CIRED ’Best Young Academic Paper Awards’ was first introduced at the Madrid Conference.
It was very successful from the very beginning and the figures for 2021 confirm the interest in this distinction since more than 300 papers have applied for the award. The competition was therefore really intense.
The choice of the six laureates was made by CIRED Technical Committee. It was not an easy task.
The winning papers are really of an excellent level. This demonstrates the interest of highly qualified and creative young researchers in subjects relating to power distribution systems.
This is obviously a source of satisfaction for companies in the sector who rely on these young talents to meet the many challenges of an industry at the heart of the energy transition.
Pierre Mallet
Chairman of CIRED Technical Committee


Session 1
Kohei Yuki, Tokyo Denki University, Japan - paper number 338
Reason for winning:
Research on simple solutions for the continuous monitoring of strategic network assets is an important issue. Paper 338 demonstrates the feasibility of an innovative monitoring approach for power transformers, based on permanent circulating current analysis in delta winding. This method can be used as a pre-indicator, to trigger further onsite inspection.

Session 2
Victor Khokhlov, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany – paper number 438
Reason for winning:
Application of measurement methods for the frequency range 2-150 kHz to long-term measurements in public low voltage networks" (paper 438) receives the best young academic paper award. The paper deals with a very actual topic, building a bridge between systematic scientific research an practical application. It has provided highly valuable input to be included in the next edition of IEC 61000-4-30.

Session 3
Filip Reiskup, E.ON Distribuce, Czech Republic – paper number 521
Reason for winning:
Paper 521: Mitigation of Reactive Power Overflows with Ancillary Services
- addresses the very important topic “ancillary services on distribution level”
- part of the important subordinate topic DSO/TSO-interaction
- very practical, “real live” investigation in a concrete distribution grid
- Well written paper with a clear structure

Session 4
Amber Ahmed, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden – paper number 713
Reason for winning:
The paper is a well-researched and thought out examination of the potential use of domestic battery and PV systems for providing frequency response to the national balancing services market. It is extremely thorough in its analysis, and was very highly regarded by the reviewers.

Session 5
Nina Fuchs, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Austria – paper number 450
Reason for winning:
Nina Fuchs developed original high-level techno-economical models for identifying cost sensitivities and facilitating the LVDC evaluation from a grid planning perspective avoiding the reinforcement of the existing rural and urban feeders under the very demanding energy transition conditions.

Session 6
Nathalie Reuter, Amprion GmbH, Germany – paper number 377
Reason for winning:
Evaluation of innovation approaches as additional regulatory instruments for the incentive regulation of grid operators in Germany” (paper 377) as the best young paper award. The paper addresses the complex area of integrating innovation and climate targets with regulation and proposes interesting ways forward considering technology neutrality and economy.