As a member of the Advisory Board, I enjoy reviewing the state-of-the-art algorithms and methodologies intended to face the problems that a non-environmentally friendly energy model has posed to all of us for too long. Today we’re changing the way how electricity is generated, transported, and consumed… and EASY-RES is one step-ahead.

In the current Who’s Who @EASY-RES, we are featuring Advisory Board member Carlos Martinez de Guereñu. Carlos is R&D Manager at ZIGOR where he is planning and designing power electronics for a more sustainable energy system.

Carlos, please tell us about yourself!

I was born in Vitoria, the capital city of the Basque Country, in the north of Spain. Since childhood, I have been fascinated by technology, especially by electronics. I pursued my Electronics Engineering studies firstly at Eskola Politeknikoa in Mondragón/ Spain and afterwards I studied at ENSEIRB in Bordeaux/ France, where I gained my Master’s degree in Signal Processing.

Coming back to my hometown Vitoria, I joined SAFT NIFE Iberica as a Junior Engineer within the R&D department; I was involved in the design of new solutions for emergency lighting. After a couple of years there, I started working at a young company, named ZIGOR, where I’ve been for the last two decades.

Concerned with the design and development of all key products of the company, I’ve evolved from a Junior Engineer to the R&D Manager. I have been working in this position for the last five years.

As a R&D Engineer I’ve been responsible for the design of industrial battery chargers, power quality solutions, solar inverters, and energy storage systems, mainly of power electronics and control. I’ve participated in several FP7 and H2020 projects as Technical Advisor of ZIGOR.

When and how did you join the EASY-RES Advisory Board? 

In March 2020, I received a charming invitation from Charis Demoulias, the project coordinator of EASY-RES. We already knew each other from previous H2020 proposals. Charis knew my company as a high-tech developer of power electronics inverters intended for grid and microgrid integration of renewable energy sources and storage.

Charis presented the EASY-RES project to ZIGOR and, as he had predicted, our expertise matched perfectly with the role as Advisor; furthermore, the ZIGOR innovation roadmap is aligned with the objectives of the project, so we have a clear technological view of the solutions worked out by EASY-RES.

Having said that, there was no chance to refuse the membership in the project’s Advisory Board.

The changes in the energy sector that have been ongoing for the last years (and which should be accelerated according to the European Green Deal!) intensify the progressive reduction of power generation based on synchronous generators and the increase in the use of electronic converters used as generators and storage. This fact means that the stability of the grid (maintenance of its operating parameters of voltage, frequency and wave quality) can no longer be guaranteed by standard methods.

EASY-RES addresses this change of paradigm by using the distributed power electronic converters as ancillary services providers in a similar way as a conventional synchronous generator does.

Furthermore, the virtualization envisaged in EASY-RES will answer today’s issues of scalability, security, and interoperability.

Most stakeholders in the electricity markets, from TSO to aggregators, from system manufacturers to final users, all are concerned about the new opportunities coming up. EASY-RES proposes a set of actions from business models linked to ancillary services to algorithms enabling them. Therefore, the results of EASY-RES are of great importance.

As a member of the Advisory Board, I enjoy reviewing the state-of-the-art algorithms and methodologies intended to face the problems that a non-environmentally friendly energy model has posed to all of us for too long. Today we’re changing the way how electricity is generated, transported, and consumed… and EASY-RES is one step-ahead.

And on a more private note: Which private projects or dreams would you like to fulfil?