City University London to lead €2.3m research project to improve the stability and security of European electricity supplies

City is to lead a €2.3m research project, sponsored by the European Commission, to integrate South-East European grid infrastructure with the continent's power network.

City University London is to lead a €2.3m collaborative research project, sponsored by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme, to help South-East European transmission system operators (TSO) – equivalent to the UK’s National Grid – harmonise and integrate their infrastructure with the wider European power network. This will introduce greater long-term stability and security to the continent’s energy supply, and enable better forecasting of demand and congestion.


The South-East European TSO Challenges (SEETSOC) project will address the need to improve electricity supplies to meet future requirements, by creating frameworks and software tools to: enable the cross-border trading of power and grid services, helping to meet peak demand in individual countries and increasing the reliability of electricity supply across the whole region; integrate renewable energy sources into the grid, through better long-distance transport; and encourage private investment in new infrastructure.

SEETSOC will run for three years from January 2010, with Dr Panos Liatsis – Reader in Sensor Systems and Head of the Information Engineering and Medical Imaging Group at City University London – leading researchers from 14 academic and industrial partners across six countries.

“In this highly regulated sector, efficient knowledge sharing and pooling of research, policy and technology development resources are critical for electricity grids to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. By integrating TSOs from South-East Europe into the wider market, we are taking the first step to secure the future supplies that are vital to the continued development of our societies and economies.”
Dr Panos Liatsis, Reader in Sensor Systems and Head of the Information Engineering and Medical Imaging Group, City University London

Professor Loi Lei Lai, Head of the Energy Systems Group at City, will also contribute to the development of the technical solutions of SEETSOC, specifically focusing on the key task of producing accurate and reliable models for forecasting electricity demand and congestion. This proposed software platform will be released under an open source license at the end of the project, making it freely available to researchers and businesses for further development.

The City Research and Enterprise Unit – the University’s technology and knowledge transfer team – will facilitate the financial management of the project across the organisations involved: Bulgaria’s Technical University of Sofia and CEZ Distribution; Greece’s Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, Hellenic Transmission System Operator S.A., Public Power Corporation S.A., and School of Pedagogical and Technological Education; Italy’s TERNA S.A.; Romania’s Polytechnica University of Bucharest and S.C. ROENP INIT SRL;  the Serbian Transmission and Market Operator, and University of Belgrade; and Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, and Macedonian Transmission System Operator from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

For further information, please contact Luke Nava, Press Officer, on 020 7040 8782 or at luke.nava.1@city.ac.uk.


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Date of Article:  13/01/2010