Over the past three years several industry chairs dedicated to Smart Grids have been created. Serving as gateways between business and academia, teaching and research chairs allow universities and schools to address new themes, to develop links with the R&D divisions of large corporations, and finance research projects thanks to effective financing over periods of 3 years or more.
A technician performing an electromagnetic test – Photo credit : Enedis
EDF RISEGRID Institute (Supelec)
The RISEGRID Institute (Research Institute for Smarter Electric Grids ) was established in 2012 as a joint initiative of EDF and Supelec. It is dedicated to the study and modeling of smart electricity distribution networks and their interactions with the entire electrical system.
The RISEGRID research institute brings together around twenty academic and industrial researchers (researchers and PhD researchers). Located in the premises of Supelec, on the Saclay plateau, RISEGRID is fully committed to the development of the future Paris Saclay Campus.
The scientific program of the RISEGrid Institute is structured around four research axes: study of intelligent electrical systems, observability of the electrical system, information and communication systems, and advanced modeling and simulation.
Seven theses are being conducted at the institute which organizes an annual scientific day presentation of its results and introduction to a key topic in connection with major industrial systems. The last one was held on September 22 in Saclay.
Enedis Chair for Industrial Excellence on Smart Grids (INP Grenoble)
Created in 2012, Enedis’ Chair of Industrial Excellence aims to carry out high-level scientific research projects with high industrial impact in the field of smart grids, to participate in the training of engineers who will deploy and exploit these networks of the future, and contribute through its work to the debate on the role of power grids in the transition to safer, cleaner and more efficient energy.
It relies on G2Elab, Grenoble’s electrical engineering research laboratory, a joint research unit at Grenoble INP, CNRS and Joseph Fourier University. The G2Elab has more than 100 permanent members, 110 PhD students and 50 Master’s students, making it a world-class laboratory in the field of electrical engineering.
The creation of Enedis’ Chair of Industrial Excellence on Smart Grids aims to provide answers to the questions raised by the rapid evolution of technologies and their impact on distribution networks, new architectures, observation and managing these networks, their coupling with the telecommunication channels, the security of coupled “electrical & telecom” networks.
International Chair for Automation and Electrical Networks in Rte (Centrale Nantes)
The International Chair was established in 2015. The result of a joint initiative of RTE and the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, it combines two scientific disciplines: automation and electricity. With a budget of 4 million euros, it aims to “provide within five years answers to the management of interconnected networks, in the context of the energy transition”, by “(developing) new simulation, analysis and control tools for future monitoring and control systems of the electricity transmission network “. The chair will host a dozen masters students, doctoral students and post-doctoral students. It will rely mainly on the laboratories IRCCyN (Research Institute of Communications and Cybernetics of Nantes) and GeM (Institute of Research in Civil Engineering and Mechanics), two research laboratories under the supervision of Centrale Nantes, certified by the CNRS.
Other industrial chairs in connection with Smart Grids:
- In 2008, Vinci initiated a joint research initiative with three major ParisTech schools, financing programs on the theme of eco-design of infrastructures. Vinci has renewed the ParisTech eco-design chair for five years with an investment 3 to 4 million euros. The main themes of this renewed period will be energy performance, Smart Grids, Smart Cities, renewable energies, and recycling.
- In 2012, Lille-1 University, Eaux du Nord and the Centre d’Innovation des Technologies sans Contact (Contactless Technology Innovation Center – CITC) joined forces to set up an industrial chair for “smart urban networks – water“. The latter sets itself the objective of facilitating the implementation of research and training projects. It relies in particular on the International Master in “Urban and Housing Engineering”.
- École Polytechnique, for its part, opened in September 2014, with the support of Cisco equipment supplier the “Internet of Everything” Chair. This Chair aims to strengthen research activities related to the networks applied to the Internet of Things.
- The Center for Industrial Advanced Studies (CESI) and Cisco France have joined forces to create the “Industries and Services of Tomorrow” Chair. This Chair will propose two complementary components to enhance the attractiveness and employability of its beneficiaries: a training component on technological and managerial evolutions and an Industrial Ecosystem Research component focusing on the factory of the future, smart building and connected city.
ITEMS International for Think Smartgrids