Creating Resilient Sustainable Microgrids through Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems

Lead Research Organisation: University of Leeds
Department Name: Sch of Geography

Abstract

Universal access to affordable modern clean energy is goal 7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs state that "Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity the world faces today. Be it for jobs, security, climate change, food production or increasing incomes, access to energy for all is essential." In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 625 million people have no access to modern energy services. Most African countries - 42 in all - are net energy importers and fossil-fuel-fired plants account for 81% of total electricity generation, which is mostly in South Africa. Most large infrastructure projects are public investments financed by national budgets. The estimated cost of bringing Africa's energy infrastructure to modern standard is 93 billion USD/ year. There is a huge gap between energy supply and demand in Africa, and other developing countries, that successive efforts have failed to bridge. The envisioned holistic hybrid MGs will lead to a prototype model for the creation of sustainable and resilient distribution networks for off-grid locations. This approach has the potential to enable electrification of millions of households. Both Tanzania and Uganda are low income 'least developed' countries with a high level of rural poverty and very limited grid connectivity. The Republic of Congo is classed as a lower middle income country due to its mineral wealth, but has low grid connectivity away from cities and its research sector suffers from under-investment in research capacity building

This proposal focuses on energy distribution in off-grid communities with a population of around 4000 inhabitants, a size that has been recommended by our African project partners as being the practical optimum for implementation. The research has an integrated approach to ensure that the design of the system is maintainable, has good longevity with low cost, meets diverse community energy needs and is resilient to natural hazards. The overall goal is to enable the development of sustainable and resilient energy distribution grids in rural communities of the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) Tanzania, Uganda and Republic of the Congo, where currently at most 10% of the rural population has access to electricity. We will achieve this by designing a scalable low-cost MG infrastructure based on a novel planning methodology that incorporates real-time operational strategies and sustainable generation flexibility at the system design stage to reduce the investment requirements and increase sustainability. The MG paradigm will ensure that the research outcomes are also applicable to communities with sporadic grid connections. Building on the existing partnership platform created by the PI's five year £1.2M Royal Society renewable energy capacity building project, the present grant will enable us to realise and experimentally validate a unique, integrated, design platform that incorporates electrical network requirements with hybrid renewable energy generation sources as well as socio-economic and local community-driven considerations. This holistic approach is driven by the understanding that the creation of a truly sustainable, reliable, and locally maintainable energy distribution infrastructure needs to be focused on actual needs and local realities, beyond a purely electrical perspective. This will provide innovative distribution system configurations targeted at supporting the scalable and self-sustainable electrification of rural communities in our three partner countries. An advisory panel drawn from partners of our EPSRC Pump Priming for Global Challenge Research project will ensure that the results are also applicable to LMICs globally.

Planned Impact

The people who will benefit from this research are those without access to modern clean energy supplies. It is estimated by the African Development Bank that over 645 million Africans (about 40 per cent of the continent's population) have no access to electricity. The focus for electrification is usually on urban centres rather than rural areas due to the presence of economic and support activities: industries, financial service providers, government organizations, major educational institutions, shopping centres, etc. In general, the rural population is poorer than the urban and the economy is more hand-to-mouth or subsistence which does not allow for savings of money or obtaining assets. This means that many households cannot afford connection fees or even monthly electricity costs.

Low-income countries need to build their research capacities in order to ensure a suitably large and skilled cadre of prospective researchers and educators working on renewable energy. Governance, financing and operational arrangements are organised for centralised non-renewable energy infrastructure. This involves major capital investments and top-down control. In contrast, small-scale renewable energy systems are implemented by local businesses and community effort. Facilitation of local energy requires the uptake of innovative technology and the establishment of new legal and institutional frameworks to encourage investment and sustainable energy supply.

This project will develop an holistic approach to sustainable, resilient, micro-grids (MG). It will use state-of-the-art technology at the University of Leeds to research and create micro-grid scenarios that can be applied in realistic situations in Africa. The project will draw on field data and experience in Africa to ensure that that the MG meet realistic local needs and expectations. Through close collaboration with an existing project on capacity building for renewable energy, funded by the Royal Society and running parallel with the proposed project, integration with existing training needs and local governance and businesses will be achieved

The project will also draw on knowledge and experience from Indonesia, which has embarked on a major programme of promoting renewable energy to enhance local development through provision of universal access to clean modern energy supplies. This is particularly important for the many small islands that comprise Indonesia as a whole and these are part of the 'Iconic Islands' project for small-scale renewable energy on islands that can't be reached by large-scale energy infrastructure.The tariff regulations introduced made many investors postpone their plan to invest in the renewable energy power sector. The project will conduct research on implementation of the Iconic Islands project in two ways. Firstly by assessing the technical options adopted and examining in detail the potential for bioenergy. Secondly by analysing the governance and institutional arrangements with specific attention being paid to the question of tariffs, which has been identified as a key barrier to sustainable private sector investment. This learning experience will be transferred to the design and implementation of micro-grids in the African context.

The innovations being researched by the programme are of the scale that can be taken up by small to medium scale entrepreneurs. This offers the potential for local private sector investment to contribute to filling the energy supply gap. Training courses in the project will include entrepreneurial skills and the project will include networking with entrepreneurs. The existing partnership platform has good links with local renewable energy businesses. They will be integrated into the project from the outset.

Social and natural resource constraints for operation of the micro-grids will be an integral part of the research with the technical expertise in Leeds combined with the local knowledge in Africa.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description Development of the micro-grid planning tool, PyePlan, is well advanced and it is in the process of being transferred to an open access website together with instruction manuals and tutorials. The tool integrates different generating sources with investment decisions as explained below.

Principally, a sustainable electricity network can be created by using different types of renewable energy sources (RES) (e.g., wind energy, solar energy, tidal energy). However, the optimal design for a sustainable electricity network is a function of different inputs, such as weather conditions, which significantly affect RES power generation at various locations. In this research project, the open-source Python-based Energy Planning (PyEPLAN) tool, which is developed at UoL, is used to obtain the optimal topology for a sustainable electricity network for the partner country case studies.

PyEPLAN has mainly three different modules for investment and operation planning in micro- grids. However, it can be extended to solve various investment and operation planning problems not only in microgirds, but also in megagrids. In this project, the investment planning module is used to create a sustainable microgrid for case studies in the partner countries. Since both investment and operation planning modules include various optimisation problems, the open-source, Python-based, optimisation modelling module Pyomo is used with di- verse abilities in formulating, solving, and analysing optimisation problems. The main ability of Pyomo is related to modelling and solving structured optimisation problems, similarly to common notations in mathematics. Moreover, in Pyomo, we may formulate problems with different object-oriented modelling components including: sets, scalars, parameters, variables, constraints, and objectives. It is noteworthy to mention that Pyomo is also able to separate model and data by means of abstract and concrete models. The model can be defined without data in abstract models while the model can be defined with data in concrete models.

