Speakers
Keynote Speaker I
Professor Lalit Goel, PhD, FIEEE
Director, Renaissance Engineering Programme
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Lalit Goel obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Warangal, India in 1983 and his MSc and PhD Degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1988 and 1991 respectively. He joined the School of EEE at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore in 1991 where he is presently a Professor of Power Engineering. He served as the Head of the Division of Power Engineering from July 2005 to August 2008, Deputy Director of NTU's Protective Technology Research Center (PTRC) from May 1999 to April 2007, Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid from July 2008 to June 2012, Director Undergraduate Education (Projects) in the President's Office from Jan 2013 to Dec 2015, Director of the Office of Global Education and Mobility from October 2014 until March 2018, and Director of India Connect @NTU program from July 2020 until June 2022. Since April 2018, Dr Goel has been serving as the Director of the Renaissance Engineering Programme (REP). He has received 20 teaching / education awards, including the IEEE PES Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award in 2009. Dr Goel served as conference Chair for several power engineering conferences in Singapore. Dr Goel served as the Editor for the International Journal of Electric Power Systems Research (EPSR) from 2002 to 2019. Dr Goel served as the IEEE Singapore Section Chair from January 2007 to December 2008, and as the Asia-Pacific Representative on the IEEE PES Governing Board from 2011 to 2016. Dr Goel is a Fellow of the IEEE, and he has published about 200 international journal and conference papers in the areas of power system reliability, cost/benefit assessment, power markets and renewables.
Keynote Title : Power System Reliability Aspects & Cost/Benefit Considerations
This keynotes speech shall present the fundamental concepts of power system reliability and cost/worth evaluation. The reliability indices used for assessing the system performance at the generation, composite generation and transmission and distribution system levels will be presented. The talk will emphasize that there should be some benefit gained by an improvement in reliability, i.e., the incremental or marginal investment cost should be related to the customer’s incremental or marginal valuation of the improved reliability. Reliability cost vs reliability worth (benefit) evaluation can enable utilities to make objective decisions about investments and maintenance for enhancing supply reliability.
Keynote Speaker II
Dr Ng Sing Muk
General Manager,
Research & Development, Sarawak Energy, Malaysia
Dr Ng Sing Muk is the Head of Research and Development for Sarawak Energy, a vertically integrated power utility and energy development company that serves Sarawak, Malaysia. He is responsible for driving technological innovation within the Company. With over 15 years of experience in space of research and development, Dr Ng leads a diverse team with varied portfolios to develop new technologies that meet the current needs of the local market and adapt emerging technologies into Sarawak Energy’s operation.
He is managing a team that focuses on distributed energy resources, emerging robotic innovation, environmental sciences and chemical testing advancement. He adopted the blue ocean strategy by focusing on new energy resources, novel generation technology, new power management platform to support the existing power system and operation. He is advancing the tools for the utility sector for the operation by introducing robotic and autonomous solutions into the power utility including asset health monitoring. He also put high emphasis on environmental related studies and the advancement of the related technologies.
He is passionate in translating research into practical applications, fostering disruptive innovations and developing strategies to excel in the era of technological disruption.
Keynote Title : Embracing Innovation in Power Utility Sector
Energy is the fuel of our daily life and its generation and utilization profiles have changed over time. While the next wave of the energy landscape is not certain with various possibilities, what is clear is that the development is guided by the working principle for a greener and sustainable future. It is not a surprise as the world is facing the pressing issue of global warming due to the trapping of excessive heat by the drastic rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Currently, the power utility sector relies quite heavily on carbon-based fuel in one or the other form and transition to net zero is required before the temperature of the world rises another 1.5 deg.C. Innovation is one possible catalyst to leapfrog the sector in the race to net zero. This means things need to be done differently from business as usual, while generating more added values. We should not solely play catch-up with technological advancement and modernization, but rather sit in the driver seat to develop context specific solutions. The focus shall be on low-carbon renewable energy that is available locally, looking into how these resources can be converted into energy instead of wasting it just right at our doorstep. Some of the resources can be of a smaller scale, but still be useful for applications once converged from multiple points. It is time to hybrid various technologies that can complement each other to get the optimum and maximum outputs based on limited resources. Wastage shall be minimized or rather eliminated by adopting the circular economy model that focuses on reusing of resources back to a circular value chain.
In reducing the stress on power generation, the demand side can play a vital role in adopting energy efficiency practices to reduce the load hence avoiding the need for planting more generators. Of course, timing in adopting innovative efforts is important rather than just having the technology to work. It needs to match the timing to other dimensions such as social, environmental, economic and political situations. The existing system shall be optimized to sweat the assets for better levelized cost. As a conclusion, the future of the energy needs to be shaped innovatively as we cannot adopt business as usual in the raise to net zero. We shall act fast before we reach the point of no return in tackling the issue of global warming.