Smart Grid Innovation: iGrid & CITCEA-UPC Partnership

The glob­al ener­gy tran­si­tion requires advanced micro­grid pro­tec­tion and con­trol engi­neer­ing com­bined with industry–university col­lab­o­ra­tion to trans­form research into deploy­able smart grid solutions.

At iGrid, we believe the future of sus­tain­able and resilient ener­gy sys­tems depends on how effec­tive­ly com­pa­nies and uni­ver­si­ties bridge the gap between the­o­ret­i­cal research and prac­ti­cal imple­men­ta­tion. This syn­er­gy is essen­tial to achiev­ing decar­boniza­tion and car­bon neu­tral­i­ty goals by 2050.

As a com­pa­ny spe­cial­ized in power sys­tem engi­neer­ing, sub­sta­tion automa­tion, and smart grid solu­tions, iGrid brings prac­ti­cal exper­tise from trans­mis­sion & dis­tri­b­u­tion (T&D) sys­tems into advanced research envi­ron­ments. Fur­ther­more, as an active part­ner of CITCEA-UPC at Uni­ver­si­tat Politèc­ni­ca de Catalun­ya and par­tic­i­pant in the IDEAL4GREEN, iGrid con­tributes its indus­tri­al expe­ri­ence in grid automa­tion, SCADA sys­tems to the devel­op­ment of next-gen­er­a­tion researchers work­ing on decen­tral­ized microgrids.

 

 

Advancing Microgrid Innovation Through IDEAL4GREEN

The IDEAL4GREEN project focus­es on the design, plan­ning, oper­a­tion, and con­trol of decen­tral­ized micro­grids to address the chal­lenges of renew­able inte­gra­tion, grid sta­bil­i­ty, pow­er qual­i­ty, and local ener­gy optimization.

Through this ini­tia­tive, doc­tor­al can­di­dates gain expo­sure to:

• Advanced con­trol algo­rithms for microgrids.
• AI-dri­ven ener­gy man­age­ment systems.
• Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty strate­gies for dis­trib­uted grids.
• Island­ing and recon­nec­tion mechanisms.
• Pow­er sys­tem dig­i­tal­iza­tion and reg­u­la­to­ry frameworks.

What makes this mod­el pow­er­ful is its inter­sec­toral train­ing approach, which com­bines aca­d­e­m­ic excel­lence with indus­tri­al application.At iGrid, we pro­vide real-world val­i­da­tion envi­ron­ments, and oper­a­tional insights from active T&D infra­struc­tures. More­over, this col­lab­o­ra­tion ensures that doc­tor­al research evolves into deploy­able, scal­able solu­tions that enhance grid per­for­mance and reliability.

 

Why Industry–University Collaboration Matters

1. Accelerating Technology Transfer

By inte­grat­ing indus­tri­al exper­tise in pow­er sys­tem automa­tion and elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing ser­vices into doc­tor­al research, inno­va­tion moves faster from lab­o­ra­to­ry con­cepts to oper­a­tional micro­grids and real infra­struc­ture deployments.

2. Developing Industry-Ready Talent

Doc­tor­al can­di­dates gain hands-on expe­ri­ence with real grid chal­lenges, advanced pro­tec­tion sys­tems, smart grid archi­tec­tures, and SCADA envi­ron­ments — prepar­ing them to lead dig­i­tal­ized, resilient, and sus­tain­able pow­er systems.

3. Strengthening Resilience & Decarbonization Goals

Col­lab­o­ra­tion enables the devel­op­ment of robust, intel­li­gent, and cyber-secure micro­grid sys­tems capa­ble of sup­port­ing Europe’s car­bon neu­tral­i­ty objec­tives while improv­ing sys­tem reli­a­bil­i­ty, grid sta­bil­i­ty, and inte­gra­tion of renew­able generation.

 

Bridging Theory and Practice: Redundancy and Reliability

A core pil­lar of this col­lab­o­ra­tion is the focus on sys­tem reli­a­bil­i­ty. With­in the IDEAL4GREEN frame­work, our doc­tor­al researcher, Uxue Gar­cian­dia Iris­ar­ri, is inves­ti­gat­ing redun­dan­cy strate­gies, pow­er rout­ing mech­a­nisms, and ener­gy man­age­ment sys­tems (EMS) designed to enhance the resilience of decen­tral­ized micro­grids. Her research focus­es on devel­op­ing AI-dri­ven con­trol solu­tions that ensure unin­ter­rupt­ed pow­er sup­ply and opti­mal ener­gy dis­tri­b­u­tion under vary­ing oper­a­tional conditions.

At iGrid, we com­ple­ment this aca­d­e­m­ic research with our long-stand­ing indus­tri­al exper­tise in pow­er sys­tem redun­dan­cy. In crit­i­cal T&D infra­struc­tures, redun­dan­cy is not just a fea­ture but a require­ment for sta­bil­i­ty. We imple­ment advanced archi­tec­tures where com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­to­cols (such as IEC 61850) and hard­ware con­fig­u­ra­tions are engi­neered to elim­i­nate sin­gle points of fail­ure. This syn­er­gy ensures that next-gen­er­a­tion con­trol strate­gies are devel­oped along­side the rig­or­ous reli­a­bil­i­ty stan­dards required by mod­ern elec­tri­cal networks.

 

Investing in the Future of the Energy Ecosystem

The ener­gy sec­tor is under­go­ing a struc­tur­al trans­for­ma­tion. Dis­trib­uted gen­er­a­tion and ener­gy com­mu­ni­ties demand engi­neers with inter­dis­ci­pli­nary knowl­edge ground­ed in real pow­er sys­tem oper­a­tions. By men­tor­ing doc­tor­al researchers with­in IDEAL4GREEN, iGrid con­tributes to tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ment and helps shape a new gen­er­a­tion of experts.

Ulti­mate­ly, industry–university col­lab­o­ra­tion is not just cor­po­rate respon­si­bil­i­ty; it is a strate­gic invest­ment. The tran­si­tion to low-car­bon ener­gy sys­tems will be built on part­ner­ships that com­bine aca­d­e­m­ic research excel­lence with prac­ti­cal exper­tise in automa­tion and grid pro­tec­tion engineering.

Inter­est­ed in smart grid inno­va­tion? If you are look­ing for col­lab­o­ra­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties or research part­ner­ships in micro­grids and pow­er sys­tem automa­tion, let’s con­nect.

 

Meet our Doc­tor­al Can­di­date Uxue Gar­cian­dia Iris­ar­ri