To maximize the production of electricity from renewable sources, develop smart electricity grids, extend the integration of electric vehicles into electricity grids, exploit the flexibility of demand and to study the regulation and functioning of electricity markets - these are some of the objectives of the R&D partnership for the next five years, that INESC TEC and EDP Group will now sign this Friday, May 24th. 

The program contract, which aims to define the framework for R&D collaboration between INESC TEC and EDP Group companies in the field of energy systems, will be signed at INESC TEC headquarters building at 2:00 pm. in Porto. This partnership predicts that EDP Group companies will be able to pay INESC TEC a maximum annual amount of up to 250 thousand euros for contracting advanced consulting services, research and development and training.

"Over the next five years the EDP Group will count on INESC TEC as a national R&D partner to promote research, scientific development, technology transfer and advanced training in emerging but essential areas for the electricity sector. According to João Peças Lopes, associate director of INESC TEC and professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, the contract is therefore a clear investment in R&D that is very important for Portugal. 

"The now-renewed collaboration between the EDP Group and INESC TEC is essential to align corporate strategy with advances in scientific research and technological development, in the fields of electro-technical engineering, computing and computer science. The signing of this program contract is a clear sign of our determination to enter into partnerships with leading Portuguese institutions in the area of applied R&D and it acknowledges the work carried out jointly since 2014", says João Marques da Cruz, EDP administrator.

In addition to energy systems, in which INESC TEC has expertise and EDP shows interest, this program contract includes: cyber security, software engineering, business analytics, data mining, mathematical sciences, architectures, technologies and communications solutions in the area of smart grids, inspection and monitoring of infrastructures with the use of autonomous vehicles, serious gaming, sensor development, and more. 

Today, EDP is a global company, present in 16 countries, in the areas of production, commercialization and distribution of energy. The studies and laboratory activities that the group conducts in order to support its clients to face the challenges as performance and quality of equipments and systems, are centralized at EDP Labelec.

The collaboration between the two institutions has a history of more than 20 years. An example of this partnership was the InovGrid / INOVCity project, developed in the city of Évora, where an smart electricity metering platform was developed and tested, involving the installation of several thousand smart meters, associated with a seminal project of smart electricity grid. For this project, led by EDP and with the participation of several Portuguese companies, it was INESC TEC which defined the reference models and technical specifications.

The Board of Directors of INESC TEC, members of the Executive Board of EDP, EDP Distribuição and EDP Labelec will attend the signing of the program contract.