Both investment and operation planning modules in PyEPLAN are developed based on a concrete model in Pyomo. Each concrete model in PyEPLAN can be initialised by means of comma-separated values (CSV) files, including input data sets (i.e., different characteristics of various components in microgrids). Since Pyomo can support many open-source, and even commercial, solvers (e.g., CPLEX, Gurobi, AMPL, PICO, CBC, and GLPK), PyEPLAN can also utilise a broad range of solvers to obtain the optimal solution in both investment and operation planning modules.

The socioeconomic surveys are now complete for Sumba Island in Indonesia, three sites in Uganda (an island, urban and rural), Tanzania and Congo-Brazzaville. The Sumba Island survey has been published in the journal Energy Research & Social Science and presented to stakeholders in Indonesia in a webinar. The Tanzania survey has been reviewed by the journal Energy Policy and accepted subject to revision. The Uganda survey has been analysed and a paper in prepared. The Congo-Brazzaville data collection is complete and under analysis.

Sumba Island Survey: Household willingness to pay (WTP) for electricity supply is useful information for policy makers, energy companies and other stakeholders to plan investment in power infrastructure and design electricity tariffs. The existing literature are largely focused on household WTP for green/renewable electricity, while WTP for improving the quality of electricity supply has not been fully investigated, especially on attributes other than reliability. This study is based on the World Bank's multi-tier framework for measuring household electricity supply. A choice experiment study was conducted on Sumba Island in Indonesia to estimate household WTP for improving the quality of electricity supply in terms of four attributes: daily supply hours; frequency of unexpected power-cuts; capacity of powering medium- and high- power appliances; and monthly electricity fees. The results reveal that households in Sumba were willing to pay 6,120 Rp/month for each extra hour of electricity supply; 15,220 Rp/month and 24,240 Rp/month for avoiding once a week and twice a week unexpected power-cuts respectively; and 50,560 Rp/month and 84,620 Rp/month for improving the diversity of usable electrical appliances from low level to medium and high level respectively. Households connected to the main-grid were more willing to pay for improving the quality of electricity supply, and significant disparities were found between households in different districts. Heterogeneity of household WTP were found to be associated with gender; age; education level of the heads of households; and annual household income. The research provides a case study of household WTP for multi-attribute quality of electricity supply in developing countries and demonstrates an application of the World Bank's multi-tier framework for assessing energy access.

Tanzania survey: Mini-grids play a critical role in providing electricity to remote, off-grid communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, success of mini-grid projects can be hindered by poor cash flows and limited revenue returns. A clear understanding of off-grid households' preferences for electricity services is a pre-requisite for mini-grid stakeholders to set tariff structures and stimulate income-generating power demand to scale up mini-grid deployment. This study conducted a choice experiment survey in two off-grid villages targeted by new mini-grid projects in Tanzania to reveal heterogeneity in households' preferences for multiple electricity service attributes. We found that households' heterogeneous preferences were significantly associated with demographic (e.g., gender), socioeconomic (e.g., ownership of TV), and energy-related behavioural characteristics (e.g., charging devices away from home). We argue that successful deployment of mini-grid projects needs to consider competition of the existing off-grid power solutions (e.g., home solar systems). Differentiated electricity tariffs could be designed to cater for different segments of customers. Gender equality issues should be addressed in rural electrification efforts given the greater vulnerability of female-led households to higher electricity fees. We also suggest that multi-source electricity access could help to enhance the resilience of rural households against power-cuts in Tanzania and other Sub-Saharan countries.

Uganda survey implementation: Over 609 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to electricity. Although electrification rates in countries like Uganda are improving due to fast deployment of off-grid solutions (e.g. home solar systems and mini-grids), the quality of electricity access needs to be addressed to better facilitate livelihood and welfare improvement. Better understanding of household preference and willingness to pay (WTP) for electricity access could help policy makers and investors to evaluate the financial feasibility of electrification projects and design tariffs and business models. However, only a small number of WTP studies have been conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa to address the quality of electricity access, and there is a lack of comparison between different regions (e.g. urban vs rural) in one country. This study applied a choice experiment study in three types of regions of Uganda (urban, rural and island) to investigate household preference for four power supply attributes: daily supply hours, unexpected power-cuts due to maintenance issues, power capacity of using medium/high -power appliances and monthly electricity fees. The results show that rural households had the lowest WTP for better electricity access, while island households had similar or even higher WTP than urban households, despite the income disparity between them. The significant heterogeneity in household preference for power supply attributes were associated with demographic characteristics (gender, age, family size, income, labour-hiring), possession of transportation tools and electrical appliances (bulbs, TVs and fridges), as well as characteristics related to social capital (access to loans and membership of agricultural groups). Our results imply the importance of taking account of district disparity and equality issues, as well as local social development and capacity building in electrification efforts.
Exploitation Route The micro-grid design tool, PyePlan, has been developed to be an open access resource available to anyone with an interest in designing a micro-grid. It integrates outputs from all three work packages in the project: electrical engineering, generation and socio-economic. The project team is the process of creating a user-friendly web interface with instruction manuals and tutorials. the project team have discussed the possibility of establishing a spin-out company with the project partners in Uganda and Indonesia to promote uptake of PyePlan. The partners are receptive to this and the University of Leeds commercialisation office of research and innovation services has been contacted.

The socio-economic surveys have attracted a great deal of interest from practitioners and businesses during the our many workshops. Willingness to pay for different services is a vital part of designing micro-grid infrastructure and the project team has used high quality methodology to reveal important consumer data. The data are also highly relevant to the World Bank tier system. A webinar with stakeholders in Indonesia was held on 9 March 2022, including representatives from the £12M FCDO Mentari micro-grid implementation project on Sumba Island.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Electronics

Energy

Environment

URL https://cera.leeds.ac.uk/
 
Description In Indonesia the findings have been used to inform development of microgrids by the Mentari programme on Sumba Island and have been taken up into national decision making through the stakeholder engagement workshops. In Uganda, Tanzania and Congo-Brazzaville the research outputs have been used in training programmes to build capacity for installing renewable energy microgrids and in developing national policy. The careers of project partners in all three African countries have been enhanced with the lead partners being appointed to senior positions. This is particularly significant as three senior partners were women and so the project has contributed to gender equality in engineering science in Africa.
First Year Of Impact 2022
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Energy,Environment
Impact Types Societal

