On the afternoon of December 22, Professor Nikos Hatziargyriou of the National Technical University of Athens paid a visit and gave a lecture entitled “The 2050 Vision of the European Technology and Innovation Platform of Smart Networks (ETIP SNET) for Energy Transition” in the lecture hall of the State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical power system with Renewable Energy Sources (NCEPU). Professor Xu Yanhui, vice president of the school of electrical & electronic engineering, Associate Professor Liu Hao, and a total of 60 doctoral students, graduate students and international students from the school of electrical & electronic engineering and the school of renewable energy attended the conference.

Chaired by Professor Xu Yanhui, the report described a vision for 2050: to build a European intelligent network technology and innovation platform for energy transformation. The European energy transformation intelligent network technology and innovation platform (ETIP SNET) is composed of relevant fields and industries, European governments, European relevant technology associations and other relevant institutions. It is an important organization to define and monitor the integration needs of European energy systems. In his report, he introduced Europe’s energy policy and the strategic objectives proposed by ETIP SNET: integrating intelligent networks, realizing energy transformation, serving the society and protecting the environment.

After the report, Professor Nikos Hatziargyriou had an academic discussion with teachers and graduate students. Professor Nikos Hatziargyriou gave detailed answers to the questions of teachers and students about the construction of European energy system, circular economy and other topics in 2050, and further explained the users, communication system and digital mode of energy system. He also coached about journal paper writing and encourage students to contribute to IEEE Power System journal. During the visit, Professor Nikos Hatziargyriou visited the State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical power system with Renewable Energy Sources (NCEPU), and gave a high evaluation on the latest achievements of the laboratory.

Professor Nikos D. Hatziargyriou is an IEEE Fellow and theEditor-in-Chief, of IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. He is since 1984 a faculty member and since 1995, full professor in Power Systems at the Electrical and Computer Engineering School of the National Technical University of Athens. He is Director of the Energy Systems Laboratory and founder of the “SmartRue” research unit. He is visiting professor at Tsinghua and Hefei Universities in China. Since 2015 he is Chairman of the Hellenic Distribution Network Operator. From February 2007 until September 2012 he was executive Vice-Chair and Deputy CEO of the Public Power Corporation (PPC), responsible for the Transmission and Distribution Divisions. He is Fellow Member of IEEE, past Chair of the Power System Dynamic Performance Committee (PSDPC) and currently Editor in Chief of the IEEE Trans on Power Systems. He is honorary member of CIGRE and past Chair of CIGRE SC C6 “Distribution Systems and Distributed Generation”. He is chair of the EU Technology and Innovation Platform on Smart Networks for Energy Transition. He has participated in more than 60 RD& D projects funded by the EU Commission, electric utilities and manufacturers for both fundamental research and practical applications. He is author of the book “Microgrids: Architectures and Control” and of more than 200 journal publications and 500 conference proceedings papers. He is included in the 2016 and 2017 lists of the top 1% most cited researchers.