The Canada-China Clean Energy and Smart Grids Symposium, organized by the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences and assisted by University of Victoria, Canada, was held successfully in Beijing on April 28-29, 2012. Many honorable guests attended this event, including: from China - Prof. Yixin Yu, (CAE Academician) Dr. Ming Li (Director of Engineering and Materials Science Department, NSFC,) Dr. Lijian Ding (Director of the 5th Department of Engineering Science, NSFC,) Dr. Baoshan Li (Secretary General of China Renewable Energy Society;) and from Canada - Mr. Nick Beck (Director of Transportation Energy Technology of Natural Resources Canada,) Dr. Reeta Tremblay (Vice President Academic and Provost, University of Victoria,) and Dr. Michael Miller (Associate Vice President Research of University of Victoria). In total over 100 participants attended this workshop, among them 26 were Canadian representatives.
The objectives of this event were to build and develop partnership in research and graduate training between Canadian and Chinese universities, institutes and industries in the area of clean energy technologies, and to promote collaborations in clean energy technology and industry between leading academic researchers, entrepreneurs and business leaders in both countries. The scope of this symposium focuses on four research themes, including: Renewable Energy Technology, Green Vehicles, Electric Drives & Battery Technology, Smart Grid Technology, and Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Technology. This symposium was sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program).
During the symposium,Two renowned speakers, namely, Mr. Nick Beck, who had been involved in transportation energy technology research for a long time, and Prof. Yixin Yu, an expert in power system analysis, planning and simulation, gave keynote speeches at the symposium. The keynote talk ‘Clean Energy and Canada’ by Mr. Beck provided an overview on the status of natural resources in Canada, the relation of Canada-China and inter-governmental collaboration in the area of new energy, and the development path about transportation energy and technology of CanmetENERGY of Natural Resources Canada. Prof. Yixin Yu gave a keynote talk on ‘The Motivity of Smart Grid in China,’ which systematically covered many aspects, including the motivity to promote the development of smart gird and the scope and characteristics of smart grid. In his talk he commented on the significance of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Advanced Distribution Operation (ADO), and Advanced Assets Management (AAM) to smart grid, especially to the reliability and economy of power system operation in present China, and the enormous challenges to the grid in accepting renewable energy. He stressed, from China’s global economic competence’s perspective, the necessity of smart grid development and he also offered recommendations to help such development. the progress and research results of six seed collaboration projects from previous workshop were also reported, and their future plans were presented. These seed projects had made progress in academic exchange and graduate training. After intensive and enthusiastic group discussions, eight new projects were proposed under the framework of the four major research themes of the partnership, and their corresponding collaborative research teams were formed based on the participants’ research capabilities and strengths.
The current bilateral research and collaboration will create a win-win situation by combining both sides’ strengths. However, problems and challenges such as staff cooperation, geographical restrictions of the experiment, and continuous support, still need to be addressed by finding appropriate ways and means for the collaboration.
In the afternoon of April 29, the workshop participants visited the IEECAS research laboratories including the electric vehicles laboratory, smart grid laboratory and evaporative cooling laboratory.
This workshop successfully completed its planned agenda and achieved its expected goals. The partnership formed during this event will play an important role in promoting the collaboration between Canada and China in research areas of new energy and smart grid in the future.
