Cardiff University

Cardiff University is one of Britain’s major centers of higher education. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework assessment, Cardiff was ranked 5th among all UK universities. In addition, external teaching quality assessments consistently rank the University among the best in the UK.
The Centre for Integrated Renewable Energy Generation and Supply (CIREGS) of Cardiff University was established in 2007. Recognising the changes that are anticipating in the future energy supply system, CIREGS is developing research capacity in integrated renewable energy generation and supply, including “Smart Grids” of the future and contributing towards meeting the UK medium-term and long-term renewable energy targets. 

Key Investigators

Prof. Jianzhong Wu (male) is a Professor of Multi-Vector Energy Systems. He joined Cardiff University as a Lecturer in June 2008, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer (2013), Reader (2014) and Professor (2015). From 2006 to 2008, he was a research fellow in the University of Manchester. Prof. Wu researches on Smart Grid and energy infrastructure. He is an Associate Editor of Applied Energy (IF 5.261), and has a track record of undertaking a number of large research projects in this area. He has been Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator of more than 30 research projects in this area funded by European Commission, Research Council of the UK and the industry. In particular, he is the deputy leader of the multi-energy theme of EPSRC HubNet, principal investigator of projects on dynamic demand funded by National Grid, Toshiba and OPEN ENERGI, and the Cardiff principal investigator of a Horizon 2020 project on Peer to Peer energy supply networks. 

Prof. Nick Jenkins (male) joined Cardiff University in 2008 as Professor of Renewable Energy. From 1992 to 2008, he was at the University of Manchester (UMIST). He is a Fellow of the IET, IEEE, the Royal Academy of Engineering and is a distinguished member of CIGRE. He serves on the DECC/OFGEM Smart Grids Forum and the OFGEM Low Carbon Network Fund Panel. From 2008-11 he was the Shimizu Visiting Professor at Stanford. He has a particular interest in modelling energy systems and works on gas, electricity and heat systems with support from UKERC and HEFCW. 

Dr. Meysam Qadrdan (male) is a Lecturer in Energy Systems and Networks at Cardiff University. Before starting his current role in January 2015, he spent one year at Imperial College and two years at Cardiff University as research associate. Qadrdan obtained his PhD in 2012 from Cardiff University. His research focuses on modelling and analysis of multi-vector energy system at different scales from community to national level.  

Dr. Carlos E. Ugalde-Loo (male) is an expert in dynamic system modelling and control of energy supply networks. He has a track record undertaking EU and EPSRC funded projects, together with industrial funding from Alstom Grid and others. 

Completed and on-going projects

  • Welsh Government, “Developing Flexible Integrated Energy Systems (FLEXIS)”. Total £23M with £5M to Cardiff team: N Jenkins, J Wu, M Qadrdan, and C, Ugalde-Loo, 2016-21.
  • RCUK “MISTRAL: Multi-scale Infrastructure Systems Analytics”, Total £5.4 million with £0.408M to Cardiff team: N Jenkins (Cardiff Principal Investigator) and J Wu (Co-Investigator), 2016-20.
  • European Commission - Horizon 2020, “Peer to peer smart energy distribution networks”, Total 3.5 million Euros with £0.305M to Cardiff team: J Wu (Cardiff Principal Investigator), N Jenkins (Co-Investigator), 2015-17
  • RCUK “HubNet: Research leadership and networking for energy networks”, £3.4 million with £0.538M to Cardiff team: N Jenkins (Cardiff Principal Investigator) J Wu (Co-Investigator), 2012-16
  • UK-China Jointly funded project “Integrated Operation and Planning for Smart Electric Distribution Networks (OPEN)”. Total £1M with £0.374M to Cardiff team: N Jenkins (Principal Investigator) and J Wu (Co-Investigator and Project Manager), 2013-16

Recent EU projects include: FENIX (SES6-518272), SMART A (EIE/06/185//SI2.447477), DG Grid (EIE/04/015/S07.38553), MICROGRIDS (ENK5-CT-2002-00610), More-Microgrids (PL019864), SEESGEN-ICT (238868), MERGE (241399).

EPSRC projects include Top and Tail, Aura-NMS, SUPERGEN HiDEF, FlexNet, HDPS, ITRC, etc. They lead the multi-vector energy system theme in the EPSRC HubNet project. Cardiff University also lead one UK-China Smart Grid project and contribute to another 3 UK-China and 2 UK-India Smart Grid projects funded by the Research Council of the UK, working with leading research institutions and industry partners in both the UK and overseas.

Facilities (Software and Hardware)
A Smart Grid test rig was built in Cardiff University to validate and demonstrate various control methods using Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) which simulates a real power network. A communication simulation tool is also integrated into this test rig to investigate the impact of ICT infrastructure on different control paradigms.
Cardiff has been researching multi-vector energy systems (integrated electricity, gas, heat, cooling, hydrogen and electrified transport systems) for more than 10 years and has developed useful models of individual vectors (dynamic and steady state) and combined systems (at present sequential steady state). So far a variety of models has been developed and used for individual investigations and case studies. The tools we have developed for energy distribution network analysis include:

    • FUTURE-GAS is a tool to carry out steady-state analysis of gas networks with distributed injection from alternative gas resources (e.g. hydrogen, biogas). The model was developed in MATLAB and the key input and output of the model is shown in Figure X (Abeysekera, 2015; Qadrdan, 2015).