Policy & public services

 
Description 2018 UK-China (Chongqing) Knowledge Exploitation and Standardization Forum
Geographic Reach Asia 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL http://ukchinaconsortium.com/chongqing-conferenceworkshop
 
Description UK-China Clean Energy Partnership 2019/20 Conference, Beijing, British Embassy
Geographic Reach Asia 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description A holistic approach for power system monitoring to support DSO transition
Amount £96,000 (GBP)
Organisation Scottish Power Ltd 
Department Scottish Power Energy Networks
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2019 
End 04/2023
 
Description Resilient and Flexible Railway Multi-Energy Hub Networks for Integrated Green Mobility
Amount £118,780 (GBP)
Funding ID 10025479 
Organisation Ofgem Office of Gas and Electricity Markets 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2022 
End 04/2022
 
Description UK-China knowledge consortium on energy and manufacturing
Amount £7,000 (GBP)
Organisation British Council 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2018 
End 03/2019
 
Title A questionnaire for collecting multi-disciplinary research data on the planning of mini-grid systems 
Description A questionnaire was designed and used for household surveys conducted in Indonesia, Uganda and Tanzania to collect data for multi-disciplinary research purposes, including household power consumption data for the electrical engineering work package to design mini-grid planning software, choice experiment data for the socioeconomic work package to investigate household preference and willingness to pay for improving the quality of electricity access, as well as agricultural activity data for the chemical engineering work package to estimate the potential of bioenergy generation from biomass resources. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact All work packages of this project have benefited from the use of this questionnaire. Research results based on the questionnaire data have been presented in both offline workshop/meetings with a wide range of stakeholders (e.g. governmental officers and international NGO workers) and a series of online workshop organised by this project. Training of the use of the questionnaire and practice in the surveys has helped our oversea partners to build skilled enumerator teams for conducting multi-tier disciplinary research surveys. 
 
Title Bioh2, Heat and Power from Palm Empty Fruit Bunch via Pyrolysis-Autothermal Reforming: Plant Simulation, Experiments, and CO2 Mitigation - data 
Description Raw data for figures in the associated paper 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/876/
 
Title Dataset associated with 'Autothermal reforming of acetic acid to hydrogen and syngas on Ni and Rh catalysts' 
Description Raw data for all figures in the associated paper 'Autothermal reforming of acetic acid to hydrogen and syngas on Ni and Rh catalysts' 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/908/
 
Title Dataset associated with 'Bio-CH4 from palm empty fruit bunch via pyrolysis-direct methanation: full plant model and experiments with bio-oil surrogate' 
Description A promising, cleaner alternative process of thermochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to biomethane is proposed and rigorously investigated via modelling and experiments for the first time. Using a conventional nickel on calcium aluminate catalyst, operated in bench scale at 1 atm, 400 °C, and with a feed molar steam to carbon ratio of 2, the Low Temperature Steam Reforming of acetic acid, representing a single compound bio-oil surrogate, achieves a promising 81.9% fuel carbon conversion to gases with a methane yield of 15.7 wt% of the feed. This compares to 21 wt% methane yield at equilibrium, thus demonstrating encouraging first time performance and scope for future catalyst optimisation. A comprehensive Aspen Plus model is developed for the first time for an industrial plant producing biomethane from palm empty fruit bunch (50 wt% initial moisture), an underused agro-industrial waste produced in vast amounts in South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Dependency on external heating is completely eliminated by heat recovered from combusting 25% of the gas product. Based on the simulation results of the autothermal plant, a final gas product consisting of 99.2 wt% of CH4 and 0.8 wt% of H2 is predicted with a plant thermal efficiency of 80.6%, i.e., comparable to modelled efficiencies found in the literature for wood gasification to biomethane plants that generate syngas as a necessary intermediate. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? Yes  
 
Title Socioeconomic survey dataset on household willingness to pay for improving the quality of electricity access in Indonesia, Uganda and Tanzania 
Description A dataset was created from the socioeconomic surveys of this project which collected a total of 1,624 questionnaires in Indonesia (399), Uganda (906) and Tanzania (319). An advanced research survey method, choice experiment, was applied to investigate household preference and WTP for the quality of power supply in terms of daily supply hours, frequency of unscheduled power-cuts, and power capacity of using medium and high-power appliances (e.g. TVs, fridges). This is the first dataset of this kind, as far as we know, in the three case study countries. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Analysis results based on this dataset have been widely disseminated among a wide range of stakeholders (e.g. local governmental officers, NGOs) through both offline workshops/meetings before the COVID-19 (such as a national workshop in Dec 2019, Jakarta, Indonesia) and a series of online workshop organized by this project after the outbreak of COVID-19. A research article based on the dataset from Indonesia is under review, while papers based on the data from Uganda and Tanzania are under preparation. 
 
Description Collaboration with Dr Emmanuel J. Kwayu at Dar es Salaam University, College of Education, Tanzania 
Organisation University of Dar es Salaam
Country Tanzania, United Republic of 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The research team at Leeds disseminate the knowledge and skills of the advance survey method of choice experiment with Dr Kwayu and his team in Tanzania. A collaborative research article based on the survey in Tanzania is in progress.
Collaborator Contribution Dr Kwaya and his team complement this project's existing collaborators in Tanzania (who are electrical engineers) in terms of socioeconomic research on mini-grid systems. They helped to identify the suitable study areas and conduct the household survey in Tanzania.
Impact This collaboration has contributed to the creation of an original dataset of multi-disciplinary research on mini-grid systems, including household power consumption data to assist with the development of a mini-grid planning software, choice experiment data to investigate household WTP for improving electricity service, and agricultural activity data to estimate biomass potential for bioenergy production.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Partnership with Network Rail/ScotRail on railway decarbonization 
Organisation ScotRail Railways Limited
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Leeds team has worked with Network Rail/ScotRail, and in partnership with SPT and Ricardo to investigate the development of multi-energy hubs for, potentially, around 2,500 stations across UK, improving efficiency while offering greater flexibility to support both rail and grid operation. Leeds team led the development of proposal, and in the project, Leeds team leads the feasiblity study.
Collaborator Contribution Network Rail/ScotRail supports the applicaton and provide railway station data for analysis.
Impact The collaboration is ongoing and has led to the success of the project application.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Partnership with Ricardo on railway decarbonization 
Organisation Ricardo UK Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Leeds supports Ricardo on an Ofgem SIF project to investigate A Holistic Hydrogen Approach to Heavy Duty Transport (H2H). This focuses on the energy used by trains in Scotland. The rail sector in Scotland aims to remove diesel-fuelled trains by 2035. Full electrification is the main solution, but there is associated high cost and high emissions for the concrete, steel and copper used. Disruption to passenger services during construction is another factor to be considered. H2H will examine hydrogen and battery trains and compare these with full electrification. The University of Leeds team worked with Ricardo on the project application, and in the project Leeds supports on reviewing different technologies to remove diesel fuelled trains.
Collaborator Contribution Ricardo led the preparation In the Ofgem SIF project to investigate A Holistic Hydrogen Approach to Heavy Duty Transport (H2H), Ricardo leads the investigation to examine hydrogen and battery trains and compare these with full electrification.
Impact The collaboration has led to the successful application of a Ofgem SIF project - A Holistic Hydrogen Approach to Heavy Duty Transport (H2H).
Start Year 2022
 
