Projects

Many electricity generation systems are undergoing drastic changes, through rapidly increasing shares of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) like wind and solar photovoltaics. Models are often used to address the corresponding challenges (technical, economic, policy), by analyzing system operation and planning. The envisaged PhD research contributes to building energy system modeling toolboxes, to support energy policy decision ...

Existing renewable energy systems do not capture enough energy from the source, which often varies quickly. By taking into account these variations in the control, the system can anticipate and react in an optimal way. In this project, a new control system is developed which allows to take into account these variations, leading to an increase in the energy yield.

Renewable energy systems are subject to the strong variability of their corresponding energy sources. Because current energy converters are insufficiently accommodated, they fail to yield optimal energy efficiency and economic reliability. Energy uptake will be optimized both numerically and experimentally by establishing variability-adapted systems that amongst others consider the interaction between the various electrical, mechanical and ...

The overall aim of sEEnergies is to quantify and operationalise the potentials for energy efficiency (EE) in buildings, transport and industry, combining this bottom-up knowledge with temporal and spatial analyses to develop an innovative, holistic and research-based EE-modelling approach going beyond current state-of-the-art science based knowledge and methodologies. Because the changes in one energy sector can contribute to impacts in ...

The heating and cooling strategy of the European Commission heavily insists on the synergies in energy systems, including district heating and cooling, cogeneration and smart buildings. It mentions that 'Heating and cooling and the electricity system can support each other in the effort to decarbonize. It is essential to recognize the links between them and exploit synergies'. The use of thermal storage to smooth out peaks of electricity ...

EnergyVille investigates the development, operation and use of electrical and thermal networks. We focus on a seamless integration of renewable energy sources, both into distribution and transmission systems and into the built environment. EnergyVille envisages the development, demonstration and implementation of intelligent control of networks and substations, tools for designing DHC networks, low temperature networks, multi-carrier energy ...

To counteract climate change, increasing energy efficiency and using renewable energy sources are highly desirable measures to reduce the energy use and depletion of fossil resources in the built environment. Many ongoing research efforts focus on developing modelling and simulation tools to analyse the opportunities and feasibility of these measures. Although important steps have been set to develop these tools, the implementation of ...

Thermal systems in buildings, used for heating, cooling and ventilation, represent 15% of the worldwide energy use. Their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions thus have a negative impact on our climate. Current practice control of buildings can be improved through the use of optimization-based control algorithms such as Model Predictive Control (MPC). Energy savings of MPC compared to existing control techniques are typically in the order of 15 % - ...

EPOC 2030-2050: Energy technology modelling framework for POlicy support towards a Cost-effective and Sustainable society in 2030 and 2050. The mission of the EPOC 2030-2050 project is to develop and implement energy system models to support a realistic, sustainable and cost effective energy future in Belgium while guaranteeing security of supply. The time horizon of the developed models is 2030 and 2050, the parameters and results of the ...