🏆 Best Paper Award for Student Jan Brandl at SEST 2026
At the Eighth International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and Technologies (SEST 2026), held in the city of Ciudad Real, Spain, doctoral researcher Jan Brandl, one of the students in the electric power systems laboratory under the supervision of Professor Gabriela Hodge, received the Best Paper Award.
The paper addressed an important technical topic in the field of energy storage and battery management, under the title: “Optimal bidding of batteries under state-of-charge-dependent uncertainty.” This study focuses on developing strategies for storage control in lithium iron phosphate batteries, a well-known storage type widely used in smart electricity grids.
📌 Simplified technical summary:
- Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are used as storage solutions on a wide scale in smart grids.
- The main challenge lies in accurately estimating the battery State-of-Charge (SoC) in the presence of uncertainty.
- Three bidding strategies were tested for participating in electricity markets while trying to reduce uncertainty in the estimate.
- A new method emerged that helps reduce estimation error and improve the ability of grid operators to bid with greater reliability.
⚡ Understanding the paper’s topic: state of charge and its related uncertainty
Managing the State-of-Charge (SoC) is essential for any energy storage system, as it expresses the percentage of energy remaining in the battery compared with its full capacity. Knowing SoC accurately is vital to ensure continued operation and prevent battery damage.
The difficulty is that SoC estimation is affected by several factors, such as:
- Changes in current and voltage over time
- Changing environmental conditions such as heat
- The non-homogeneous discharge and lubrication mechanism within chemical cells
This leads to uncertainty in the estimate, meaning that the calculated values may differ from the truth, making it difficult to predict battery performance.
🔧 The resulting technical risk
Inaccurate SoC estimation may result in:
- Battery damage due to overcharging or deep discharge
- Failure of associated protection systems
- Reduced reliability of the battery’s participation in the energy market
Therefore, improving this estimate is one of the research and applied priorities.
🔹 Important point: Improving the estimate of state of charge raises the efficiency of battery use in energy grids and extends their service life.
📊 Battery use in electricity markets: the concept of bidding and smart commitments
In modern electricity markets, energy sources and storage systems, such as lithium batteries, bid on electricity generation or consumption within defined time periods. These bids must be accurate to truly reflect the available capacity or the required consumption.
Bidding involves a set of decisions based on the estimate of the battery’s state of charge. If SoC estimates are inaccurate, this may lead to:
- Submitting incorrect power offers
- Financial loss due to failure to comply with market contracts
- Negative impact on grid stability
Here the importance of research into how to correct and update these bids to achieve the highest accuracy and effectiveness became apparent.
⚠️ Safety notice:
Safety limits must always be observed when operating batteries within electricity grids, and the specified charging or discharging capacities must not be exceeded to avoid electrical and thermal risks.
🛠️ The three bidding strategies examined by the research
The researchers focused on comparing three different strategies for submitting bids through batteries suffering from uncertainty in SoC, namely:
- The traditional method: relies on fixed estimates without adjustment or dynamic updating.
- The probabilistic method: takes into account the probabilities of estimation error to improve forecast reliability.
- The new innovative method: includes an active mechanism to reduce uncertainty by continuously adjusting market interaction strategies and improving measurement processes.
The results showed that the new method is able to reduce charge-estimation errors and increase battery operating reliability, which raises the efficiency of participation in electricity markets.
📌 Quick takeaway: Smart bidding strategies enhance the operational effectiveness of batteries and improve the quality of energy management.
🔋 The importance of lithium iron phosphate batteries in modern energy systems
Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are an excellent choice for grid-scale energy storage due to the following advantages:
- Higher safety compared with other types of lithium batteries
- Longer service life and a greater number of charge/discharge cycles
- Relatively low maintenance cost
- An appropriate charge and discharge rate for grid applications
All these factors make them ideal for meeting the requirements of smart energy grids, especially in environments where estimation accuracy and control are essential.
🔹 Important point:
Providing accurate estimation methods and improved control of the state of charge enhances the lifespan of these batteries and their operational efficiency.
📐 Practical application: how does technical research help improve energy storage systems?
The results of this scientific research help develop control systems and software that manage batteries participating in smart electricity markets by:
- Integrating dynamic state-of-charge estimation models and real-time uncertainty analysis
- Developing bidding algorithms that adapt to market changes and grid requirements
- Improving battery operating strategies to reduce errors and avoid damage
- Increasing reliability and trust in battery participation inside smart homes and industrial complexes
These applications are useful for students and technicians seeking to improve their skills in managing and developing modern energy grids.
⚡🔧 Technical tip:
Understanding the relationship between state-of-charge estimation and bidding strategies can open doors to innovation in the design of intelligent control systems inside energy storage stations.
📝 Conclusion: the importance of scientific research in improving smart grids
Jan Brandl’s receipt of the Best Paper Award at SEST 2026 highlights the pivotal role of applied research in addressing modern energy challenges.
Such studies contribute to enabling technical and engineering bodies to develop practical solutions to improve power quality, enhance the use of storage sources more efficiently, and reduce the risks associated with inaccurate measurements.
With the development of state-of-charge management technologies and bidding methods, it is possible to enhance smart-grid stability and achieve better use of batteries in the electricity market, opening a broad horizon for greater reliability and effectiveness in future energy systems.
🔹 Final point: Following developments in smart energy storage and battery management is a basic technical necessity for engineers and technicians to enhance their readiness for the requirements of the modern electrical environment.
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