Janja Dolenc & Boštjan Blažič

University of Ljubljana (ULJUB) is the oldest and largest educational and scientific research institution in Slovenia. ULJUB is renowned for its quality social and natural sciences and technical study programmes. Our projects keep pace with the latest developments in the areas of arts, science, and technology at home and abroad. It is also the central and largest research institution in Slovenia, with 30 percent of all registered researchers (according to the data from the SICRIS database).

Within the SMAGRINET project, ULJUB has contributed to almost all work packages within the 3 years of the project. ULJUB was the Work Package 5 leader and oversaw two of four tasks within – T5.3 Implementation of Train the Trainers Pilot and T5.4 Exploitation plan.

Our main contributions to the project started with the preparation of teaching materials for the Case-Based module 3 – Connection Planning in Smart Grids and for three Short-Term Programmes for different target groups. With the expert-level knowledge of our researchers, the materials were focused on the pre-existing knowledge of each target group. After the materials' completion, the first implementation of the Case-Based Module followed. They were implemented in a collaboration between ULJUB and TUB (Technical University of Berlin).

Figure 1: Teaching experts from the University of Ljubljana and the Technical University of Berlin after the first implementation of Module 3

In the second phase of the implementation, the module has been taught by the local experts at each consortium university. Student feedback was more than positive, even though their pre-existing level of knowledge was low. Students are willing to take the courses again if there are new materials prepared in the future. Moreover, cooperation with TUB turned out to be interesting for students and for us, teachers. It was a beneficial experience, and both ULJUB and TUB agreed to cooperate again in the future.

After the module implementation, two implementations of the Short-term Programmes followed for the three target groups: the Broader Public, Engineering Researchers and the Electrical Engineering Workforce. With each implementation, two live sessions for each target group were prepared with the local experts presenting the Slovenian transmission and distribution network, as well as new smart grid technologies.

Figure 2: First live session organised within the first implementation of the Short-Term Programme for Electrical Engineering Workforce

After the first implementation of the Case-Based modules and short-term programmes, ULJUB organized the Train the Trainers Workshop with the goal to present the teaching methods of each partnering university and help not only the experts from consortium universities, but also from universities beyond the consortium, in the implementation of the modules and programmes at universities all over Europe. The workshop was a success, since 50 participants from partnering universities and 20 participants from organisations beyond the consortium members.
Afterwards, four universities decided to integrate the short-term programmes.

And finally, ULJUB prepared an Exploitation plan to assure the dissemination of SMAGRINET's results after the project's end, and to reassure their sustainability.

The SMAGRINET project is more than just a project itself. It gave us a push to prepare new teaching materials for master students and an opportunity to present new technologies to the broader public, researchers, and the electrical engineering workforce. With this, we can say that ULJUB was part of the inevitable energy transition. We will be able to share knowledge about smart grids with the new generation of engineers and provide better acceptance of these changes among society.

 

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