On Friday, March 21, 2025, Luka Budin participated in a panel discussion on Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy Sources at Dubrovnik Expo 2025, alongside esteemed experts including associate professor Ivana Grčić , Dean of the Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering University of Zagreb, and professor Stjepan Posavec, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb.

The discussion focused on cutting-edge solar technologies, enhancing wind turbine efficiency in urban environments, overcoming barriers to renewable energy adoption in smaller communities, and the impact of global policy frameworks on renewable energy development. Also, how the integration of renewable energy sources can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance urban infrastructure resilience, and conserve natural resources was explored. It was enlightening to share insights and experiences with colleagues and discuss the future of sustainable development.

On Friday, February 28, 2025, Nikolina Čović successfully defended her PhD dissertation, Providing Flexibility Services to the Power System using Residential Demand Response and Hydrogen Technologies, completed under the supervision of professor Hrvoje Pandzic. Her research focused on leveraging residential demand response and hydrogen-based technologies to enhance power system flexibility.

Key aspects of the dissertation included optimizing hybrid energy systems that combine photovoltaics, batteries, and hydrogen technologies for multi-energy balancing services, as well as developing machine learning approaches for user-preferred appliance scheduling and indoor temperature prediction to improve demand-side flexibility.

The defense was evaluated by a committee consisting of professor Tomislav Capuder, professor Dubravko Sabolić, and Dr. Jochen Cremer, whose discussion and feedback contributed to a constructive and engaging assessment of the research.

Dear Nikolina, congratulations and best of luck in your future work! 👏

Our Professor Igor Kuzle was a guest in the Croatian National Television science popularization serial Prometej, where he spoke about the impact of renewable energy sources on the dynamics of the power system and the research on this topic within the Horizon Europe "Transit" and Croatian Science Foundation "Dynasty" projects, which he leads at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. He also commented the profile and knowledge of bachelor's students graduating from the University of Zagreb's dislocated Study of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which is conducted in Šibenik. 

You can see the recorded television clip here.

On Tuesday, January 28, 2025, students of the first semester of the Master's degree program in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, profile Electrical Power Engineering, visited the EL-TO Zagreb (combined heat and power plant) in the Trešnjevka district of Zagreb. The visit was organized as part of the Power Generation course and was attended by about 40 Croatian and foreign students who learned about all the technical units of the combined heat and power station including separate units for the production of process steam for the pharmaceutical and food industries. The EL-TO Zagreb power plant was commissioned in 1907 (the famous Zagreb Munjara), has been modernized and rebuilt several times with different technologies and is today the key to supplying the western part of Zagreb with thermal energy (it supplies about 300 MWt of heating and process steam). In addition to thermal energy, which is generated in several separate boilers, the electricity generation capacity in two gas turbines is currently 50 MWe. The construction of a new combined-cycle cogeneration unit with an electrical output of 150 MWe and a thermal output of 114 MWt is underway and is scheduled to be commissioned this summer.

Within the power plant we also visited the 110/35 kV TS (the largest GIS facility in Croatia with 16 bays), which was built 3 years ago.

As part of the Electric Power Equipment Maintenance course, FER students visited the Zrakoplovno-tehnički centar – ZTC (Aviation Technical Center) in Velika Gorica on January 21, 2025. There they learned about the activities of the ZTC, the maintenance procedures in the maintenance of civil and military aircraft and the differences between Western and Eastern technology (e.g. Martin-Baker Mark16F and Mikoyan-Gurevic KM-1M ejection seats). They were shown and explained in detail the maintenance procedures for the Canadair-415 amphibious firefighting aircraft and the Air Tractor AT-802F (two-seater) and AT-802A Fire Boss (single-seater), as well as the maintenance and upgrade procedures within the modernization of the Pilatus PC-9M aircraft, which is used for light combat missions by the air forces of some countries (e.g. Slovenia) in addition to training military pilots. We also had the opportunity to inspect the Mil MI-8 Hip helicopter, which is regularly maintained. We should also mention fighter planes Rafale C F-3R and MIG-21 bisD the Sikorsky UH 60M Black Hawk, Bell 206B JetRanger III and Bell OH 58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters. All of them are maintained at the ZTC but were unavailable at the time of our visit.

If you want to explore the future of energy, there is no better place to be than SynGRID Summer School!

From May 11th to May 16th 2025 join us in Ljubljana for a dynamic week of expert-led sessions, workshops and site visits to progressive energy companies in Slovenia.

Students, researchers, young professionals and others passionate about renewable energy and smart grids can apply until March 20th 2025.

No tuition fees! Accommodation and meals are provided.

Hope to see you there!

You can find more information here.

We are thrilled to announce that our Department is about to start two new three-year research projects funded by the Croatian Science Foundation! 🤓

👉 Project „Radiological impact of severe accidents in nuclear power plants on the environment and the local population“ is lead by professor Siniša Šadek and its goal is to assess the real state of threat to the population in Croatia and calculate the doses received in case of a severe accident at a nuclear power plant. An integral analysis of the propagation of the accident will cover all the paths of release and transport of radionuclides. The atmospheric dispersion model will use realistic meteorological data to estimate radionuclide concentrations over a wider geographic area. Finally, these data will be used to determine the effective equivalent dose of radiation received by the local population.

👉 The second project "Coordinated Hydrogen and Electricity SyStems and markets", lead by professor Hrvoje Pandzic, aims at improving the existing models of battery storage systems, electrolyzers and fuelcells based on laboratory measurements. These improved models will be used to develop operational and investment models of a facility that produces electricity and hydrogen and takes part in the electricity and hydrogen energy markets while providing ancillary services to the both system operators. Furthermore, the project will develop accurate and fast optimal power flows and optimal gas flow models.

Congratulations and good luck to our principle investigators and their project teams! 👏

After overcoming all challenges and finalizing the installation of a new PV power plant of 600 kW and a new battery storage system of 200 kWh, we shared our experience and lessons learned at the Closing Conference of the “Energy and Climate Change” Programme held in Rovinj, 12-13 November 2024.

Our researcher, Tomislav Antić, presented the most important results of the project "Photovoltaic system for electricity generation covering self-consumption in network operation SE-FER-005 Phase 1", during the session in which project outcomes were showcased as examples of best practices. The project was managed by Tomislav Capuder, and all activities were handled by the members of our department.

With the new power plant, FER contributes to energy transition and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and shows how renewable energy contributes to the decrease in the electricity bill and how it helps to achieve the goal of self-sufficiency.

We thank the governments of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (EEA grants) for their financial support, Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds as Programme Operator and the Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar as Programme Partner.