Agent based modelling of local energy networks as instances of complex infrastructure systems

José-María González de Durana was born on March 15, 1949, in Vitoria, Spain. He studied at the Superior School of Engineering of Bilbao, where he obtained his Industrial Electrical Engineering degree in 1976. After a couple of years in a project office he joined the Basque Country University (UPV/EHU), teaching some subjects on mathematics, electronics and automatic control, and obtaining his PhD in 1989. He continues at UPV/EHU, Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, as Associate Professor. Dr González de Durana current research activities lie in the field of simulation of dynamical systems, with a special emphasis on electrical grids, energy network systems, and more recently socio-technical systems. Some of these were made in collaboration with the Cranfield Complex Systems Research Centre, Cranfield, U.K., and the European Institute for Energy ResearchKarlsruhe, Karlsruhe Germany.

Oscar Barambones was born in Vitoria, Spain in 1973. He received the M.Sc. degree in applied physics, the Ph.D. degree in control systems and automation, and the M.Sc. degree in electronic engineering, from the University of the Basque Country in 1996, 2000 and 2001, respectively. Since 1999 he has held several teaching positions at the Systems Engineering and Automation Department in the Basque Country University, where he is currently a Professor of systems and control engineering. He has also been the Vice Dean of Research and master in the University College of Engineering of Vitoria from 2009 to 2013. He has more than 150 papers published in the international conferences, book chapters, and journals. He has served as reviewer in several international journals and conferences, and has supervised several Ph.D. theses.

Enrique Kremers received his electrical and information technology engineering diploma from the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Germany, in 2008. Since then he has been working as research and development engineer at the European Institute for Energy Research (EIFER, EDF & KIT) in Karlsruhe. In 2012, he received his PhD from Universidad del País Vasco, Spain, on the topic of modeling and simulation of energy systems through a complex systems approach. His main research focus is on modeling of distributed energy systems, by developing integrative and bottom-up simulation approaches, considering multiple spatial and temporal scales. Therefore methods from complexity science such as agent-based models and multi method modeling and model coupling are used. He has contributed to several EDF smart grid and smart city projects and is currently in charge of the Intelligent Energy System team in EIFER. Since 2014 he is lecturer at the Karlshochschule International University for the course Industry Energy Management.

Liz Varga, Chair in Complex Infrastructure Systems, is Director of the Complex Systems Research Centre (CSRC), Cranfield School of Management (SoM), Cranfield University. Liz’s research focuses on explaining the economic, social, and environmental outcomes of interactions and interdependencies within critical infrastructure systems, i.e., energy, transport, water and waste, and telecommunications systems. Her skills are in creating abstractions of real-world systems, recognizing emergent phenomena and co-evolutionary effects, together with measurable systemic metrics, and working in trans-disciplinary environments. Using mixed methods approaches, embracing big data, and leading the design of computational agent-based models, the consequences of social behaviors, political interventions, and technological potentials are examined at multiple scales and assessed for impact upon resilience and adaptation and toward normative scenarios. She has over 60 publications and has been research investigator on 10 Research Councils UK and European Commission projects.