Lucas Pereira

Md Umar Hashmi, Deepjyoti Deka, Ana Busic et al.

The importance of reactive power compensation for power factor (PF) correction will significantly increase with the large-scale integration of distributed generation interfaced via inverters producing only active power. In this work, we focus on co-optimizing energy storage for performing energy arbitrage as well as local power factor correction. The joint optimization problem is non-convex, but can be solved efficiently using a McCormick relaxation along with penalty-based schemes. Using numerical simulations on real data and realistic storage profiles, we show that energy storage can correct PF locally without reducing arbitrage profit. It is observed that active and reactive power control is largely decoupled in nature for performing arbitrage and PF correction (PFC). Furthermore, we consider a real-time implementation of the problem with uncertain load, renewable and pricing profiles. We develop a model predictive control based storage control policy using auto-regressive forecast for the uncertainty. We observe that PFC is primarily governed by the size of the converter and therefore, look-ahead in time in the online setting does not affect PFC noticeably. However, arbitrage profit are more sensitive to uncertainty for batteries with faster ramp rates compared to slow ramping batteries.

Md Umar Hashmi, Lucas Pereira, Ana Bušić

Energy storage applications are explored from a prosumer (consumers with generation) perspective for the island of Madeira in Portugal. These applications could also be relevant to other power networks. We formulate a convex co-optimization problem for performing arbitrage under zero feed-in tariff, increasing self-sufficiency by increasing self-consumption of locally generated renewable energy, provide peak shaving and act as a backup power source during anticipated and scheduled power outages. Using real data from Madeira we perform short and long time-scale simulations in order to select end-user contract which maximizes their gains considering storage degradation based on operational cycles. We observe energy storage ramping capability decides peak shaving potential, fast ramping batteries can significantly reduce peak demand charge. The numerical experiment indicates that storage providing backup does not significantly reduce gains performing arbitrage and peak demand shaving. Furthermore, we also use AutoRegressive Moving Average (ARMA) forecasting along with Model Predictive Control (MPC) for real-time implementation of the proposed optimization problem in the presence of uncertainty.

Lucas Pereira, Vineet Jagadeesan Nair, Bruno Dias et al.

We propose a comprehensive approach to increase the reliability and resilience of future power grids rich in distributed energy resources. Our distributed scheme combines federated learning-based attack detection with a local electricity market-based attack mitigation method. We validate the scheme by applying it to a real-world distribution grid rich in solar PV. Simulation results demonstrate that the approach is feasible and can successfully mitigate the grid impacts of cyber-physical attacks.

Andrés Isaza-Giraldo, Paulo Bala, Lucas Pereira

The evaluation of open-ended responses in serious games presents a unique challenge, as correctness is often subjective. Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly being explored as evaluators in such contexts, yet their accuracy and consistency remain uncertain, particularly for smaller models intended for local execution. This study investigates the reliability of five small-scale LLMs when assessing player responses in \textit{En-join}, a game that simulates decision-making within energy communities. By leveraging traditional binary classification metrics (including accuracy, true positive rate, and true negative rate), we systematically compare these models across different evaluation scenarios. Our results highlight the strengths and limitations of each model, revealing trade-offs between sensitivity, specificity, and overall performance. We demonstrate that while some models excel at identifying correct responses, others struggle with false positives or inconsistent evaluations. The findings highlight the need for context-aware evaluation frameworks and careful model selection when deploying LLMs as evaluators. This work contributes to the broader discourse on the trustworthiness of AI-driven assessment tools, offering insights into how different LLM architectures handle subjective evaluation tasks.

Vineet Jagadeesan Nair, Lucas Pereira

This proposal aims to develop more accurate federated learning (FL) methods with faster convergence properties and lower communication requirements, specifically for forecasting distributed energy resources (DER) such as renewables, energy storage, and loads in modern, low-carbon power grids. This will be achieved by (i) leveraging recently developed extensions of FL such as hierarchical and iterative clustering to improve performance with non-IID data, (ii) experimenting with different types of FL global models well-suited to time-series data, and (iii) incorporating domain-specific knowledge from power systems to build more general FL frameworks and architectures that can be applied to diverse types of DERs beyond just load forecasting, and with heterogeneous clients.