Description Partnership with SP Energy Networks on energy research 
Organisation Scottish Power Ltd
Department Scottish Power Energy Networks
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Contributions including organization of technical meetings with SP Energy Networks, detailed technical discussions and preparation of a research proposal.
Collaborator Contribution SP Energy Networks has contributed significantly to the technical discussions, sharing their insigts on industrial needs.
Impact Studentship has been provided by SP Energy Networks to explore advanced monitoring techniques for transmission and distribution networks given significant penetration of distributed renewable power and future mass roll-out of electric vehicles.
Start Year 2019
 
Title A data-driven based Fiber Bragg-grating sensor thermal calibration method in battery real-time temperature monitoring applications 
Description A data-driven based battery temperature monitoring approach which using FBG sensor is proposed. Unlike the other FBG sensing technique, this approach can effectively extract the temperature information without the FBG parameters which are generally identified under the specific experimental conditions. 
Type Of Technology Systems, Materials & Instrumental Engineering 
Year Produced 2020 
Impact This technologycan effectively extract the temperature information without the FBG parameters which are generally identified under the specific experimental conditions. It opens up oppportunities for wide application of low cost FBG sensors for thermal management of battery energy storage systems used in different sectors to support decarbonization. 
 
Title PyEPLAN 
Description PyEPLAN is an open-source Python-based energy planning tool for creating resilient sustainable microgrids in remote areas. It is capable of feeder routing, network modelling, and investment/operation planning. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2020 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact PyEPLAN enables low-income communities to create mini-grids and microgrids. 
URL https://cera.leeds.ac.uk/cresum-hyres/
 
Title PyEPLAN: A Python-based Energy Planning tool 
Description A planning and operation tool for Resilient Microgrids 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2020 
Open Source License? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/3894704
 
Title PyEPLAN: A Python-based Energy Planning tool 
Description A planning and operation tool for Resilient Microgrids 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2020 
Open Source License? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/3894705
 
Description 2018 International Conference on Intelligent Manufacturing and Internet of Things & International Conference on Sustainable Energy Engineering 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The 2018 International Conference on Intelligent Manufacturing and Internet of Things & International Conference on Sustainable Energy Engineering has launched on September 22, 2018 at Huxi Campus, Chongqing University. IMIOT & ICSEE 2018 is jointly organized by Chongqing University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Leeds and Chongqing Association for Science and Technology, with support of the government of Shapingba District and University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research. Nearly 300 delegates, including academicians, Changjiang Scholars and Outstanding Young Persons from home and abroad have attended the event. Experts and scholars different countries and regions presented in 16 sessions, sparkled a number of discussions and research collaborations. Three conference proceedings have been published in Springer's lecture notes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.springer.com/us/book/9789811323836
 
Description 2018 UK-China (Chongqing) Knowledge Exploitation and Standardization Forum 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The forum brought together leading figures from the government, academia and industry to discuss novel and cross-boundary approaches of collaborations and facilitation mechanism between UK and China to promote innovation and knowledge exploitation in the fields of intelligent manufacturing and revolutionary smart energy systems. In the meantime, the forum has launched the preparation event of the UK-China knowledge exploitation network, and showcases some of the latest progresses and projects in the two areas. The event was featured with distinguished guest speeches on the impact of policy, role of incubators and catapults, novel mechanisms to facilitate UK-China collaborations on knowledge transfer, sustainable innovation and knowledge transfer, and case studies of UK-China collaborations on knowledge transfer. Posters of existing and potential knowledge transfer projects from academic institutions were presented to attract further funding and investment, and a UK-China Knowledge Exploitation Network Preparation Ceremony was launched.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://ukchinaconsortium.com/chongqing-conferenceworkshop
 
Description 2019 IEEE 3rd International Electrical and Energy Conference (CIEEC2019) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Kyenote speech, 2019 IEEE 3rd International Electrical and Energy Conference (CIEEC2019), Sep 7-9, 2019, Title: Battery Storage in Shaping Low Carbon Energy Future. Around 600 professionals attended the conference, including delegates from governments, international associations, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering universities, scientific research institutions and enterprises.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Bandung Energy Mini Symposium 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Last Friday, 22nd March 2019, the RDI team organised a guest lecture/ workshop as part of the ongoing project on "Creating Resilient Sustainable Minigrids through Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems" in collaboration with the University of Widyatama. The project, receiving funding from Royal Society and UKaid aims to develop and deploy a sustainable and resilient mini-grid system which is compatible with the need of the community. In which RDI conducted survey in Sumba Island to assess the socio-economic factors surrounding the implementation of the minigrid systems. The results of the socio-economic survey will then be distributed to our partners in Leeds University and Creec University Tanzania for further development and implementation of the minigrid system in places other than Sumba Island.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://rdi.or.id/news/post/2019/beae34ce81f44dc6abe671eba83d00ec/bandung-energy-mini-symposium
 
Description Bandung Energy Mini-Symposium, Widyatama University, Bandung, Indonesia 22nd March 2019. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The Bandung Energy Mini-Symposium was held at Widyatana University on 22nd March 2019. The purpose of the symposium was to enable our project partners from Africa (Consalva Msigwa and Mwaka Juma) to give presentations on their work together with presenters from Indonesia to researchers in Indonesia in order to stimulate south-south co-operation and dialogue. The Africa team then went on to Sumba Island to conduct field work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Bioenergy MOOC - Renewable Energy: Achieving Sustainability through Bioenergy 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact This two week course explores Bioenergy, one of the most diverse and readily available sources of renewable energy. It looks into what types of biomass can be used and how sustainable energy solutions can be developed in a wide range of communities. Students will learn how solar energy converts inorganic matter into biomass and consider the origins of fossil fuel. As the student investigates different sources of biofuel, they will also explore some of the associated socioeconomic and environmental implications.
Participants then study how biomass can be converted into clean energy using different technologies before delving into social issues associated with biomass combustion.

