António Jerónimo, a former Electrical and Computer Engineering student ranked 3rd in the 29th edition of the REN Award with his thesis ‘Modelling Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Flexibility for Long-Term Distribution Network Planning’, carried out at Instituto Superior Técnico. The 14th edition of the REN award ceremony took place on the afternoon of 12 November at the Ritz Hotel in Lisbon. The award honours the best master’s theses on energy, in the fields of Computing, Engineering, Economics, Physics, Mathematics and Information Systems.

António Jerónimo’s master’s thesis in Electrical and Computer Engineering proposes “a model of flexibility for electric vehicle charging stations,” which, based on parameters such as typical occupancy profiles, load, and arrival rates of electric vehicles, quantifies the capabilities of charging point operators to modify the consumption of charging stations through load shifting techniques, in order to respond to flexibility service requests from the distribution network operator” he explains.

The work of the now Técnico alumnus took place ‘within the framework of the EV4EUproject’, a European project that includes both Instituto Superior Técnico and the Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering – Research and Development (INESC-ID). The project aims to ‘develop solutions that promote the integration of electric vehicles with renewable energies, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to more sustainable mobility’, he explains. The project enabled the former student to publish a scientific article, ‘presented at the 2023 International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and Technologies (SEST), held in Turkey,’ he adds.

“This award represents an opportunity to validate and enhance the technical work developed during the master’s thesis,” as well as as “a milestone for professional recognition” and “an incentive to continue working at the forefront of this sector, which is so dynamic and fundamental to our future,” he shares.