PhD Defence – Isolated microgrid optimisation
Published on 14/11/2025
On Friday 21 November 2025, at 10:00 am (CET), Haje EBNOU will defend her PhD on a methodology for the optimal design of an isolated microgrid powered by offshore renewable resources (wind, solar, storage), while accounting for uncertainties in electricity demand and production. Her work was carried out at Institut de Recherche en Energie Electrique de Nantes Atlantique (IREENA) in Saint-Nazaire, as part of the OPTILE project, under the supervision of Salvy BOURGUET (Nantes Université), with the co-supervision of Anne BLAVETTE (ENS Rennes) and Florian DUPRIEZ-ROBIN (France Energies Marines).
Link to register and attend the defence online
Abstract
A comprehensive tool is developed, combining long-term scenario generation using the TimeGAN deep learning model with multi-objective stochastic optimization of the energy system. To address TimeGAN’s limitations on long sequences, a dedicated preprocessing step based on frequency decomposition is introduced, enabling the capture of multi-scale patterns in climatic and consumption data. The generated synthetic scenarios are rigorously validated using statistical and spectral criteria, and are then used as inputs for the sizing phase. The methodology is applied to a real case study on La Réunion Island, demonstrating its effectiveness for designing autonomous, low-carbon, and uncertainty-resilient energy systems.
Jury members
- Catherine AZZARO-PANTEL (Professor, INSA Toulouse) – External referee
- Zita VALE (Professor, Polytechnic of Porto, Portugal) – External referee
- Marie-Cécile ALVAREZ-HERAULT (Lecturer, Université Grenoble Alpes) – Examiner
- Seddik BACHA (Professor, Université de Guyane) – Examiner
- Anthony ROY (Lecturer, Nantes Université) – Examiner
- Salvy BOURGUET (Professor, Nantes Université) – Thesis Director
- Anne BLAVETTE (Research Fellow, ENS Rennes) – Thesis co-supervisor
- Florian DUPRIEZ-ROBIN (Researcher, France Energies Marines) – Thesis co-supervisor
Photo credits: France Energies Marines, Images Rouges / AdobeStock