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Limelight

"Right at the beginning of my career I decided to give back my country’s investment in my education. And the way to do that was not giving in to the temptation of leaving the country", Francisco Araújo

Free Nonsense

"Pointing at my passport, I kept replying in Portuguese, emphasizing that I was Brazilian and, therefore, I spoke Portuguese. However, every time I answered a question, the police officer repeated: «I see», «I understand», «I see»”, Diego Issicaba

Gallery of the Uncommon

INESC Porto has recently reached a new media attention height. Go figure… We were hired by Barack Obama! For us, the sky is the limit!

Have your say

"...my first victory: being awarded with a research grant to come work at the great institution that is INESC Porto", Ana Silva

Jobs 4 the Boys & Girls

In this section, the reader may find reference to public announcements made by INESC Porto offering grants, contracts and other opportunities of the same kind.

Biptoon

More scenes of how life goes merrily on...

 
 

INESC Porto: a worldwide reference in wind power for more than 15 years

INESC Porto: a worldwide reference in wind power for more than 15 years

In December 2008, the Argonne National Laboratory (Department of Energy - DoE, Government of the United States) selected INESC Porto to support the development of a wind power forecasting platform in the United States. This is the most recent confirmation of INESC Porto’s competences in that sector. The Power Systems Unit has been giving solid and steady steps over the last year, providing consulting services for different countries, such as Brazil, Cape Verde, Spain, Hungary, Bulgaria and Venezuela.

Argonne National Laboratory invites INESC Porto to carry out wind power forecasting

In December 2008, the US Department of Energy (DoE), through Argonne National Laboratory, selected INESC Porto to support the development of wind power forecasting solutions in the United States. Even though the US government has only recently started investing in wind power for the production of electricity, the number of wind parks is continuously growing in the country. The ANL (Argonne National Laboratory) of the US network of Laboratories of DoE (Department of Energy) hired INESC Porto to develop a reference platform for wind power forecasting, in the context of a programme that finances several American Laboratories in the development of the national capacities in terms of renewable energies, especially wind power.

Destaque 1

The project will enable precise wind power forecasting for broader time horizons, including several levels of uncertainty. Due to the country’s temperate and subtropical climate and local geography, wind forecasting errors can have “consequences that are far more severe in the US than in any European country”, as explained by Vladimiro Miranda, director of INESC Porto and coordinator of the project.

Proven competences in Portugal

The acknowledgement that INESC Porto has achieved over the last 15 years in the energy domain, one of its strongest areas, has led to more ambitious and larger projects. Over the last years, USE has carried out studies that made it possible to define the conditions for connection to the grid in a large number of wind parks, which corresponds to more than 1000 MW, as well as projects to identify the technical and economic viability for a combined exploration of pumped hydroelectric storage and wind production. At the same time, the Unit has performed stability studies for grids with high volumes of wind power production for the islands of Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde, as well as for the Portuguese grid. Lastly, the Unit has tried to understand how the volumes of the operational reserve – to be adopted by the electrical systems in the Iberian Peninsula – are suitable in scenarios where the integration of wind power is higher.

Destaque 2

In order to carry out these projects, INESC Porto signed contracts with wind power promoters and network operators in Portugal, Spain and Cape Verde. The Unit has also developed functionalities that will be integrated in dispatch centres for the support and management of wind power in the context of European projects and contracts with the industry.

Over the last two years, USE (with the support of the Manufacturing Systems Engineering Unit - UESP), together with the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management (INEGI), the Centre for Wind Energy and Atmospheric Flows (CEsA) of FEUP and the Faculty of Science of the University of Lisbon (FCUL)), has developed a wind power forecasting system for a consortium of wind power promoters – the EPREV consortium. This system will allow forecasts of wind-based power in time horizons up to 72 hours for 20 wind parks in Portugal.

The “Green Islands” project, whose goal is to turn some of the Azores islands into energy autonomous systems, is another one of INESC Porto’s most important projects for the upcoming years.

Destaque 3

Conquering the external markets

INESC Porto’s competences in the wind power domain are more and more acknowledged abroad. The cooperation with the National Operator of the Brazilian Electrical Systems (ONS) has already resulted in several consulting contracts over the last years. More recently, after winning an international call, USE participated in the establishment of the Bulgarian energy office.

In 2008, INESC Porto concluded a technical consulting process for the Hungarian Energy Office. During this process, it was possible to identify the volume of wind power that Hungary could integrate in the following years, taking the particularities of its electricity production system into consideration.

In the beginning of 2009, INESC Porto started a new project in this area, this time in Venezuela. During this project, USE will provide technical consulting to GALP Energia for the integration of wind parks in Venezuela’s electric grids. The project involves the definition of technical requirements for wind power conversion systems, as well as the development of specific studies to assess the impact caused by wind power production on the electric grids of the Coche and Marguerita islands.