Field of activity

Prof. Monti leads the Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems (ACS) as institute director. Within his research, he develops science and technology for the next generation energy grids, so they can accept most of the energy generated by renewables and can operate in a customer-centric, service-oriented way. ACS researchers work in three large and well integrated teams, "Grid Dynamics", "Power System Control and Automation" and "ICT4Energy". Grid Operation includes the fundamentals of dynamics and stability for AC and hybrid AC-DC networks, grid monitoring and The division Power System Control and Automation researches innovative control concepts for future electrical grids as well as automation functionality supporting grid management. ICT for Energy includes distributed and high performance computing, cloud applications, data-driven energy systems, real-time and distributed simulation. These advancements of fundamental theory and technology are applied in smart cities, flexible electrical networks, wind power drive research and testing, future internet for energy. ACS maintains and develops an advanced testing facility with core real-time and high performance computing infrastructure, which offers cutting edge solutions for Hardware-In-the-Loop and Power-Hardware-In-the-Loop testing, remote real-time simulation, and test-benches for joint power, monitoring, control and communication, together with standard commercial solutions for distribution grid automation, thus being able to develop and assess visionary as well as and field-ready solutions.

Vita

Prof. Monti started the activities of the Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems (ACS) at RWTH Aachen in 2008. The research group accounts now around 50 full time researchers and is active in a variety of German and EU funded projects focusing on Distribution System Automation, Modeling and Simulation of Power Systems. Before joining RWTH in Aachen, Prof. Monti was Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of South Carolina (USA). During his tenure at USC he has been Associate Director of the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) project, which focuses on computational simulation and visualisation of modern power distribution systems that fully integrate power electronics into the network design. His research extended the limitations of real-time simulation through the application of PC Clusters and FPGA technologies. He started his academic career at Politecnico di Milano after 4 years of industrial experience in Ansaldo Industria. Prof. Monti was Coordinator of the EU FP7 project COOPERaTE and Technical Manager of the EU FP7 project FINESCE and is currently Technical Manager of H2020 project SUCCESS and RESERVE and coordinator of the H2020 Project ADMS. Prof. Monti is the 2017 recipient of the IEEE Field Medal Award, Innovation in Society Infrastructure.