Keynote Speakers

 

Professor Luis (Nando) Ochoa  

The University of Melbourne, Australia

Making Electric Vehicles and the Grid Work Together

Abstract: The increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) will pose significant technical and economic challenges on the power grid, particularly on very infrastructure they are connected to: the electric distribution network. These networks have been traditionally designed to have no or limited controllability and, hence, are largely unmonitored. They will become the bottlenecks and therefore understanding how to best integrate EVs is critical to facilitate the electrification of our transport. This keynote will discuss the impacts of EVs and the challenges faced by distribution companies. Furthermore, it will present some of the findings of the large-scale UK trial “My Electric Avenue” in which more than 200 EVs were monitored for over a year to understand usage patterns as well as to test the effectiveness of EV charging point management to avoid network issues. The keynote will also provide an overview of the challenges brought by fast-charging stations and the need for future cities to have holistic planning approaches that involve traffic flows.

Bio: Luis(Nando) Ochoa is Professor of Smart Grids and Power Systems at The University of Melbourne, Australia and part-time Professor of Smart Grids at The University of Manchester, UK. His expertise in network integration of distributed energy resources (DER) and his extensive portfolio of industrial and academic projects have led to 180+ publications, 70+ technical reports, and two patents, one filed by Psymetrix Ltd (now part of GE) and one filed by The University of Melbourne. Prof Ochoa is an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer and is also Editorial Board Member of the IEEE Power and Energy Magazine. Prof Ochoa is an IEEE Senior Member since 2012. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from UNI (Peru), and a Research MSc and a PhD in Electrical Power Engineering, both from UNESP Ilha Solteira (Brazil).