Session details: Green and efficient energy applications of genetic and evolutionary computation (GreenGEC)

Abstract

Energy systems not only real-world systems; they also one of the most important foundations of the modern world. Especially with the upcoming required changes to make more efficient use of energy and to shift towards a global use of sustainable, green energy sources, there many challenges in mathematics and computer science. Thus, with the current increase in living standards, diminishing natural resources and environmental concerns, the management of energy production and use became one of the most important global issues today.First, on the consumer side, there is an increasing need for more efficient, smart uses of energy, be it in large-scale computing systems and data warehouses, in homes or in office buildings. Second, on the producer side, there is a push toward the use of sustainable, green, energy sources, which often less reliable, e.g. wind energy. In addition, future energy systems often envisioned to be smart, consisting of massive amounts of small generators, such as solar panels, located at consumers, effectively turning consumers into potential producers whenever they have a surplus of energy. The management, control and planning of, and efficient use of energy in (future) energy systems brings about as many important questions. Real-world challenges, such as those arising in (future) energy systems, are typically highly complex because of the many aspects to be considered that often disregarded in theoretical research such as dynamic changes, uncertainty and multiple objectives. In many situations therefore, problem-specific algorithms infeasible or impractical. Instead, flexible and powerful approaches such as evolutionary algorithms (EAs) can often provide viable solutions. Typical real-world challenges that addressed by EAs of the optimization type. This covers the use of EAs to optimize issues ranging from energy consumption (e.g. scheduling, memory/storage management, communication protocols, smart sensors, etc.) to the planning and design of energy systems at many levels, ranging from small printed circuit boards to entire transmission networks.The aim of this workshop is therefore to bring together researchers interested in addressing challenging issues related to the use of evolutionary computation for applications in (future) energy systems. The workshop is a follow up of the GreenIT Evolutionary Computation workshop held at GECCO 2011.