Tuesday, July 6, 2021

[DMANET] Two PhD Scholarships in Privacy-Aware and ML-Supported Electricity Market Designs

*Two PhD Scholarships in Privacy-Aware and ML-Supported Electricity Market
Designs*

*Application link*: https://lnkd.in/dmv6prV

*Deadline*: August 10, 2021

The Centre for Electric Power and Energy (CEE) at the Department of
Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU) invites
applications for two fully funded 3-year PhD positions in privacy-aware and
ML-supported electricity market design. Both positions will be started
before the end of year 2021.

Both PhD students will join the Energy Analytics & Markets (ELMA) research
group of CEE. The ELMA group (https://lnkd.in/dNBFxrc) offers a very
international, diverse, and friendly atmosphere, encouraging creativity,
empathy and team working within the group and beyond. The ELMA group has a
strong multi-disciplinary research focus on energy markets, advanced
optimization and game-theoretic algorithms, AI and energy analytics. Many
former ELMA members are currently very successful scientists either in
academia or in industry.

PhD students at ELMA have a great opportunity to build strong networks with
internationally known researchers at DTU and other universities as well as
industrial partners. They will take several relevant courses (30 ECTS in
total) aligned with their PhD project either in DTU or other universities.
They will also have a chance to attend several international conferences
and other scientific events as well as a research stay for 3-6 months in a
well-known research group outside Denmark. They are also welcome to
contribute to supervision and teaching activities.


*PhD position 1: Privacy-aware market design for energy communities*
The PhD student will join the FLEX-CEC project, which has recently been
granted funding from Danish Energy Technology Development and Demonstration
Programme (EUDP). The FLEX-CEC project partially funds this PhD
scholarship, and the rest will be funded by DTU Electrical Engineering
Department. The research goal of this PhD project is to design a market for
local energy communities that provably guarantees the privacy of market
participants (i.e., community members) in terms of their data integrity.
This privacy-aware market design is expected to encourage more prosumers
and end-consumers to join local energy communities and provide diverse
flexibility services to the power system. This market design is expected to
be demonstrated in several pilots in Denmark. The student will be in close
collaboration with industry, in particular Enyday, Energi Danmark, BY&HAVN
and EWII, and participate in dialogues with, i.e., regulators on necessary
permissions and exceptions needed for executing the experiments. Some of
research aspects are:

- Designing a market for energy communities built upon non-cooperative
and cooperative game theory
- Developing privacy-aware market-clearing algorithms using recently
developed methods in computer science, e.g., differential privacy
- Validating the level of privacy preservation using inference tools
such as inverse optimization, Bayesian inference, or machine learning
algorithms
- Designing a fair allocation mechanism for distributing the potential
increased operational cost of the community among market participants based
on their privacy preferences

*PhD position 2: AI for modern electricity market design*
This PhD scholarship is fully funded by DTU Electrical Engineering
Department. This is a unique PhD position, since the student will have an
opportunity to conduct "fundamental" research. Some of potential research
aspects are:

- Exploring how AI, in particular advanced machine learning algorithms,
can help us design more efficient electricity markets in terms of increased
social welfare and reduced computational complexity. For this research
aspect, the successful applicant will first investigate in the literature
the success of AI in designing generic markets and markets for other
commodities, and will then focus on designing AI-based electricity markets.
There will be a special focus on continuous electricity markets.
- Designing a data market for power systems: Recent tremendous
developments in machine learning bring the opportunity for electricity
market participants to use high-quality labeled data for training their
forecasting and decision-making models. However, one can expect that it
will be very difficult for an electricity market participant to achieve
such high quality data as it is distributed and belong to other
participants. Market participants are in general reluctant to share their
own data, e.g., wind power forecasts, due to privacy issues and the fact
that other participants are their competitors in the electricity market. To
incentivize data exchange, this PhD project will view data as a tradable
commodity and aims at designing a mechanism for "data trading" in
electricity markets. Data trading is a very young research field and has
never been explored extensively in the energy sector.

