Thursday September 15, 2022 at 1:00PM BST (2:00 PM CET, 9:00 AM EST)

By Michael Short (Teesside University, UK)

Michael Short photo

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https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3076026040274632205

 

Abstract:

With the growing recognition of an impending climate disaster and a scarcity of fossil fuels, decarbonisation, sustainability, and net zero carbon policies are now a major driving force in both the developing and developed world. As digitalisation and decentralisation are also disrupting and transforming approaches to the design and operation of industry, business, and society across the globe, there is a unique chance to redesign and optimize multi-faceted energy consuming systems to support the transition to a sustainable digital future economy and meet decarbonisation goals.

Approximately 95% of UK international trade is transported via ports. In recent years, domestic shipping alone (ships that start and end their journey in the UK, including overseas territories and Crown dependencies) accounted for roughly 20% of the UK’s total domestic GHG emissions. Among other initiatives for cleaner shipping, it is clear that ports provide a fertile ground for disruptive emissions reducing digital technology, and electrification can potentially contribute significantly to GHG emission reduction and result in cleaner, greener marine communities. In this context, the VIC Ports ongoing UKRI-funded collaborative innovation project is investigating a cloud-based industrial microgrid for ports deep electrification that simultaneously reduces costs and emissions and hence reduces the impact of ports and shipping sector on the environment. Smart microgrid technology combined with a higher-level cloud-based service platform is deployed to produce an emulated real-time port Digital Twin, which is used for advanced energy management using optimization and situational awareness analytics and allows for integration and interoperation with wider logistics systems such as Terminal Cargo Management systems.

The talk will outline the deployment of a prototype VIC Ports platform to a port in Northeast UK, describe initial modelling and energy control results and impact assessments. Finally, it will outline some of the open issues and challenges which remain to be address in port energy management.

Presenter’s bio:

Michael Short is a professor of control engineering and systems informatics at Teesside University in the UK and leads the multidisciplinary Centre for Sustainable Engineering. He holds a BEng degree in electronic and electrical engineering (1999, Sunderland) and a PhD degree in real-time robot control (2003, Sunderland). Michael’s research interests encompass aspects of applied control engineering and systems informatics applied to smart energy systems and robotics. He has authored over 160 reviewed publications in international conferences and journals, has received over 1400 citations and has won six best paper awards. He currently has an h-index of 22 and an i-10 index of 40. He has supervised six PhD completions and is investigator on numerous completed and ongoing funded research projects. He is an associate editor for the International Journal of Energies, a full member of the IET, a member of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Technical Committee on Factory Automation and a fellow of the HEA.