scotland. This experience empowers me to try even harder to achieve solutions that enable a sustainable energy future.”