energy

Business Intelligence (BI) refers to computer-based techniques that facilitate the use of information within organizations to make informed decisions and to run operations effectively based on available data. Our goal is the research and development of new BI tools for focused search and retrieval, which will support analysis and decision-making related to energy conservation and management. Such tools will also have wide applicability to business analytics in general.

Of the total primary energy consumed in Manitoba, 34% is spent on heating with the majority supplied by imported natural gas while Manitoba has considerable solar and biomass resources. Similar to the use of electricity as an energy carrier to distribute renewable power, investigating the use of water as an energy carrier to distribute renewable heat and cooling is of interest to Manitoba Hydro.

Combustion of fossil fuels is responsible for a major fraction of greenhouse gas emissions and the emission of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), soot, aerosols and other harmful chemical species. Reducing Canada’s dependence on fossil fuels is one of today’s major challenges. To design new pollutant-free combustion devices, improved mathematical models and computational tools for describing reactive flows are required. These models will enable a new understanding of combustion and lead to improved combustor designs and energy systems.

With today’s rapidly increasing energy demands and the emergence of smart grids and renewable energy resources, the current energy and power technologies need to be advanced to keep up with these changes. Simulation and modeling plays a vital role in understanding, designing and planning of electrical power systems. The proposed research aims at developing a new generation of advanced mathematical models and simulation tools for electrical power systems and smart grids.

Traders in both financial markets and commodity markets must make educated decisions about when to trade and at what price; this project develops tools to assist with this decision-making process. Working with energy companies, financial software companies as well as companies from the banking and insurance sectors, the research team develops optimal portfolio methods that produce both the best investment decisions and the best hedging strategies for claims in general markets.

In industrialized countries, the expansion of power systems has become very difficult. According to power utility consortiums such as CEATI and EPRI, only drastic changes to the current power grid architecture, together with the introduction of new technologies can prevent the high social costs associated with a reduction in reliability of energy supply. High temperature superconductors (HTS) are among the most promising technologies to achieve this goal.

The building sector is one of the most important energy consumers and CO2 producers. Recent statistics collected in the EU have shown that the building sector accounts for approximately 40% of the energy consumed and 40% of the total CO2 produced. These trends are reflected in both North America and Asia. International organizations such as ISO have developed new measures of building system energy performance.

This project responds to the need for more precise tools to help oil and gas companies better understand where undiscovered energy reserves lie deep within the earth, and to manage and utilize existing reserves. Bringing together mathematicians and geophysicists, this team develops new algorithms to improve upon existing seismic imaging techniques that create accurate images of the earth beneath our feet.