Four theses supervised by INESC TEC's researchers rewarded with REN Prizes
Not one, not two, not even three. Of the six prizes – worth EUR 85 000 – delivered at the 24th edition of the REN Prizes, four were awarded to Master theses in the field of energy under the supervision of INESC TEC's researchers. The ceremony took place in Lisbon on 9 December.
06th January 2020
Not one, not two, not even three. Of the six prizes – worth EUR 85 000 – delivered at the 24th edition of the REN Prizes, four were awarded to Master theses in the field of energy under the supervision of INESC TEC's researchers. The ceremony took place in Lisbon on 9 December.
João Catalão, a researcher associated to INESC TEC and FEUP, saw his students dominate the event by earning 80% of the possible prizes in the master theses category.
At the top of the podium was Nuno Gonçalo Soares, author of the Master thesis “Optimal demand response program for flexible ramps markets”, supervised by João Catalão and co-supervised by Miadreza Shafie-khah, at the time, a researcher at INESC TEC. Rewarded with a EUR 25 000 prize, this research work aimed at understanding how to compensate for the economic and technical losses of generating units due to the uncertainty/intermittence of renewable energy production.
On the other hand, Cláudio Miguel Pinto obtained the third prize worth EUR 10 000, with a paper entitled "Dynamic distribution system reconfiguration to improve system reliability considering renewables and energy storage”, also supervised by João Catalão and co-supervised by INESC TEC's researcher Sérgio Santos.
Under the same supervision, João Carvalho and Vasco Campos also received an Honourable Mention for their Master thesis.
The event was attended by the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor; Rodrigo Costa, Chairman and CEO of REN; Francisco Pedro Balsemão, CEO of the Impresa Group; and João Peças Lopes, researcher at INESC TEC and chair of the jury of the REN Prize.
Created in 1995, this prize is the oldest of the scientific prizes in Portugal, and has been evolving in order to incorporate the developments and transformations experienced by the energy industry over the years.
The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC and UP-FEUP.