Keynote Speakers

Loi Lei Lai | IEEE Life Fellow and IET Fellow

DRPT International Incorporated, Perth, Australia

Biography: Professor Loi Lei Lai received his B.Sc. (First Class Hons.) and Ph.D. from the University of Aston, Birmingham, UK, in 1980 and 1984 respectively. His D.Sc. is from City, University of London, London, UK, in 2005. All degrees are in electrical and electronic engineering. Professor Lai is currently Chairman of DRPT International Incorporated, Australia. He was a Pao Yue Kong Chair Professor with Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Professor & Chair of Electrical Engineering with City, University of London, London, UK and a University Distinguished Professor with Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China. Professor Lai received an IEEE Third Millennium Medal, the IEEE Power and Energy Society (IEEE/PES) UKRI Power Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award in 2000, a special award from City, University of London in 2005 and is its honorary graduate, the IEEE/PES Energy Development and Power Generation Committee Prize Paper in 2006 and 2009 (Papers published in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion), the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (IEEE/SMCS) Outstanding Contribution Award in 2013 and 2014, the Most Active Technical Committee Award in 2016, and his research team received a Best Paper Award in the IEEE International Smart Cities Conference in October 2020. Professor Lai is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Smart Cities Newsletter; a member of the IEEE Smart Cities Board of Governor; Member-at-large, IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB) Committee on Standards & Chair of the Seed Funding ad hoc, Chair of IEEE/SMCS Standards Committee, IEEE/SMCS Fellow Committee Evaluator, IEEE/SMCS Distinguished Lecturer and IEEE/PES Lifetime Achievement Award Committee Assessor. He was a member of the IEEE Smart Grid Steering Committee; the Director of Research and Development Center, State Grid Energy Research Institute, Beijing, China; a Vice President for Membership and Student Activities of IEEE/SMCS; and a Fellow Committee Evaluator and Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. His current research and development interests are in smart cities, smart grid, clean energy and computational intelligence. He is an IEEE Life Fellow and IET Fellow.

Speech title "Smart Energy for Mobility and Health"

Abstract-This talk covers a few important topics from smart energy for mobility, health, and standards development. Using smart meter data, a change in health status can be derived by monitoring energy-use patterns. Real-life data can be gathered continuously to produce an ecological and complete scientific view of human behavior and allow the detection of changes that could indicate the beginning of a health problem. With the advancement of intelligence technology, it may not only improve residents’ quality of life but also save patient treatment costs. By using monitoring sensors, with telemedicine, and reasoning techniques, ICT-based smart health allows patients to spend less time in hospitals and more time in their own homes. Turning to promoting social equality, a sound mobility strategy would be helpful. As cities push for full electrification of transport, the need for scalable EV charging networks, vehicle-grid integration (VGI), and energy-efficient smart roadways is skyrocketing. Due to the need for a low-carbon economy, a high electric supply reliability, and the introduction of emerging technology, the deployment of microgrids is rapidly increasing. With a large acceleration in relation to renewable energy sources and with those that have an intermittent nature, there is a need to use energy storage systems (ESSs). However, typical battery-based ESSs are expensive, whereas thermal storage systems (ETSs) are a cheaper option that can meet the thermal heating demand, thereby allowing for the efficient use of diesel- and renewable-based distributed generation (DG) units. Therefore, there is a requirement to model ETSs and examine their contribution in the context of microgrid integration. As urban air mobility (UAM) emerges as a transformative solution for future transportation, the integration of microgrids and thermal energy management becomes critical to ensuring efficient, sustainable, and resilient operations. However, temporal factors affect travel behavior and energy usage patterns, which in turn influence the energy storage charging load profiles. Mobility and healthcare need to be re-visited in the context of smart energy. Some current international research and development activities will be reported, the importance of standards development and future directions will be discussed.