The course already has 1,751 people enrolled with a rating of 4.6 out of 5 based on 16 total reviews.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/renewable-energy-achieving-sustainability-through-bioenergy
 
Description CERA (Clean Energy Research Alliance) website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact The Clean Energy Research Alliance (CERA) is a group of internationally-based researchers. Its interdisciplinary projects focus on renewable energy and sustainable development in low-middle income countries. They currently have partners across Africa and Asia.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018,2019,2020,2021,2022
URL https://cera.leeds.ac.uk/
 
Description CRESUM-HYRES Workshop (4th September 2020) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Globally, one in five people still lack access to modern electricity, and 3 billion people rely on traditional fuels for heating and cooking. In line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7, the UKRI-funded GCRF project CRESUM-HYRES organised a virtual workshop to showcase some of the project's work, our partners, and prominent researchers in the area to increase access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

Furthermore, this virtual workshop provided the opportunity for companies, stakeholders, engineers, technicians, scientists, researchers, and scholars to disseminate information on recent advancements and achievements in operation, control, and planning of microgrids. The CRESUM-HYRES virtual workshop included three sessions focused on:

Towards Resilience, flexibility, and Sustainability in Remote Microgrids
Planning of Sustainable Microgrids
Operation of Sustainable Microgrids

The first session was concluded by a panel discussion involving the three keynote speakers with substantial experience of leading research projects on modern microgrids across the world.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdca7AYsoQbqStDvvQtxEgA
 
Description Conference on Plant Power: Bioenergy as a renewable resource. 27th June 2019. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The CRESUM-HYRES project organised a conference at Kew on 'Plant Power' on 27th June 2019 and combined resources with the PIs Royal Society capacity building project and several other projects at Leeds (e.g. the BBSRC BEFWAM project) to bring together researchers from Leeds, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo-Brazzaville, Indonesia and India. The meeting was opened by the Director of Research at Kew and key note talks were given by lead representatives of the international research teams, followed by shorter research talks by team members. There was also a poster session and a tour of the Botanic Gardens. The interest generated by the conference subsequently led to Kew including bioenergy in it's influential 'State of the World's Plants' conference in 2020.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://cier.leeds.ac.uk/news/plant-power-bioenergy-conference-at-kew-gardens/
 
Description Invited lecture at Hunan Institute of Engineering 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Invited lecture at Hunan Institute of Engineering, Title: 'Battery monitoring technologies', 04 December 2019. Over 60 undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as academics attend the lecture, which sparked questions and discussion afterwards.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.hnie.edu.cn/website/newsArticle.jsp?columnid=0102&artid=1575939387111723699
 
Description Invited lecture at Hunan University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Invited lecture at Hunan University. Title: 'Battery storage in shaping low carbon energy future', 09 December 2019. Over 30 postgraduate students and academics attended the presentation, which sparked questions and discussions afterwards. Further, international research collaborations have been planned on energy and transportation electrification.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL http://eeit.hnu.edu.cn/info/1203/7302.htm
 
Description Invited lecture at Imperial College London 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Prof. Kang Li was invited to give a lecture titled 'The nexus of sustainable energy and manufacturing' at Imperial College London on 19 June 2018.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://talks.ee.ic.ac.uk/talk/index/1012
 
Description Invited lecture at Southwest Jiaotong University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Professor Kang Li was invited to give a lecture titled 'Two-stage regression modelling' at Southwest Jiaotong University on 26 September 2018.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Invited presentation on 'Intelligent monitoring, state estimation and charging control of Li-ion batteries', 8 Novemver, 2021, at International Forum on Frontiers of Automation and Artificial Intelligence (FAAI 2021), Shenyang, China 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited to give a presentation on 'Intelligent monitoring, state estimation and charging control of Li-ion batteries', 8 Novemver, 2021, at International Forum on Frontiers of Automation and Artificial Intelligence (FAAI 2021), Shenyang, China.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://neunews.neu.edu.cn/2021/1213/c217a75368/pagem.htm
 
Description Invited presentation on 'Monitoring, state estimation and charging control of Li-ion batteries' at Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) International EV Batteries 2021 conference, London, UK. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Invited to give a presentation on 'Monitoring, state estimation and charging control of Li-ion batteries', 9-10 Novemver, 2021, at Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) International EV Batteries 2021 conference, London, UK. The conference focuses on the latest developments in battery design, testing, thermal management, charging and integration right across the lifecycle of the battery for a more resilient and cost-effective battery. A live face to face event was organized to network with a variety of experts within the battery industry from pioneering battery and vehicle manufacturers to testing and safety specialists.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://events.imeche.org/ViewEvent?code=CMP7333
 
Description Invited speech at Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence Cloud Forum on Net Zero and Smart Energy Systems, Nanjing, 18 April, 2021. Title: State estimation and charging control of battery storage systems. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Invited speech at Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence Cloud Forum on Net Zero and Smart Energy Systems, Nanjing, 18 April, 2021. Title: State estimation and charging control of battery storage systems.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Invited speech on 'Intelligent Monitoring and Charging Control of Battery Storage Systems' at 2021 UCEER Symposium on Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Gave an invited presentation on 'Intelligent Monitoring and Charging Control of Battery Storage Systems' at 2021 UCEER Symposium on Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies, ISEEIT 2021, 18/19 December, 2021, Nanjing, China. The UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research is an international university consortium established in 2017 funded by BEIS and administrated by British Council, aiming to promote education and research collaborations between leading institutions in the UK and China. The Symposium held online has attracted thousands of audience from HEIs and public.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Invited talk on 'Sensing technologies in smart energy systems' at 51st Intelligent Sensing Program (ISP51) event, ISP51 (Webinar 3): Emerging (Sensing) Technologies, 11th May (10:00am - 12:00pm), Knowledge Transfer Network, 2021. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited talk on 'Sensing technologies in smart energy systems', at 51st Intelligent Sensing Program (ISP51) event, ISP51 (Webinar 3): Emerging (Sensing) Technologies, 11th May (10:00am - 12:00pm), Knowledge Transfer Network, 2021. The focus was on novel and emerging sensing technologies currently under development for the power industry.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://ktn-uk.org/events/isp51-sensing-in-energy-system-emerging-sensing-technologies/
 
