Online feedback optimization refers to a class of feedback controllers that take the form of online optimization algorithms, that are real-time interconnected with a physical system, and that asymptotically steer the system to the solution of an optimization problem while respecting physical and operational constraints. In comparison to other optimization-based control strategies, transient optimality of trajectories is not the primary goal, and no predictive model, running costs or exogenous set-points are required. Hence, one aims at controllers that require little (respectively no) model information, demand low computational cost, but that leverage real-time measurements to stabilize the closed-loop system while enforcing constraints and seeking asymptotic optimality. Online feedback optimization method sits square between optimal/adaptive control and reinforcement learning, it has historic roots in communication networks and process control, and our enabling application of interest is the electric power system. I will give a tutorial introduction, discuss different algorithms, their closed-loop stability when interconnected with physical systems, and implementation aspects. Throughout the talk I demonstrate the potential of our methodology for real-time operation of power systems including commercial implementations.

Florian Dörfler is a Professor at the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH Zürich. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2013, and a Diplom degree in Engineering Cybernetics from the University of Stuttgart in 2008. From 2013 to 2014 he was an Assistant Professor at the University of California Los Angeles. He has been serving as the Associate Head of the ETH Zürich Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering from 2021 until 2022. His research interests are centered around automatic control, system theory, optimization, and learning. His particular foci are on network systems, data-driven settings, and applications to power systems. He is a recipient of the distinguished young research awards by IFAC (Manfred Thoma Medal 2020) and EUCA (European Control Award 2020). He and his team received best paper distinctions in the top venues of control, machine learning, power systems, power electronics, circuits and systems. They were recipients of the 2011 O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award, the 2012-2014 Automatica Best Paper Award, the 2016 IEEE Circuits and Systems Guillemin-Cauer Best Paper Award, the 2022 IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Prize Paper Award, the 2024 Control Systems Magazine Outstanding Paper Award, and multiple Best PhD thesis awards at UC Santa Barbara and ETH Zürich. They were further winners or finalists for Best Student Paper awards at the European Control Conference (2013, 2019), the American Control Conference (2010,2016,2024), the Conference on Decision and Control (2020), the PES General Meeting (2020), the PES PowerTech Conference (2017), the International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (2021), the IEEE CSS Swiss Chapter Young Author Best Journal Paper Award (2022,2024), the IFAC Conferences on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (2024) and Cyber-Physical-Human Systems (2024), and NeurIPS Oral (2024). He is currently serving on the council of the European Control Association and as a senior editor of Automatica.

The need to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) has led to the introduction of more clean and efficient technologies in different sectors, such as transportation and energy systems. Road transport represents a significant portion of total transport GHG emissions, pushing towards the widespread of electric vehicles (EVs) and new possible combustibles (like biofuels and hydrogen), which require a re-design of the overall supply chain and a new planning framework. Moreover, this is an even wider area of research because energy efficiency can be attained in sectors other than road transport, such as ships, logistics, and robots.There is a significant connection between sustainable mobility and power and energy systems, especially when EVs and hydrogen-based systems are considered. The talk will be focused on EVs and their integration in multi energy systems and transportation networks.First, scheduling problems for EVs’ charging are presented in both discrete time and discrete event frameworks, considering their integration in multi energy systems (characterized by renewables, microturbines, storage systems, electrolyzer, fuel cell, smart buildings, etc.) and smart grids. Attention will be focused on different case studies: depot of electric buses, smart parking, green ports, and polygeneration microgrids. Approaches based on both centralized and decentralized optimization will be discussed.Then, planning problems will be presented, and, in particular, the optimal siting and sizing of charging stations over a territory. In this case, it is necessary to integrate the modelling of the electrical grid, the transportation/traffic network, and users’ choice. The effectiveness of the presented approaches will be shown through several examples, real applications and pilot facilities.Future challenges will be discussed in relation to new possible advancements, charging and routing problems and their application in different application areas (fright transportation, warehouse, logistics, robots, etc.).

Michela Robba is Associate Professor of Systems Engineering at University of Genoa. She received the Degree in Environmental Engineering in 2000, and the PhD in Electronic and Computer Engineering in 2004, from the University of Genova. The research activity is focused on optimization and control of smart grids, electric vehicles, renewable energy resources, and natural resources management. She is a member of the scientific board of the Italian Energy Technological Cluster, and she is the President of Liguria Region (Italy) Energy Consortium. She is Senior Editor for the journal IEEE Transactions on automation science and engineering, and Associate Editor for International Journal of Robotics and Research, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, and Control Engineering Practice. She has joined several International Programme Committees at conferences in the field of control and optimization, she is a member and vice-chair of different IFAC Technical Committees, and she is Chair of publications and Editor for the IFAC IAMES 2022 workshop. She is the Chair of the IFAC Technical Committee 6.3 Power and Energy Systems. Actually, she is lecturer for the courses ”Simulation of energy and environmental systems”, ”Models and methods for Energy Engineering”, “Basics of systems theory and control”, and ”Methods and models for logistics” at the Polytechnic School of University of Genova. She is author of more than 150 publications in international journals, books and proceedings of international conferences. Main publications can be found at Google scholar: https://scholar.google.it/citations?user=baTT1PwAAAAJ&hl=it