Industry engagement is a key part of APEC mission and considered as one of the center’s strategic priorities. APEC industry engagement strategy will support the mission of the center by ensuring regular, mutually beneficial communication between APEC and a broad range of relevant industrial (and other) stakeholders. Such interaction will also identify and prioritize current industrial needs leading to new research and development avenues. The generated research knowledge and technology will be transferred to industry through industry‐academia colloquia, training workshops and demonstrations of the developed methods and tools. An active engagement with numerous industrial partners has been developed. This theme will aim to continue building on this active industrial collaboration to engage and broaden industrial stakeholders, to boost the long‐term mutual activities focused on industry-based research, Testing & Development, Training & Continuing Education. Furthermore, the Theme will work on increasing the visibility and international exposure by organizing well-established international conferences in relevant areas. Moreover, during this stage, APEC will be working toward initiating a spin-off company on training, testing, and consultancy. Furthermore, APEC will have other measurable outcomes in the form of prototypes that is industry-guided to address needs.
Industry-Based Research
APEC targets to be the university research center with the highest number and value of industrial-financed research collaborations. With this purpose, APEC will actively search for new and better ways to partner with industries from within UAE and around the world. APEC will market its capabilities in providing research facilities, expertise and resources and inform potential industrial partners with an in-depth view of the most current and groundbreaking developments in the power and energy industry. APEC is well positioned to serve the three major UAE government utilities: (i) TAQA (TRANSCO, ADDC, and AADC), EWEC and DEWA. Such collaboration between KU and the utilities in UAE could help in the delivery of reliable, efficient, and affordable power supply as well as fulfil KU’s requirement to provide excellence in service of training and research. In addition, KU-APEC can be envisioned as a regional hub for power grid innovative technologies serving, not only the UAE, but also neighboring GCC countries. Furthermore, APEC has been exploring opportunities with major industrial entities such as Emirates Steel, which has been materialized to a commitment of financial support of KU VRI for Sustainable Energy Production, Storage, and Utilization. Such efforts will be continued to involve APEC with more of the relevant key industrial players.
Testing & Development
Testing Services at APEC will provide high-quality engineering solutions to industrial clients in areas of testing and development at a competitive price. APEC engineering services can offer a controlled testing environment that can be manipulated precisely to achieve goals by working with clients to create specific laboratory conditions to test their technologies. For example, major manufacturers use real-time digital simulators (RTDS or Opal-RT, both of which are available within APEC) to test their HVDC controls during factory systems testing. Systems successfully tested include LCC- and VSC-based HVDC, modular multi-level converters, network and industrial SVCs, STATCOM, TCSC, DVR, and UPFC. Furthermore, high-voltage tests may be carried out on plant and insulation materials using test and measurement equipment in the High‐Voltage and Dielectric Materials laboratory.
Training & Continuing Educations
APEC has been working on offering a training and continuing education programs for industry to provide professional engineers with cutting-edge knowledge essential for innovation in the power and energy industry. Such programs will tap into theoretical and laboratory aspects of post graduate courses and the center’s research expertise.
Community and Professional Activities
APEC will continue working on organizing national and international workshops/symposiums open to the academic and industrial bodies as part of the efforts to promote Khalifa University as one of the top universities in the region. Furthermore, APEC has been participating in several undergraduate competitions as well as graduate students’ conferences. Recently, APEC have organized a flagship conference of the IEEE Power & Energy Society in Abu Dhabi and, more specifically, KU. ISGT (Innovative Smart Grid Technology) on 12-15 March 2023. ISGT is one of the most prestigious conferences dealing with Smart Grid, which has branches in North America, Europe, and Asia. It was an excellent opportunity to be the first ones to launch ISGT-Middle East, and to host it in Khalifa University.
A crucial contribution of APEC to Khalifa University and the local community is the establishment and development of five state of the art research laboratories which constitutes well-designed setups and testbeds that has been used by many graduate students as part of their validation tasks. Furthermore, these labs have equipped our researchers and students with unique skills and experience that empowered them to secure international scholarships or high technical jobs.
Research Translation and Prototyping
Although APEC focuses on developing high impact publications, another important aspect is how this research will be translated into useful products. In this regard, APEC has developed a translation plan to clearly define the intended outcomes of the research beyond high-impact academic publications. Action plans such as working with Khalifa University Technology Management and Innovation Office to support intellectual property licensing as well as engaging different companies and utilities for joint technology development are set.
