UM wins awards at national contest of AI application in power dispatching
澳大於全國電力AI應用大賽獲殊榮

A team from the University of Macau (UM) State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City (SKL-IOTSC), also the students of the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) today (28 January) won a second prize and the only Best Innovation Award at a contest of AI application in power dispatching in China, it was the only university team to win awards at this competition.

45 teams were qualified to compete in the preliminaries. They came from various well-known companies, universities, and organisations, including China Southern Power Grid Co, Guangdong Grid Co, China Energy Engineering Group Co, NARI Technology Development Co, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiangtong University, Wuhan University, South China University of Technology, and Alibaba Group. The UM team advanced to the final with a third place in overall prediction accuracy, and was the only university team to advance to the final.

All members of the UM team are postgraduate students in the SKL-IOTSC. They include Yu Peipei (team leader), Zou Bin, Hui Hongxun, Feng Guangxu, and Yang Qifan. Because of requirements for epidemic prevention, Only Yu Peipei and Zou Bin went to Guangzhou to participate in the competition while the remaining three students provided support remotely. Their advisors are UM Rector Yonghua Song, who is also the director of the SKL-IOTSC and the Chair Professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) of FST,  Associate Professor of ECE Dai Ningyi and Assistant Professor of ECE Zhang Hongcai. Among judges for the final round were member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, well-known professors in the field of power systems, and chief scientists at Huawei and Alibaba Group. In the end, the UM team won a second prize with the second best overall ranking. The team also won the only Best Innovation Award for its novel theoretical algorithms in the field of renewable energy prediction.

The event was co-organised by China Southern Power Grid’s dispatching and control center, hosted by the company’s two research institutes and media team as well as Alibaba Cloud, with assistance from various parties, including the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering. The topic of the preliminaries is ‘Bus Load Forecasting of 220kV Substations in Zhanjiang Area of China Southern Power Grid’. Participating teams were required to predict the load curves of 17 substations and 33 generator transformers in one week. Load forecasting is one of the key technical issues in power system operation and management. It is also a hot research topic in the academic circle. This contest included a variety of forecasting scenarios, such as residential loads, commercial and industrial loads, high-speed railway loads, and distributed renewable energy generators, which added to the difficulty and complexity of this load forecasting competition.

Established in July 2018, the SKL-IOTSC is China’s first state key lab in the internet of things for smart city and was founded with the approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The lab aims to meet the needs of the country by developing into a world-class laboratory with local characteristics, with the support of experts in Macao. To solve the key technical issues in internet of things technology for smart city development, the lab develops common theories, algorithms, and systems that are of fundamental importance, and creates exemplary applications for smart city development. So far, the lab has established its research offices in five areas: intelligent sensing and network communication, urban big data and intelligent technology, smart energy, intelligent transportation, and public safety and disaster prevention. The lab is led by its director Prof Yonghua Song, who is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering of the United Kingdom and a member of the Academia Europaea. The lab’s team consists of three scholars who are at the rank of chair professor or distinguished professor, as well as 24 scholars who are at the rank of full professor, associate professor, assistant professor, or lecturer.

澳門大學智慧城市物聯網國家重點實驗室研究團隊，同時也是科技學院的學生今（28）日於“中國第二屆電力調度AI應用大賽”中獲得二等獎和唯一創新獎，是唯一獲獎的大學團隊。

是次全國共有45支隊伍入圍初賽，如南網數據研究院、廣東電網、中國能源建設集團、國電南瑞等知名電力企業，清華大學、北京大學、浙江大學、上海交通大學、武漢大學、華南理工大學等多所高水準大學，以及阿里巴巴等知名互聯網企業。經過初賽的激烈競爭，澳門大學團隊以綜合預測精度排名第三的成績晉級決賽，是唯一晉級決賽圈的大學團隊。

此次參賽隊員均為澳大智慧城市物聯網國家重點實驗室智慧能源研究室及科技學院的研究生，包括余佩佩（隊長）、鄒斌、惠紅勳、馮廣旭和楊起帆。由於疫情防控需要，余佩佩和鄒斌到廣州參賽，其餘三名學生則提供遠端支援。導師為澳大校長、智慧城市物聯網國家重點實驗室主任以及科技學院電腦及電機工程系講座教授宋永華、科技學院電腦及電機工程系副教授戴寧怡和助理教授張洪財。決賽評委專家包括中國科學院院士、電力行業知名教授，華為、阿里巴巴集團等首席科學家。最終澳大於六支勁旅中脫穎而出，以綜合排名第二的成績獲得二等獎，並憑藉在新能源預測領域的理論創新，以領先優勢獲得大賽唯一創新獎。

今屆比賽由南方電網電力調度控制中心主辦，南網數研院、南網科研院、南網傳媒、阿里雲承辦，中國電機工程學會電力系統自動化專委會、廣東中調、湛江地調協辦。初賽題目是“南方電網湛江地區220kV廠站母線負荷預測”，參賽團隊需基於湛江地區電力實測大數據，利用大數據和人工智能技術，預測17個廠站33台主變在未來一周的電力負荷曲線。電力負荷預測是電力系統運行管理中的關鍵技術問題之一，也是國際學術研究的熱點。是次大賽包含居民負荷、工商業負荷、高鐵負荷、分散式新能源發電等多種預測場景，關聯因素複雜，預測難度巨大。

澳大智慧城市物聯網國家重點實驗室成立於2018年7月，是澳大獲國家科技部批准設立的全國第一個智慧城市物聯網領域的國家重點實驗室，秉持“國家所需，澳門所長”的精準定位，根據“世界一流，澳門特色”的要求，實驗室定位解決智慧城市物聯網關鍵科學和技術問題，提出帶有基礎性和共性的理論、演算法和系統，開發智慧城市的示範應用。實驗室圍繞五個方向下設研究室，分別是：智能傳感與網路通信、城市大數據與智能技術、智慧能源、智能交通、城市公共安全與災害防治。實驗室主任為歐洲科學院外籍院士、英國皇家工程院院士宋永華教授，團隊成員包括講座教授及特聘教授3名，正教授、副教授、助理教授及講師24名。