CONFERENCE – Grid Connection of Renewable Plants with Storage: Challenges and Solutions

On 25 September 2025, IMDEA Energy will host the technical workshop “Grid-Connected Renewable Plants with Storage: Challenges and Solutions”.

This event will bring together experts from the institute along with professionals from universities, technology centres and leading energy companies. The aim of the workshop is to analyse the main challenges associated with the integration of renewable energy plants with storage systems into the power grid, and to explore innovative solutions that can contribute to a more flexible, efficient and resilient grid operation.

Several researchers from IMDEA Energy will take part in the event, including Milan Prodanovic, Head of the Electrical Systems Unit, and Javier Roldán, Senior Assistant Researcher in the same unit.

The workshop will also feature speakers from other institutions and companies in the energy sector, such as the Technical University of Madrid, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Huawei Digital Power and Iberdrola, among others. Throughout the day, participants will address key topics such as the operational challenges of grid-connected renewable plants, the role of new grid codes and grid-forming inverters, the functioning of ancillary service markets and the potential of storage systems to participate in them, as well as the possibilities offered by centralised control via Power Plant Controllers. The current state and future development of battery technologies for grid applications will also be discussed.

The day will conclude with a technical tour of the Smart Energy Integration Laboratory (SEIL), where attendees will have the opportunity to learn first-hand about the infrastructure, technologies and research lines that IMDEA Energy is developing in this field.

Event registration will be available soon.

Programme (to be confirmed):

09:15 – 09:30 – Welcome (Milan Prodanovic, Senior Researcher, IMDEA Energy)

09:30 – 10:00 – Operational challenges of renewable plants in electricity grids
(Benjamín Paz, Technical Leader, EPRI)

10:00 – 10:30 – Ancillary service markets in the context of plants with storage
(Luis Badesa, Professor, Technical University of Madrid)

10:30 – 11:00 – Grid codes and specifications for power converters
(Miguel Ochoa, Global Technical Director, Huawei Digital Power)

11:00 – 11:30 – Coffee break

11:30 – 12:00 – Control of renewable plants with storage
(Speaker to be confirmed)

12:00 – 12:30 – Battery technologies for grid applications
(Rafael Mallo, Senior Storage Engineer, Iberdrola)

12:30 – 13:00 – Advances in the flexible operation of solar plants with storage
(Javier Roldán, Senior Researcher, IMDEA Energy)

13:00 – 13:15 – Closing remarks

13:15 – 14:00 – Visit to the Smart Energy Integration Laboratory (SEIL)