Description Keynote speech at the 1st International Composite Conference on Automation and Artificial Intelligence (ICCAAI 2019), 22-24 July, Shengyang, China 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote speech at the 1st International Composite Conference on Automation and Artificial Intelligence (ICCAAI 2019), 22-24 July, Shengyang, China, Title: 'The nexus of smart energy, manufacturing and transportation systems'. Over 300 delegates attended the workshop, the presentation sparked questions and discussions afterwards.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Keynote speech at 17th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control, CCE 2020, Mexico City, Mexico, November 11, 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote speech at 17th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control, CCE 2020, Mexico City, Mexico, November 11, 2020, Title: State estimation and charging control of battery storage systems.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Keynote speech at UK-China Innovation and Knowledge Exploitation Forum, 22 June 2019, Guangzhou 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact On behalf of the UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research, I organised UK-China Innovation and Knowledge Exploitation Forum, 22 June 2019, Guangzhou, as part of a larger international event - China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair 2019 (CIEF), under the theme of "Innovation and Entrepreneurship in a New Era and Sharing a New Future" held in Guangzhou from June 21 to 23. The Fair was sponsored by China Association for Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Central Committee of Jiusan Society, the People's Government of Guangdong Province, and the People's Government of Guangzhou Municipality, and organized by the People's Government of Guangzhou Municipality and International Data Group. The 2019 CIEF set up over 20 exhibition areas (special zones) including international group, innovation leadership, exhibiting upwards of 1,200 projects for innovative and entrepreneurial achievements. More than 150 foreign technology companies, innovation carriers, technology associations, and research institutions from over 20 countries including the United States, Britain, Israel, South Korea, Australia, Germany, and France organized 250 projects. Over 20 special events such as road show promotion and forum salon will be held. At the launching event, 10 projects of innovative and entrepreneurial achievements have been implemented or intention of transaction has been signed.

UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research is the first university alliance on engineering education and research jointly built by China and the United Kingdom. Founded in May 2017, the Consortium was initiated by Southeast University and Queen's University of Belfast, UK. It comprises nine Chinese universities famous for engineering disciplines and six British universities under the Russell Group. The number of British universities was expanded to nine. As a key partner of this year's Fair, UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research staged a host of exciting and diverse events to promote university-enterprise cooperation and application of results.

In the forum, I also delivered 'UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research and Knowledge Exploitation Platform'. The event sparked questions and discussions, and a number of media reports resulted from the event. The event led to a number of follow-up research innovation and knowledge exploitation activities, including several major research projects, grant applications, and knowledge transfer activities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL http://www.ukchinaengineering.com/RecordofActivities/
 
Description Keynote speech at the 6th International Conference on Sustainable Information Engineering and Technology (SIET 2021), 13-14 September 2021, Universitas Bung Hatta, Indonesia. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote speech at the 6th International Conference on Sustainable Information Engineering and Technology (SIET 2021), Title: State estimation and charging control of battery storage systems. 13-14 September 2021, Universitas Bung Hatta, Indonesia.
The International Conference on Sustainable Information Engineering and Technology (SIET) was held to bring together academia, researchers, business entrepreneurs, practitioners, and policymakers who are responsible for applying information engineering and technology by leveraging intelligent computing to create and enabling a smart environment. The theme for SIET 2021 will be "Sustainable Information Engineering and Technology: Innovation for smart societies." The organizer has further donated the honorarium of the keynote to a School in Indonesia to support education of children in remote regions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://siet.ub.ac.id/event/siet21
 
Description Keynote speech, 1st UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research (UCEER) Symposium on Electrical Excellence and Smart Energy, EESE 2020, Nanjing, December 11-12, 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote speech at 1st UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research (UCEER) Symposium on Electrical Excellence and Smart Energy, EESE 2020, Nanjing, December 11-12, 2020. Over 10000 people attended at 1st UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research (UCEER) Symposium on Electrical Excellence and Smart Energy, EESE 2020, Nanjing, December 11-12, 2020, which sparked questions and discussion afterwards, reported at local and national media
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Keynote speech, 2nd International Forum on Frontiers of Automation and Artificial Intelligence, October 22-23, 2020, in Shenyang, China. Title: Artificial intelligence in state estimation of battery storage systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote speech at 2nd International Forum on Frontiers of Automation and Artificial Intelligence (FAAI 2020, http://conf.kzgc.com.cn/iai2020/), October 22-23, 2020, in Shenyang, China. Title: Artificial intelligence in state estimation of battery storage systems
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL http://conf.kzgc.com.cn/iai2020/
 
Description Latest developments in business models for mini-grids 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The workshop explored the latest developments in business models for mini-grids in Asia and Africa and heard from experts in a number of countries about the diverse range of models being used, insights on key success factors in different contexts and the challenges that remain.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/latest-developments-in-business-models-for-mini-grids-tickets-1332701...
 
Description Massive Open Online Course on the FutureLearn platform. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact On this two-week course, you will learn how electricity is generated globally and explore different approaches to electrification. You will then learn technical aspects of electrification options via a national grid, off grid, micro and mini grids and reflect on the barriers to affordable, clean and fair access to electricity. 424 people were enrolled on this course at the time of writing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/renewable-energy-sustainable-electricity-supply-with-microgrids
 
Description Media and communication training 9-14th January 2019. Uganda. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The workshop started with a presentation of the ongoing research activities of the African partners on 9 January 2019. This was followed by a day of media video interview training on 10th January and filming for the MOOC 11-14th January.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Meetings with policy makers and practitioners, Jakarta 24-26 September 2019. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact A series of meetings were held in Jakarta with policy makers and practitioners to inform them about project developments and the forthcoming international conference. The offices visited were: Prakarsa Jaringan Cerdas Indonesia/Indonesia Smart Grid Initiative (PJCI), Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), National Development Planning Agency- Energy, Telecommunication, and Informatics (Bappenas ETI), National Team for Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), UK Embassy, and USAID ICED. The Leeds team was represented by Jon Lovett and he was accompanied by a team from the Indonesia partners.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description National Workshop 'Clean and affordable renewable energy for sustainable rural and remote areas through micrograms' 5-6 December 2019, Jakarta Indonesia. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The National Workshop 'Clean and affordable renewable energy for sustainable rural and remote areas through micrograms' 5-6 December 2019, Jakarta Indonesia brought together the different stakeholder groups the project had been working with in Indonesia. These included national and regional policy makers and politicians, local community representatives, businesses, practitioners and third sector organisations. The project team was represented by the PI and post-docs from Leeds, members of the Africa team from all three countries the project is working with, and the Indonesia team. A series of policy briefs were produced prior to the meeting and circulated to the attendees and stakeholder groups. The meeting was well attended and there were lively discussions in addition to a series of high quality presentations. A particular highlight was interaction between the local community representatives from Sumba Island and national-level politicians. This interaction was part of the workshop planning as it is hard for local communities to be able to have this type of direct interaction with national level policy makers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://cera.leeds.ac.uk/jakarta-workshop-for-cresum-hyres-and-acera/
 
