Energy Sustainability and Power Systems in an Industry 4.0 Context

Dear Colleagues,

One of the major points of Sustainability concept is sustainability of energy supply. And it is worldwide acknowledged that sustainable energy supply can be attained using Renewable Energy Sources, and related technologies including the usage of Energy Storage to compensate the natural variability of the majority of RES (wind, sun).

On the other hand, we are assisting to a continuous growth of the fraction of energy used in applications, being first converted into electricity. Therefore, an increasing usage of renewable sources for energy production implies a smarter usage of the Electric Power Systems to ensure instantaneous matching energy generated and used, the latter either flowing into in loads or in storage devices or lost in joule losses. The Electric Power System has therefore a key role in exploiting RES at its best potential.

Another factor through which the Power System can contribute to sustainability is the ability to allow large amounts of electric vehicles to be connected for recharging, also considering smart recharging and the Vehicle-to-Grid paradigm. This would allow reductions in the well-to-wheels greenhouse emissions significantly and increasingly over time as soon as RES penetration increases.

To pursue enhancement on energy sustainability with special attention devoted to the Electrical Power System, and taking into account the Industry 4.0 paradigm, the following enabling technologies can be considered:

• New and enhanced hardware, e.g. more environmentally friendly RES hardware, and new power electronics materials and architectures;
• New and enhanced simulation tools. Today, Cyber-physical simulation tools allow to evaluate the behaviour of systems with great level of details, and/or size. These tools allow multidomain simulations, to include electrical, thermal, mechanical control phenomena in integrated simulation models
• New and enhanced integration of Power Electronics and Control Electronics in hardware. This integration allows implementation of distributed control actions, which consider local measures on the hardware to which the controller is integrated
• Enhanced ways to integrate vehicle recharging into Power Systems, also considering fast and ultra-fast charging
• New and enhanced communication tools. These allow, in the Internet of Things framework, to create some distributed intelligence in networks of controlled devices, so that the whole electric power system, with its supply from renewable power sources, can become smarter.

The three points above will drive a radical change that will alter from its roots the way we think of electricity generation, distribution, utilisation. This is an important part of the Industry 4.0 revolution in the Electric Energy Sector.

This Special issue will therefore focus on:

• Advances on Renewable Energy generators (wind, sun, hydro), with special attention devoted to energy efficiency and new and smart controls (Cyber-Physical systems)
• Advances in Power electronics: new materials and components (Sic, GaN) new architectures, tighter integration with the controlled electric machines
• Advances in optimal sizing and control techniques for storage in Electrical Power Systems, with special attention to compensation of RES power generation fluctuation
• Techniques to enhance the effectiveness of medium to large-scale penetration use of plug-in vehicles, including ways to reduce the network burden while fast and ultra-fast charging
• New tools and libraries for Cyber-physical simulation of electric power systems, including Renewable Energy Sources
• New telecommunication techniques to enhance control Power Systems with large amounts of Renewable Energy Sources

Prof. Dr. Massimo Ceraolo
Dr. Roberto Roncella
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Energy sustainability
• Renewable Energy Sources
• Electrical Energy Storage
• Electric Vehicle Chargers
• Cyber-physical systems
• Cyber-physical simulation
• Industry 4.0