Within the Electrical Energy Systems and Applications (Electa) division of the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT) at KU Leuven, the research team led by prof. Jef Beerten focuses on the combined modelling and control of power electronic converters and power systems, with a focus on DC systems. The team of PhD students and postdocs consists of about 10 people and is embedded in energy transmission competence hub “ETCH” at EnergyVille in Genk / Belgium. Within the team, we have a postdoc position available for bringing ‘’BriskSim’’, our next-generation tool prototype for EMT-type simulation of electrical transients, to the next level.
To support the energy transition towards electrification with wind power and solar power, European transmission system operators (TSOs) are expanding and reinforcing the high-voltage electricity grid through numerous infrastructure projects. In such projects, high-voltage dc (HVDC) power electronic conversion is a key technology. Transmission grid dynamics are radically influenced by the fast response of high-power converters involved in HVDC transmission systems, wind generation, photovoltaic plants, and the electrification of large industry processes. Despite the magnitude of the already planned investments, a substantial increase in both the number and execution speed of projects is necessary. This brings huge challenges towards guaranteeing stability, as the power system moves from being governed by slow dynamics of synchronous generators, towards a system where fast-acting converter controls are key. As a result, TSOs recognize the need to mitigate reliability risks through highly-detailed simulation studies that now also have to account for fast interactions of multiple interconnected converters at the small time-scale of electromagnetic transients (EMT).
With classic tools, engineering resources to cope with modelling limitations and long computation times are becoming excessive and unmanageable. Therefore we created ‘’BriskSIM’’, our clean sheet prototype of a cutting-edge EMT-type electrical circuit simulation engine with innovations centered on power electronic switching and control events. BriskSim provides order-of-magnitude gains in the accuracy vs. computation time trade-off over established tools. It is operated through a new modelling language embedded in the Julia programming language. Due to the strong interest from academia and industry to use BriskSim for solving their most advanced grid design problems, we continue the development of our current prototype to enable wide use in research and industry. Therefore, we are looking for an ambitious postdoctoral candidate to take on a leading role in our core development team for the software-design aspects.
Responsibilities
Your responsibilities will be in the scope of:
- Identifying and understanding future user needs in the field of electric power transmission network EMT simulation through our ongoing collaborations with industry and academic researchers
- Architecture-level design and planning towards these needs.
- Corresponding R&D implementation planning
- Software implementation according to modern software development principles
- Continuous profiling-based optimization to retain a competitive advantage in computation speed and numerical accuracy
- (Git) versioning and automated testing
- Developing demonstration use-cases with industry
- Presenting results in academic conferences and publishing in academic journals
Detailed task allocation and role will be finetuned considering your specific expertise and interests.
Profile
We are looking for applicants with a PhD degree in computer science or electrical engineering from a reputable institute. Essential for us is that a candidate has:
- Expert software design skills and experience applicable to a scientific computing context (using multiple computationally performant languages like Julia, C, C++, Rust, Fortran, ...)
- Experience with multi-processing and multi-threading
- Experience with Git version control and automated testing
- An interest to gain or deepen knowledge in numerical simulation and power system applications
- Communicative skills and motivation to work in a team
- Fluency in English, both orally and in writing.
- Willingness to occasionally travel in the framework of the project
- A deep understanding of the underlying numerical algorithms used in scientific simulation (graph theory, numerical linear algebra, sparse matrix methods, numerical integration, …) is an additional asset
Offer
We offer a full-funded position with multiple benefits (health insurance, access to university infrastructure and sports facilities, etc.).
More information
EnergyVille, energy in transition
Electa Research Group
Etch, the Energy Transmission Competence Hub
Interested?
For more information please contact Prof. dr. Jef Beerten, [email protected] or Mr. Jeroen Tant, [email protected].
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