LENA at IEEE PESS 2025 in Munich
LENA at the IEEE Power and Energy Student Summit 2025 in Munich
This year's IEEE Power and Energy Student Summit (PESS 2025) took place at the Technical University of Munich from October 8 to 10, 2025. LENA was represented with several contributions and successfully presented its ongoing research work to an international audience of experts.
Contributions from Magdeburg
Farina Sadrai presented in her paper "Unlocking Distribution Grid Flexibility through Low-temperature District Heating: A Literature-based Assessment" results from the SmartMES plus project on sector coupling. In a comprehensive literature review, she showed how low-temperature local heating can open up flexibility potential for electricity distribution networks through intelligent control systems.
Bennett Sattler presented his master's thesis with the title "Integration of E-Mobility and Decentralized Generators in Distribution Grids: Analysis of Future Scenarios and Recommendations". His topic is about the integration of electromobility and decentralized generators into future distribution grids. His scenario analyses illustrate that grid bottlenecks at transformers are likely to occur from 2040 onwards.
Natalia Bastos de Sousa, our Brazilian colleague, was among the Best Paper Nominees with her contribution on the identification of electricity theft with the titel "Definition of NTL Zones Using Georeferenced Data and Dimensionality Reduction with UMAP". She presented an advanced method based on spatial statistical analysis and machine learning techniques to systematically identify patterns and hotspots of electricity theft in the distribution grid.
Prof. Wolter, Natalia Bastos de Sousa and Anuraq Sharma.
Anurag Sharma took part in the poster contest and presented a mixed-integer linear programming-based method for optimal resource planning in renewable microgrids. With the combined coordination of battery storage and electric vehicles, he demonstrated significant cost advantages compared to rule-based strategies. The titel of the paper is "MILP Based Optimal Dispatch for Renewable Driven Microgrids with EV and BESS Integration".
Anurag Sharma during the poster session.
Program
The conference was opened with a speech by Prof. Reinaldo Tonkoski PhD (Technical University of Munich). In his speech, he emphasized the importance of international exchange, the value of knowledge transfer, and the opportunities that networking and cooperation open up for young scientists.
The IEEE PES Germany Chapter had originally planned a keynote speech by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Wolter (TU Dresden), head of LENA until August. Unfortunately, he was unable to attend in person at short notice, so the vice-chair of the chapter, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Giovanni De Carne (KIT), gave the presentation instead.
In addition to the scientific presentations, the conference offered a varied supporting program with a conference dinner at the Augustiner Stammhaus and a tour of the CoSES laboratory at the Technical University of Munich.
Summary
With four contributions, including a Best Paper Nomination, LENA was strongly represented in Munich and was able to further expand the international visibility of the chair. The topics presented—from sector coupling to future grid utilization and methods against non-technical losses to optimized operating strategies for microgrids—reflect the breadth of research at the chair.