“Resilient planning of low-carbon power systems” is the project that Rodrigo Moreno, a SERC Chile researcher and Electrical Engineering academic at the University of Chile, is working on along with Fernando Ordóñez, an academic at the FCFM-UCH, and Pierluigi Mancarella from the University of Manchester. It is also the project that won the latest edition of the British government's Newton Prize, which is awarded annually as recognition for projects of excellence in research or innovation.

The award-winning researchers created a mathematical model that allows for the development of a framework to increase the resilience of power systems in Chile and other countries vulnerable to the risk of environmental hazards. This will help create planning practices and establish a resilient, low-carbon transmission network.

“Today we have a certain level or standard that is poor in relation to other countries that are members of the OECD—Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Therefore, the idea of this work is to be able to raise those levels. This means that people have fewer hours of interruptions per year in terms of power supply in their homes,” explained Rodrigo Moreno.

The research seeks to ensure that households have response strategies complemented by resilience measures prepared for the community. In the words of Rodrigo Moreno, “the ideal is for this project to be able to help people.”

This year, the Newton Prize sought to highlight the United Kingdom's collaboration with Latin America. A total of 140 projects developed by researchers from Chile, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, in partnership with British researchers, were submitted.