Description National Workshop 2019: Clean and Affordable Renewable Energy for Sustainable Rural and Remote Areas through Microgrids 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A two day workshop was held in Jakarta, Indonesia, organised by the University of Leeds and RDI, project partners on this grant. The workshop saw presentations by team members from RDI, UOL, CREEC and Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology. External speakers included those from Government Ministries, e.g. National Development Planning, NGOs such as Hivos, community heads from Sumba, the island where some of the research is taking place and aid organisations such as USAID. The workshop brought together many experts in many areas which sparked lots of debate and was an excellent networking/outreach opportunity.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.rdi.or.id/snw19
 
Description Online Workshop Creating Resilient Sustainable Micro-Grids, 4th September 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Imposition of travel restrictions meant that the project was not able to hold a conference in Uganda as planned. As an alternative a series of three online workshops were held during September 2020 corresponding to the three workpackages. This had the advantage of being able to invite participants via Eventbrite registration. The virtual workshop on micro-grids consisted of three sessions with external keynote speakers and speakers from the project presenting results.

1. Towards Resilience, flexibility, and Sustainability in Remote Microgrids
2. Planning of Sustainable Microgrids
3. Operation of Sustainable Microgrids
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://cera.leeds.ac.uk/cresum-hyres-and-acera-training-workshop-4th-september-2020/
 
Description Online workshop on renewable energy technologies and resilient generation capacity for micro-grids - 10th September 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Imposition of travel restrictions meant that the project was not able to hold a conference in Uganda as planned. As an alternative a series of three online workshops were held during September 2020 corresponding to the three workpackages. This had the advantage of being able to invite participants via Eventbrite registration. The virtual workshop on micro-grids consisted of three sessions with external keynote speakers and speakers from the project presenting results. This workshop contained the sessions:

1. Opportunities for renewable energy technologies in developing nations
2. Sustainable generation activities in CRESUM-HYRES
3. Case studies on renewable energy generation for rural development
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://cera.leeds.ac.uk/cresum-hyres-and-acera-project-training-workshop-10th-september/
 
Description Online workshop, Micro-grids tailored to the community's resources, needs, and aspirations, 17th September 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Imposition of travel restrictions meant that the project was not able to hold a conference in Uganda as planned. As an alternative a series of three online workshops were held during September 2020 corresponding to the three workpackages. This had the advantage of being able to invite participants via Eventbrite registration. The virtual workshop on micro-grids consisted of three sessions with external keynote speakers and speakers from the project presenting results. This workshop contained the sessions:

1. Microgrid policy design and praxis.
2. Community responses and acceptability.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://cera.leeds.ac.uk/cresum-hyres-and-acera-project-training-workshop-17th-september-2020/
 
Description Online workshop: Latest developments in business models for mini-grids. 20th January 2021 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The workshop to explored the latest developments in business models for mini-grids with presentations from experts in a number of countries about the diverse range of models being used, insights on key success factors in different contexts and the challenges that remain. Presentations included keynote speakers and project researchers from Leeds, Indonesia and Africa. A panel discussion followed the presentations. Keynote speakers were:

Peter Weston, Director of Programmes, Energy 4 Impact
'Mini-grid Business Models in Africa'
Eileen Lara, Head of Solar and Energy Efficiency, Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC)
Francis Kemausuor, The Brew-Hammond Energy Centre
'Mini-grids for last mile electrification: Ghana's experience'

10.00 - 10.05 Welcome from Peter Taylor

10.05 - 10.15 Introduction to project from Jon Lovett

10.15 - 10.40 Keynote from Peter Weston

10.40 - 11.00 Presentation from Saut Sagala

11.00 - 11.20 Presentation from Eileen Lara

11.20 - 11.40 Presentation from Francis Kemausuor

11.40 - 12.00 Presentation from Cheng Wen

12.00 - 12.25 Panel discussion - Peter Taylor and Jon Lovett

12.25 - 12.30 Wrap up and close - Peter/Jon
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://cera.leeds.ac.uk/cresum-hyres-and-acera-january-2021-mini-grids-business-models-workshop/
 
Description Participation to CoP26 in Glasgow (UK) with the panel "Climate Justice and Universal Energy Access: Insights from Africa" 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact As part of the events of CoP26, our team has been invited to attend a panel at University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, UK) on "Climate Justice and Universal Energy Access: Insights from Africa". Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability; however, it is also the leading contributor of greenhouse gases and the global climate crisis. Almost 1 billion people have no access to a secure source of energy, many of whom are facing the most severe impacts of climate change for which they've contributed least to cause.

The team at CREEC also produced a video to be presented at CoP26 to showcase the latest progress in climate justice in Africa.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-cozPzuLuU
 
Description Policy maker and practitioner meetings. Kampala 2-6 March 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The policymaker and practitioner meetings in Kampala, Uganda 2-6 March 2020 were to engage with FCO and DfID staff at the British High Commission and the UNHCR offices in Kampala. The team also held planning meetings about media dissemination and preparation of a TV drama series called 'Kampala' which contains information about renewable energy. Meetings with FCO and DfID were to report on project progress and keep the British team in Uganda informed. The meeting with UNHCR was to investigate the possibility of applying project outputs to the refugee crisis in Uganda. We also held a media engagement training session with the Uganda team to enhance project dissemination activities. Uganda was going into COVID lock-down whilst we were there so there has been limited opportunity for follow-up.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Policy maker visits. Jakarta 31th March - 4th April 2019. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The purpose of this visit was to inform policy makers and practitioners about the project in a series of visits to offices in Jakarta, Indonesia. The offices visited included: Hivos, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), Bappenas (National Development Planning Agency), ESDM (Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources), RISTEKDIKTI (Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia), and British Embassy. Team members involved from Leeds were Jon Lovett, Kang Li, Cheng Wen and James Hammerton. Team members from the Indonesia partners were Teresa Retno Arsanti, Elisabeth Rianawati, Saut Sagala, Yudha Prambudia and Niken Prilandita. Team members from the Africa partners were Consalva Msigwa and Mwaka Juma.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Policy makers and practitioners meetings Sumba Island, Indonesia 16-19 September 2019. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact A series of visits were held with policy makers and practitioners on Sumba Island, Indonesia to report progress with the project and plan for the forthcoming international conference in Jakarta. Meetings were held with Prakarsa Jaringan Cerdas Indonesia/Indonesia Smart Grid Initiative (PJCI), Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), National Development Planning Agency- Energy, Telecommunication, and Informatics (Bappenas ETI), National Team for Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), UK Embassy, and USAID ICED. The were attended by Jon Lovett from Leeds and a team from the Indonesia partners.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Poster presentation at the Symposium on Hydrothermal Carbonization 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact 3 day International Conference
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Project initiation meeting in Kampala Uganda and workshop on project fund management, massive open online courses and media engagement 26-30th April 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The four days training was divided into two, with the first two days for project internal meeting on 26-30th April 2018. Tour of CREEC & CEDAT research facilities were carried out, project progress in all the three African Consortium University were discussed and evaluated. Financial and administrative issues discussed and commitments reaffirmed. Training in project financial systems was provided by a member of the Leeds finance department.
The last two days were opened to the invited audience
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Project kick off meeting in Kampala, Uganda 6-7th September 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The goal of the kick-off meeting for the EPSRC-GCRF funded project on Creating Resilient Sustainable Microgrids through Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems was to introduce the project partners and give them the opportunity to discuss in detail the project's methodology and expected outcomes. It was attended by 15 people on 6-7th September 2018.
The meeting was hosted by the Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation(CREEC) and was attended by representatives from the University of Leeds, Makerere University, Universite Marien Ngoubi (Congo Brazaville) and Dar es salaam Institute of Technology (Tanzania).
It included introductions by each partner institution, presentations by the ACERA and EPSRC PhD students, tours of laboratory facilities, project discussions and site visits to potential mini-grid sites.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description RDI REER Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact The Webinar was entitled "Rural Electrification & Renewable Energy Development in Sumba" and was hosted online by RDI in Indonesia.
By bringing together the key stakeholders, this webinar is expected to open up a discussion related to how the research results have implications for the local and national regulatory transformation, technology system operation and maintenance, as well as other detailed implementation of energy and electricity-related planning. Moreover, international attendance and collaboration are expected to contribute to global issues, especially those in regard to climate change and clean energy transition to sustain a growing global population.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbWAiotLaFs
 
