The Zhejiang-Germany Joint Laboratory for Smart Grid Technologies is a collaborative initiative between the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) and Kiel University. It earned provincial recognition in 2023.
Leading the Joint Laboratory are two distinguished scholars with over a decade of collaborative research experience: Prof. Giampaolo Buticchi, UNNC’s Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange and Head of the Power Electronics, Machines, and Control Research Centre; and Prof. Marco Liserre, Head of the Chair of Power Electronics at Kiel University and Deputy Director of Fraunhofer ISIT. Their long-standing partnership has laid the groundwork for numerous advancements in smart grid and power electronics technologies.
Notably, they pioneered the concept of smart transformers for distribution grids, advancing the technology to the forefront of engineering innovation.
You are welcomed to join the workshop with us.
Date & Time: 16:00 - 17:30, Friday, 21 November 2025
Platform: Microsoft Teams
Meeting ID: 432 611 595 973 61, Password: 6Bm2E9tE
Teams link
Online Presentation: 16:00-16:20, 21 Nov 2025
Presenter: Dr. Hamzeh Beiranvand
Bio: HAMZEH BEIRANVAND (Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Lorestan University, Iran, in 2011 and 2014, respectively. During his undergraduate studies, he was awarded a four-year scholarship by the Ministry of Education. He received the Ph.D. degree in 2020, with a focus on control strategies and efficiency optimization of solid-state transformers (SSTs). Since October 2020, he has been a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Chair of Power Electronics at Kiel University, Germany, where he leads the Battery Systems (BES) group. In 2021, he was elected as a member of the Kiel Nano, Surface, and Interface Science (KiNSIS) initiative. Dr. Beiranvand has authored more than 50 journal and conference papers. He serves as a reviewer for IEEE PELS journals. His current research interests include battery system components, such as battery cell modeling and optimization, battery management systems (BMS), and computational power electronics.
Title: Computational Power Electronics
Abstract: Computational methods are shaping the future of power electronics (PE). At the physical layer, computational methods have been used to automate the design of magnetics and maximize the efficiency and power density of power electronic converters (PECs). At the digital layer, computational techniques have been adopted to integrate new functionalities into the PECs. For instance, digital communications have been integrated into modulation. The reliability of the interfaced systems with PE, e.g. magnetic and electrochemical systems, has been improved through the intelligent control of the PECs. These progresses mark a new era in PE as it has diffused with several other disciplines. We unify control, communication, and computational engineering (CE) in PE, introducing computational power electronics (CPE) to increase integration, automation, and intelligence. At the very least, a CPE converter should be capable of running a digital twin on its edge computer in real time. The CPE tools are classified and their peculiarities are summarized to address the challenges of different PE applications such as PE-based grids, electrochemical energy storage, electric drives and magnetics. This paper concludes that CPE opens an avenue in the future of PE by unifying control, computation and communication in PE.
Online Presentation: 16:25-16:45, 21 Nov
Presenter: Prof. Dr.-Ing- Giovanni De Carne
Bio: Giovanni De Carne is currently full professor at the Institute for Technical Physics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany, where he leads the Real Time Systems for Energy Technologies Group and the "Power Hardware In the Loop Lab". He is currently supervising PhD students, managing academic and industrial projects, and developing multi-MW Power Hardware In the Loop testing infrastructures for energy storage Systems and hydrogen-based drives.
His expertise includes power electronics integration in power systems, solid state transformers, real time modelling, and power hardware in the loop.
Title: “Power Hardware In the Loop: a way to accelerate the introduction to market of energy technologies”
Abstract: “To address the challenges of the green energy transformation, academia and industry are introducing at fast pace many novel energy solutions. This fast evolution, however, makes extremely challenging to properly address their impact on the energy systems when they are installed in the field. Classical approaches to develop prototypes and to perform weeks- or months-long field testing cannot cope with the pace of these innovations. There is a concrete risk that the field-testing represents the pace-bottleneck for introducing new technologies in the market and thus to enable the green transition.
To accelerate the introduction to market of new energy technologies, the concept of Power Hardware In the Loop (PHIL) has been proposed in recent years. The PHIL is based on simulating an electrical circuit in a digital real time simulator that is connected to the hardware under test by means of a power interface. The PHIL allows to flexible change the testing environment varying the simulation parameters, while keeping high experimental validation fidelity.
This talk will provide an overview on the PHIL concept, applications, and transfer to industry possibilities explored at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.”
Online Presentation: 16:50-17:10, 21 Nov
Presenter: Dr Jiaqin Sun
Bio: Jiaqin Sun (Student Member, IEEE) received the B.Eng. (Hons.) degree in electrical engineering in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China, in 2021.
He received the Ph.D degree in electrical and electronic engineering in 2025, from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China.
His research interests include digital twin tuning for power converters and stabilization, optimization of DC microgrid for more electric aircraft.
Title: Digital Twin-Based Predictive Control Framework for DC-DC Converters
Abstract: The dynamic performance and robustness of power electronic converter control are critical areas of research. Conventional control methods often struggle to accurately predict system behavior under diverse operating conditions and effectively mitigate disturbances, leading to suboptimal transient responses and limited adaptability. Similarly, other model-based approaches, such as Model Predictive Control (MPC), are susceptible to degraded robustness due to their reliance on precise converter models. To overcome these limitations, we proposes a novel Digital Twin-based Predictive Control (DTPC) framework. This modular framework integrates interacting Physical Twin (PT) and Digital Twin (DT) domains, where the DT performs accelerated predictive simulations using adaptable models to optimize control.