PhD position - Optimization under uncertainties of the sizing and the energy management of fuel[...]

Organisation/Company: Nantes Université

Department: Science and Technology

Research Field: Engineering » Electrical engineering

Researcher Profile: First Stage Researcher (R1)

Positions: PhD Positions

Country: France

Application Deadline: 15 May 2025 - 23:59 (Europe/Paris)

Type of Contract: Temporary

Job Status: Full-time

Hours Per Week: 35

Offer Starting Date: 1 Sep 2025

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Context and challenges

In order to meet the challenges of decarbonizing transport and in particular land-based mobility, a massive development of solutions based on hydrogen and electricity carriers is expected in the coming years. An evolution of fueling stations is therefore necessary, tending towards a concept of multi-energy carriers stations, with devices for the production, storage and distribution of low-carbon electricity and hydrogen, produced by renewable energy sources. The multiple energy carriers could bring flexibility in the management of the fueling station, with devices allowing the conversion from one energy carrier to another one and the storage of energy, which can be used according to the demand.

The design and management of fueling stations must be sufficiently robust to guarantee their technical and economic viability. Several uncertainties must be considered:

1. The fluctuating nature of the demand: fueling events in terms of occurrences and requested electrical energy or hydrogen volume, related to the users’ behavior and the vehicle;
2. The fluctuating nature of the power generated from renewable energy sources (solar photovoltaic panels and wind turbines);
3. The costs: investments, operation, replacement of components, selling and purchasing costs of electricity and hydrogen.

These uncertainties must be considered both in the energy management and the sizing of the components. The works existing in the literature mainly concerns stations with only one energy carrier. The uncertainties of stations with multiple low-carbon carriers is still little considered. Moreover, the heterogeneity of vehicles, the possibility of storing energy in different ways as well as the possibility of selling the surplus of generated electricity to the network to improve profitability are little considered.

Thus, the OSIRMEH project (French acronym: Optimisation Sous Incertitudes de la Recharge pour Mobilité Electrique et Hydrogène) aims to propose, for a hydrogen and electricity fueling station, a methodology for defining energy management strategies and optimizing the sizing ensuring robustness with respect to the uncertainties. To that, a stochastic optimization approach will be considered. The main scientific challenges to overcome will concern the coupling of optimization problems under uncertainties, both for management and sizing, these uncertainties being of a different nature. Secondly, taking into account multiple low-carbon mobility solutions and their different technologies represents a challenge, with many possible scenarios. The integration of the changes in user behavior compared to the current behavior (i.e. fast charge without any time and availability constraint) will be considered, representing a multidisciplinary challenge.

Objectives of the thesis

The objectives of the thesis will be:

1. Model a multi-carriers fueling station and characterize the uncertainties, both on demand, electricity production from renewable energy sources and costs;
2. Develop a stochastic optimization process for the sizing and energy management of a multi-vector station, with regard to technical and economic criteria, making it possible to take into account the different uncertainties (a process for generating and reducing scenarios will be developed beforehand);
3. Identify the influencing factors and the sensitivity of the results with respect to the uncertainties considered.

Organization of work

The thesis work will be divided into different stages, as illustrated in Figure 1:

1. State of the art on the modeling of land vehicle fueling stations (electric and hydrogen), the uncertainties to be considered (charging events, costs, etc.) and their integration into an optimization process for sizing and energy management.
2. Modeling of the system using an energy modeling approach and definition of the technical, economic and environmental criteria to be considered. This phase will also involve a characterization of demand and production profiles and the formalization of an approach to generate, classify and reduce scenarios.
3. Development of a stochastic optimization tool for energy management and sizing: this will involve formalizing the optimization problem with a stochastic approach, in which demand, costs and electricity production may be subject to uncertainties.
4. Sensitivity analysis, in order to determine the influencing factors and the impact of the uncertainties on the technical-economic results of a station and the sizing of the components. It will also provide trends and recommendations for the sizing, energy management and control of fueling stations, depending on the usage and operating scenario considered (fleet of vehicles to be supplied, flexibility of demand and prices, etc.).

Writing of the thesis and defence.

Where to apply

E-mail: anthony.roy@univ-nantes.fr

Requirements

Research Field: Engineering » Electrical engineering

Education Level: Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field: Mathematics » Applied mathematics

Education Level: Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field: Computer science » Modelling tools

Education Level: Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

• Master in applied mathematics, optimization, electrical engineering or energy;
• Autonomous, rigorous, ability to communicate and present results, interest in research;
• Knowledge in the fields of multi-sources systems, hydrogen, energy storage solutions, modeling and optimization;
• Software/programming: Matlab or Python or Julia (autonomy in programming required);

Specific Requirements

• Knowledge in the fields of multi-sources systems, hydrogen, energy storage solutions, modeling and optimization;
• Software/programming: Matlab or Python or Julia (autonomy in programming required);

Applications selected at the end of the applications study phase will be invited for an interview.

*Only the applications submitted with all requested documents will be processed.

Additional comments

Supervisors: Anthony ROY (MCF, IREENA, Supervisor), Salvy BOURGUET (PR, IREENA, Director of the thesis)

Funding: OSIRMEH project (funded by ANR JCJC)

Contract: 36 months fixed-term contract, gross salary of 2200 €/month (public prevailing rate at 01/01/2025), possibility of supervising courses at Saint-Nazaire Institute of Technology (IUT) or Polytech Nantes engineering school (additional salary)