 

 

Wei Xu | IEEE Fellow

Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Biography:Professor Wei Xu is Director of the State Key Laboratory of High-Density Electromagnetic Energy and Power Systems in Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has mainly focused on the developments of high-density electrical machines and drives. He has innovatively proposed the unequal amplitude vector theory and significantly improved the traction capacity and energy efficiency of electrical machines and systems. He has served as General Chairs for international conferences three times, and internationally Steering Committee Member for LDIA, and Associate Editor of IEEE TIE and IEEE TPEL. His academic works have been cited more than 12,000 times by statistics of Google Scholar with H-index 56. He has been awarded as an IEEE Fellow, IET Fellow, IEEE IES Distinguished Lecturer, Elsevier China Highly Cited Scholar, etc.

Speech title "High Performance Linear Oscillatory Machine and Drive System"

The linear oscillatory machine can directly generate linear reciprocating driving force, offering advantages such as the absence of motion conversion mechanisms, high transmission efficiency, and low vibration and noise. It holds broad application prospects in numerous fields, including linear compressors, Stirling cryocoolers, combined heat and power systems, and vibration energy recovery. This lecture will elaborate on the working principles, structural topologies, equivalent models, control methods, and system integration technologies of linear oscillatory machines. Based on industrial application requirements, it will discuss in detail the challenges (pain points) faced by linear oscillatory machines in areas such as electromagnetic characteristics, control strategies, and manufacturing processes, along with corresponding solutions. Additionally, future development trends will be explored and prospects discussed.

 

 

 

Weiliang Wang

Jinan University, China

Biography: Professor, Head of Energy and Power Engineering Institute, Vice Dean of International School of Energy, Jinan University. Expert of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Engineering, China Electricity Council and China Energy Research Society. His areas of expertise have been energy conservation and emission reduction in thermos-dynamic system, efficient utilization of distributed energy, as well as development strategy in power sector. He has presided over many national projects, including China’s National Medium- and Long-Term Development Strategy of Engineering Science and Technology Research project on coal-fired power industry, and many fundamental research projects from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and National Natural Science Foundation. He has overturned the traditional understanding of the thermal power industry that “the low load energy consumption per unit power generation is bound to rise significantly” for more than 100 years, and established a basic theory to fundamentally restrain the rise of low load energy consumption of thermal power units. By now, the application of his creative theory and technologies have reduce 1.6 million tons of standard coal consumption and 4.2 million tons of CO2 emission annually, counted from selected projects. He has published more than 40 papers, one monograph, and obtained more than 30 patents for invention. He serves as an editor in two international journals. He has given tens of plenary/keynote speeches. He has been awarded the China’s Outstanding Young Energy Scientist & Technician, the second prize of the Outstanding Achievement Award (Science and Technology) for Scientific Research in Institutions of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education (1/15), First Prize in China’s Electricity Innovation (1/15), Second Prize in China’s Energy Innovation (1/15).

Speech title"Flexible, Safe & Efficient Regulation of New-Generation Coal-fired Power Bolstering the New-Type Power System"

Abstract-With the rapid development of new energy power and its increasingly large share in the energy mix, the thermal power sector—primarily coal-fired power in China—is required to perform load regulation within a wider range, at a faster rate, and with higher reliability. These demands far exceed the scope of traditional thermodynamic theories and design experience. Based on in-depth fundamental research on thermodynamic theory and long-term retrofitting practices, this speech introduces a novel state reconfiguration theory, a modular design scheme, and a set of practical retrofitting approaches. Guided by the state reconfiguration theory, the thermal efficiency of a thermodynamic system can be maintained at a high fixed level, comparable to that under rated conditions. By adopting the modular design scheme, high thermal efficiency can be achieved discretely across the full load range. Additionally, the application of the practical retrofitting approaches enables the expansion of the load regulation range from approximately 70% to 130%, and increases the load variation speed from 1–2%/min to 4–8%/min. Moreover, safety issues can be fundamentally resolved. The research findings provide a direction for the development of next-generation coal-fired power units.

 

Youbo Liu

Sichuan University, China

Biography: Youbo Liu (IEEE Senior Member) received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, in 2005, 2008, and 2011, respectively.,He is currently an Associate Professor with the College of Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University. His research interests include machine learning in smart grid and energy-storage system applications.