- An engineer from Cádiz and one from Malaga were presented with these awards and the originality of their proposals was highly valued, together with their vision of the future and the application of new technologies including deep learning with regard to the electricity grid.
The following engineers at the Higher Technical School of Engineering at the University of Seville (ETSI in Spanish), Salvador Fuentes and Francisco Ramos, were presented with the Endesa Chair award that acknowledges the research work of higher degree university students.
The General Manager of Endesa in Andalusia and Extremadura, Rafael Sánchez Durán, and the Endesa's Manager of Networks in Andalusia and Extremadura, Emilio Jiménez, presented the awards corresponding to the 18th edition of the Endesa Chair Awards, valued at €1.000 euros per category, at the Higher Technical School of Engineering in Seville, representing continued support for future Andalusian engineers.
The criteria taken into account when selecting the winners were mainly the originality of the proposals, their vision of the future and the development of their proposals, as well as the application of new technologies to the electricity network infrastructure.
"Endesa aims to continue supporting future generations of engineers and these awards that we have been presenting for 18 years now are proof of this. We received projects with very high academic quality, a sign of the high value of the generations of engineers that are to come," Rafael Sánchez Durán pointed out during the awards ceremony.
On behalf of the Higher Technical School of Engineering in Seville, its Director, Francisco Rodríguez Rubio, highlighted the importance of the collaboration between Endesa and the School "which helps us to successfully undertake one of the essential missions of the University, which is the transfer of knowledge. Special mention should be given to the fruitful relationship and we are grateful for the contribution made by the chair by sponsoring events, scholarships, collaborations, doctoral theses, etc."
From the more than 600 projects presented, the jury of experts selected 16 finalists (10 end-of-degree plus 6 end-of-Master), and the winners selected were the engineers Salvador Fuentes and Francisco Ramos.
Salvador Fuentes is an aeronautical engineer born in Málaga and he was the winner in the Master's Degree category for his work entitled Analysis of the technical, economic and environmental feasibility for a new electrical system for the autonomous city of Ceuta. His work was acknowledged with this distinction for proposing a new electrical system in an isolated environment dependent on fossil fuels, such as Ceuta. The proposal involves moving towards models that guarantee the security of supply and the integration of renewable energies, developing towards a new, more efficient and sustainable energy model, to face the challenges posed in the so-called energy trilemma.
Francisco Ramos, with a degree in Industrial Technologies engineering and originally from El Puerto de Santa María, was the winner with his Final Degree project entitled Forecast of demand and renewable generation with Deep Learning: Applied to the optimisation of electric vehicle charging stations. In his project he offers solutions to face the future paradigm of the electrical system following the massive introduction of electric vehicles, where the key challenge is the support that the network infrastructure will need to provide for the implementation of large-scale electric vehicle charging stations. The proposal involves the use of intelligent planning algorithms, based on data and machine learning techniques, to find out about the charging behaviour of electric vehicles and photovoltaic generation.
The creation of the Endesa Network Chair Award took place in 2004 following agreements reached between the Company and the University of Seville to award the prize, establish a framework for scientific and technical collaboration and promote the Hispalense doctoral programme called "Electrical energy systems".
About Endesa
Endesa is a leading electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal. The company is also the second largest gas operator in the Spanish market. Endesa operates an end-to-end electricity generation, distribution and marketing business. Through Endesa X, it also offers value-added services aimed at the electrification of energy usage in homes, companies, industries and Public Administrations. It is also the leading operator of charging stations in Spain through Endesa X Way, a business line dedicated entirely to electric mobility. Endesa is firmly committed to the United Nations SDGs and strongly supports the development of renewable energies through Enel Green Power España, the digitalisation of grids through e-distribución, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The Endesa Foundation is also active in CSR. Our workforce numbers around 9,260 employees. Endesa is a division of Enel, the largest electricity group in Europe.