Meet the winners of the ‘Olympic challenge’

2019 DHC+ Summer School in Paris

30 young professionals and researchers from 14 countries (incl. Germany, Italy, South Korea, United States…) were brought together in the beautiful city of Paris at the end of August, for the 7^th International DHC+ Summer School. The 2019 programme focused on the important topic of Waste Heat Recovery. As always, it included a ‘challenge’ – a specific project that participants had to work on throughout the week.

‘Olympic challenge’

In 2024, Paris will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The goal of the organisation committee is to hold the most environmentally responsible games to date. In this way, the Olympic village, located 7 km north of Paris, will be a model of sustainable development, with 100% of its energy demand supplied by renewable energies.

At the DHC+ Summer School, participants were organised into small groups and asked to imagine and pre-design thermal systems for the Olympic village, capable of meeting the heating and cooling demand using local waste heat sources. Each team was provided with a simulation tool and relevant data to help them. For the participants, this was a unique chance to collaborate with other young innovators, to inspire one another and to tackle a real-life challenge together. Company and university representatives were on hand to provide professional mentoring and the participants presented their work to an expert jury.

Euroheat & Power would like to congratulate Régis Delubac, Anahita Farsaei, Gediminas Menkevičius, Ulrich Trabert and Yelena Vorobey, who won the Summer School challenge by placing customers at the heart of their solution.

Who are they?

Let’s take a look at the winners’ profile and their experience at the 7^th DHC+ Summer School.

Régis Delubac – LaTEP (Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour), France

See his LinkedIn profile

Régis Delubac is a PhD student at the LAboritory of Thermal engineering Energy and Processes. He has previously graduated from the ENSGTI engineering school and is currently working on the ISORC project, that aims to develop solar thermal integration in district heating systems. His PhD objective is to create an open-access multi-period optimization tool to size and operate solar thermal DHN.

“The summer school was interesting because it permitted me to learn more about my PhD field. Lectures are focusing on specifics DHN topics with a deep knowledge. It also was the opportunity to visit 4th generation district heating network and to see how well integrated the district cooling network of Paris is. Other participants of the Summer School were working on topics really close to mine and it permitted me to create new important professional relations.” – shares his impressions Régis Delubac.

Anahita Farsaei – Aalto University, Finland

See her LinkedIn profile

Anahita Farsaei is a PhD student in the department of mechanical engineering at Aalto University, since April 2019. Before joining Aalto, for around 3 years, she worked as a power market expert in Mah-Taab group, which is one of the leading energy producing companies in Iran. Her research focuses on electricity markets and energy economics.

When asked about her experience at the DHC+ Summer School, Anahita Farsaei explains: “This Summer School help me out by getting an insight about the district heating which I was not previously familiar with. Putting technical visits beside lectures made this week more fascinating. It was a great opportunity as not only you could learn valuable topics, but also networking with the professionals in this sector which made this experience really thrilling.”

Gediminas Menkevičius – JSC Filter, Lithuania

See his LinkedIn profile

Gediminas Menkevičius works as a project manager at JSC Filter, since October 2019. Before that, he worked for over 7 years at JSC “Kauno energija“, first as an engineer in the district heating network control department, then as a senior engineer in the technical department, and finally as a project manager in the project management department. He studied heat energetics at Kaunas University of Technology and wrote his Master thesis on optimization of Kaunas city DH system.

For such an experienced district heating professional, the DHC+ Summer School was “a perfect opportunity to see the future of the technology, to meet people who are passioned about district heating and to see what your DH community has achieved and where you need to catch up to meet the level of other countries”. He also stated “and last but not the least, the practical task was an amazing experience. Real team building event, with limited time and resources to develop a concept which at the beginning you thought it was impossible to implement, but the result is very satisfying.” – Gediminas Menkevičius.

Ulrich Trabert – University of Kassel, Germany

See his University page

Ulrich Trabert  is a PhD student and research associate at the department of Solar and Systems Engineering at the University of Kassel, Germany. He received a Master’s degree in renewable energies and energy efficiency at the University of Kassel and wrote his Master’s thesis on the possibilities of renewable district heating for the decarbonization of building stock in a rural area in Germany.

Ulrich Trabert describes the highlights of the Summer School: “The most interesting part was to see the various perspectives on district heating within European countries and the individual tasks that the participants have to deal with within their environment. The district heating network of Paris was the perfect example of how difficult it will be to transform existing systems towards a sustainable heat supply.”

Yelena Vorobey – City Energy Solutions at E.ON SE, Germany

See her company LinkedIn page

Yelena Vorobey works for E.ON branch City Energy Solutions that helps to shape the new sustainable cities of the future. She is responsible for finance and business development topics. Prior to joining E.ON, she worked in a multinational consulting company and a finance-focused non-profit organization. She has graduated from universities in Europe, Africa and Asia with a strong educational background in economic policies and statistics. She has extensive international experience, having studied and worked in 9 countries.

“With the DHC+ Summer School I could deepen my technical knowledge as well as get introduction to the new regulations and recent research trends to stay on top of the industry developments. The week has really been eventful and exciting, it also exceeded my expectations (which were high from the start). I will definitely encourage people to participate next year.”, Yelena Vorobey concluded.

The challenge took place thanks to the great collaboration with the French consortium led by Efficacity and Les Mines ParisTech (with the support of Dalkia, ENGIE, Danfoss & Kamstrup).

Photos: © MINES ParisTech / S. Boda 2019.