News

The Science and Technology Facilities Council of UKRI has awarded a £499,258 research grant for a statistical physics-based analysis of the South African power grid to Christian Beck, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Head of the Centre for Complex Systems at QMUL, and his three co-investigators Chantelle Van Staden, Cristina Trois (both Stellenbosch University, SA) and Jacques Maritz (University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, SA).

The South African power grid suffers from frequent scheduled and unscheduled power outages due to unmet demand. These blackouts leave many people without electricity or falling back to Diesel generators for extended time periods, if they can afford it. This comes with severe adverse consequences for the environment, health, and economic situation of the country's poorest communities in particular.

The researchers around Christian Beck will analyze fluctuations in South Africa's electricity supply and demand using statistical-physics and machine-learning methods. These insights will be used to tailor models that allow them to predict demand patterns and devise strategies to reduce outages in the long run. The team will also explore short-term solutions to replace Diesel generators by efficient, sustainable, and affordable alternatives, based for example on solar panels and batteries. Another part of the project will use neural networks to better forecast the fluctuating properties of wind power production, specific to the South African weather conditions.

Building on his experience with fluctuation analysis in European and American power grids, Christian Beck is looking forward to an exciting new challenge: "Modeling the South African power grid in a data-driven way is an exciting opportunity to apply the entire toolbox of statistical physics and complexity science in a useful way, aiming for a sustainable future with less carbon emission. Our research will help to understand and ultimately improve the stability of power grids that contain a higher fraction of renewable energy sources."