      • Multi-VEN is a steady-state analysis tool for combined multi-vector energy systems (combined electricity/gas/heat/cooling networks) with functions of engineering analysis, emission analysis and financial analysis. The model is also able to carry out economic dispatch for integrated energy networks with multi-energy demand and numerous network coupling components. The key information of the Multi-VEN model is shown in Figure X. This model was developed using MATLAB, JAVA and FORTRAN. The core of Multi-VEN is a novel simultaneous power flow analysis tool for multi-vector energy networks. The tool calculates all state parameters of the integrated multi-energy networks simultaneously for a given set of multi-energy demands and different operating strategies. The structure of this tool is shown in Figure X (Pirouti, 2013; Rees, 2014; Liu, 2015).

      Key publications
      Selected Journal Publications on Synergies between Energy Supply Networks:
      Synergies between Electricity and Gas Networks：

      • Qadrdan M, Abeysekera M, Chaudry M, Wu J and Jenkins N, Role of Power-to-Gas in an integrated gas and electricity system in Great Britain, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 40, Issue 17, pp 5763-5775,  (2015)
      • Abeysekera M, Wu J, Jenkins N, Rees M, Steady state analysis of gas networks with distributed injection of alternative gas, Applied Energy, (2015)，In Press, doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.05.099
      • Qadrdan M, Chaudry M, Jenkins N, Baruah P, Eyre N, Impact of transition to a low carbon power system on the GB gas network, Applied Energy , 151 (2015) 1-12 ISSN 0306-2619 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.04.056
      • Chaudry M., Jenkins N., Qadrdan M., Wu J., Combined gas and electricity network expansion planning, Applied Energy, 113, (Jan 2014), 1171-1187
      • Olanrewaju O, Chaudry M, Qadrdan M, Wu J, Jenkins N, Vulnerability assessment of the European natural gas supply ICE Energy, 168(1), pp5-15, (2014)
      • Chaudry M., Wu J. and Jenkins N., A sequential Monte Carlo model of the combined GB gas and electricity network, Energy Policy, Volume 62, (2013), 473-483
      • Qadrdan M., Wu J., Jenkins N., Ekanayake J, Operating Strategies for a GB Integrated Gas and Electricity Network Considering the Uncertainty in Wind Power Forecasts, IEEE trans. on Sustainable Energy, 5(1), (2014), 128-138
      • Qadrdan M, Chaudry M, Wu J, Jenkins N, Ekanayake J, Impact of a large penetration of wind generation on the GB gas network, Energy Policy, 38 (10), (2010), 5684-5695
      • Chaudry M, Jenkins N, Strbac G, Multi-time period combined gas and electricity network optimisation, Electric Power Systems Research , 78 (7) (2008) 1265-1279 ISSN 1873-2046 10.1016/j.epsr.2007.11.002

      Synergies between Electricity and Heat Networks：

      • Liu X, Wu J, Jenkins N, Bagdanavicius A, Combined Analysis of Electricity and Heat Networks, Applied Energy, (2015), In Press, doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.102
      • Chaudry M, Abeysekera M, Hosseini SH, Jenkins N, Wu J, Uncertainties in decarbonising heat in the UK, Energy Policy , (2015) ISSN 0301-4215 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.07.019
      • Pirouti M, Bagdanavicius A, Wu J, Jenkins N, and Ekanayake J, Minimisation of the capital costs and energy usage in a district heating network, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, 229(3), pp 337-347, (2015), doi: 10.1177/0957650914563816
      • Pirouti M, Bagdanavicius A, Ekanayake J, Wu J, Jenkins N, Energy Consumption and Economic analyses of a district heating network, the International Journal of Energy, 57(1), (2013), 149-159
      • Baruah PJ, Blainey S, Eyre N, Tran M, Chaudry M, Jenkins N, Qadrdan M, Hall JW, Energy system impacts from heat and transport electrification, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Energy , 167 (3) (2014) 139-151 ISSN 1751-4223 10.1680/ener.14.00008
      • Bagdanavicius A, Jenkins N, Hammond GP, Assessment of community energy supply systems using energy, exergy and exergoeconomic analysis, Energy , 45 (1) (2012) 247-255 ISSN 0360-5442 10.1016/j.energy.2012.01.058

      Synergies between Electricity/Heat/Gas Networks：

      • Rees M.T., Wu J., Jenkins N., Abeysekera M., Carbon Constrained Design of Energy Infrastructure for New Build Schemes, Applied Energy, 113, (Jan 2014), 1220-1234

      Synergies between Electricity Networks /Electrified Transport：

      • Meng J, Mu Y, Jia H, Wu J, Yu X, Qu B, Dynamic frequency response from electric vehicles considering travelling behavior in the Great Britain power system, Applied Energy, (2015), accepted
      • Meng, J, Mu Y, Wu J, Jia H, Dai Q, Yu X, Dynamic Frequency Response from Electric Vehicles in the Great Britain Power System, Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy, Volume 3, Issue 2, pp 203-211, (2015)
      • Wang M, Mu Y, Jia H, Wu J, Yao X, Yu X, Ekanayake J, A preventive control strategy for static voltage stability based on an efficient power plant model of electric vehicles, Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp 103-113, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, DOI 10.1007/s40565-014-0092-9, (2015)
      • Mu Y. Wu J., Jenkins N., H. Jia, C. Wang, A Spatial-Temporal Model for Grid Impact Analysis of Plug-in Electric Vehicles, Applied Energy, 114, (Feb 2014), 456-465
      • Mu Y, Wu J, Ekanayake J, Jenkins N, Primary frequency response from electric vehicles in the Great Britain power system, IEEE Trans on Smart Grid, 4(2), (2013), 1142-1150
      • Papadopoulos P, Skarvelis-Kazakos S, Grau I, Cipcigan LM, Jenkins N, Electric vehicles' impact on British distribution networks, IET Electrical Systems in Transportation , 2 (3) (2012) 91-102 ISSN 2042-9738 10.1049/iet-est.2011.0023



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