Description State of the World's Plants International Conference, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK. Plant Power Symposium, 13-15th October 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact As a follow-up to the June 2019 CRESUM-HYRES project conference on bioenergy held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, we were invited to collaborate with Kew in their prestigious annual 'State of the World's Plants' conference, which has hundreds of international participants and is open to the general public, and which was online due to COVID restrictions. This year the conference was themed around ecosystem services and we led the bioenergy symposium on 'plant power' with our African partner lead, Mary Suzan Abbo giving a keynote and participating in a panel discussion.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Virtual Workshop on Creating Resilient Sustainable Microgrids 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Globally, one in five people still lack access to modern electricity, and 3 billion people rely on traditional fuels for heating and cooking. In line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7, the UKRI-funded GCRF project CRESUM-HYRES organised a virtual workshop to showcase some of the project's work, our partners, and prominent researchers in the area to increase access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
Furthermore, this virtual workshop provided the opportunity for companies, stakeholders, engineers, technicians, scientists, researchers, and scholars to disseminate information on recent advancements and achievements in operation, control, and planning of microgrids. The CRESUM-HYRES virtual workshop included three sessions focused on:
1. Towards Resilience, flexibility, and Sustainability in Remote Microgrids
2. Planning of Sustainable Microgrids
3. Operation of Sustainable Microgrids
The first session was concluded by a panel discussion involving the three keynote speakers with substantial experience of leading research projects on modern microgrids across the world.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Visits to policy makers and practitioners on Sumba Island, Indonesia. March 2019. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact A series of meetings were held with policy makers and practitioners on Sumba Island, Indonesia, to inform them about the project and obtain information about their stakeholder roles prior to the start of fieldwork. Visits were made to village heads, the vice-regent of South-West Sumba, HIVOS/RESCO in East Sumba (practitioner), IBEKA (practitioner), 3.5 Yayasan Rumah Energi Foundation, PLN (state owned electricity company), 3.8 PT. ASTIL (Seaweed processor), Department of Agriculture and Praikamarru (business).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Workshop in Indonesia. Bandung Energy Sustainability Symposium. 26 Oct 2018. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The workshop was to provide an overview of the project and its proposed activities to our partners in Indonesia. Meetings were held with the partners and a research symposium held at Widyatama University in Bandung with primarily post-graduate students in the audience on 26th Oct 2018
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Workshop on business modelling/grant proposal writing to solicit funding in promoting Renewable Energy Technologies. Tanzania 30th July to 2nd August, 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A training workshop was organised by our African partners and held in the Parliament Offices in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 30th July to 02nd August, 2018. The four days intensive training was developed to provide practical learning experiences as well as networking platform for project engineers, entrepreneurs /business managers in Tanzania who are working towards renewable energy development projects. The Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology was the local organiser. The workshop consisted of four days training on "Business modelling/grant proposal writing to solicit funding in promoting Renewable Energy Technologies", with the relevant stakeholder in the renewable energy sector. The workshop consisted of presentations from the African partners on the research they were doing on the project followed by training led by Tanzanian experts firstly on business models and secondly on equality of gender representation in renewable energy research and business.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Workshop on nexus of smart energy, intelligent manufacturing and transportation systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact This workshop provides a platform to share some latest studies and thoughts on the nexus of smart energy, manufacturing and transportation systems in alignment with the global effort in achieving 100% clean and renewable transition for all sectors. In additional to invited speeches and panel discussion, an early career researchers workshop and a UCEER project scoping meeting will be organised, out of which task groups for networking and consortium projects will be formed for tackling key challenging problems across the smart energy, manufacturing and transportation systems.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL http://ukchinaconsortium.com/leeds-workshop
 
Description Workshop on nexus of smart energy, intelligent manufacturing and transportation systems, University of Leeds, 24-25 January 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Organised the 'Workshop on nexus of smart energy, intelligent manufacturing and transportation systems', University of Leeds, 24-25 January 2019, featured with over 10 presentations and early career researcher workshop. Over 120 delegates from both academia and industry, the event has sparked questions and discussions afterwards, and following reseach collaborations have been planned.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Youtube Live Event with panel members from Uganda, Indonesia and India. COP26 - Can bioenergy make a difference? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact 42,121 views YouTube Live event Streamed live on 9 Nov 2021
CoP26 brings together nations from around the world to negotiate how to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The meeting is not only focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy use by industrial nations, it is also concerned with ensuring that people who have not been responsible for human-created climate change have access to energy to enhance their sustainable development.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGoIFOtPW_I
 
Description Youtube Live event. COP27 - Are Microgrids the next big thing? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact 2,545 views Youtube Live event panel discussion with panel participants from Indonesia, Uganda and India. Streamed live on 16 Nov 2022
The world is undergoing a transformation in the way energy is generated and supplied. Microgrids are at the forefront of the revolution. The panel will discuss the social, economic and environmental impact of microgrids.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgvl4OwDZSA