*Qualifications*
*You must have a two-year master's degree (120 ECTS points) or a similar
degree with an academic level equivalent to a two-year master's degree.*

A good candidate will have a solid background in most of the following
points:

- Knowledge of power systems and electricity markets
- Knowledge of convex optimization, game theory and machine learning
techniques
- Knowledge of programming tools such as Julia and Python
- Excellent use of the English language
- Ability to present results in technical reports, and prepare
scientific papers for publication in international conferences and journals
- For position 1, knowledge of Danish language is an advantage, as the
student is expected to be in close collaboration with utilities and
regulatory authorities, and the research will take place under a regulatory
framework defined in Danish.

*Approval and Enrolment*
The scholarship for the PhD degree is subject to academic approval, and the
candidate will be enrolled in one of the general degree programmes at DTU.
For information about our enrolment requirements and the general planning
of the PhD study programme, please see the DTU PhD Guide
<http://www.dtu.dk/english/Education/PhD/Rules/PhDguide>.

*Assessment*
The assessment of the applicants will be made by Associate Professor Jalal
Kazempour (DTU). For position 1, Project Manager Christoffer Greisen will
also be in the assessment committee.

*We offer*
DTU is a leading technical university globally recognized for the
excellence of its research, education, innovation and scientific advice. We
offer a rewarding and challenging job in an international environment. We
strive for academic excellence in an environment characterized by collegial
respect and academic freedom tempered by responsibility.

*Salary and appointment terms*

The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish
Confederation of Professional Associations. The allowance will be agreed
upon with the relevant union. The period of employment is 3 years.

You can read more about career paths at DTU here
<http://www.dtu.dk/english/about/job-and-career/working-at-dtu/career-paths>
*.*

*Further information*
Further information may be obtained from Associate Professor Jalal
Kazempour, seykaz@elektro.dtu.dk.

You can read more about DTU Electro at www.elektro.dtu.dk/english and
CEE at www.cee.elektro.dtu.dk/.

If you are applying from abroad, you may find useful information on working
in Denmark and at DTU at DTU – Moving to Denmark
<https://www.dtu.dk/english/about/job-and-career/moving-to-denmark>.

*Application procedure*
Please submit your online application *at your earliest convenience but not
later than 10 August 2021 (Danish time).* Applications must be
submitted as *one
PDF file* containing all materials to be given consideration. To apply,
please open the link "Apply online", fill out the online application form,
and attach *all your materials in English in one PDF file*. The file must
include:

- A letter motivating the application. In this letter, please clarify
whether you apply for position 1 or 2 or both. In addition, please
elaborate on your relevant scientific and programming competences for the
position(s) you apply for, and explain why you fit well into this specific
position.
- Curriculum vitae
- Grade transcripts and BSc/MSc diploma
- Excel sheet with translation of grades to the Danish grading system
(see guidelines and Excel spreadsheet here
<http://www.dtu.dk/english/Education/phd/Applicant/Pre_acceptance-1->)
- Contact details of two individuals that can provide a letter of
reference

You may apply prior to ob­tai­ning your master's degree but cannot begin
before having received it.

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, race, disability,
religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply.

*DTU Electrical Engineering educates students within electrical engineering
technologies. We offer studies at BEng, BSc, MSc and PhD levels, and
participate in joint international programmes. We conduct state-of-the-art
research within antenna and microwave technology, robot technology, power
and physical electronics, acoustic environment, electro-acoustics, electric
power and energy. **Our department has more than 200 members of staff.*

*Technology for people*
*DTU develops technology for people. With our international elite research
and study programmes, we are helping to create a better world and to solve
the global challenges formulated in the UN's 17 Sustainable Development
Goals. Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU in 1829 with a clear vision to
develop and create value using science and engineering to benefit society.
That vision lives on today. DTU has 12,900 students and 6,000 employees. We
work in an international atmosphere and have an inclusive, evolving, and
informal working environment. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and
in Greenland, and we collaborate with the best universities around the
world.*

Best regards,

Jalal Kazempour (Associate Professor, DTU)

www.jalalkazempour.com

seykaz@elektro.dtu.dk ; jalal.kazempour@gmail.com

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