Back to search results

PhD Scholarship in Impact and Scalability of Advanced Controls for Energy Demand Flexibility in Buildings

Technical University of Denmark - Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering

Qualification Type: PhD
Location: Lyngby - Denmark
Funding for: UK Students, EU Students, International Students
Funding amount: Based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations
Hours: Full Time
Placed On: 18th March 2025
Closes: 2nd May 2025

In collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers), the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) offers a new PhD position, “Impact and Scalability of Advanced Controls for Energy Demand Flexibility in Buildings”. The PhD candidate will be supervised by supervisors from DTU and Chalmers. This project will integrate energy technology, building physics, HVAC systems, and computer science and control systems architecture, advancing all the above disciplines.

Building energy flexibility is an important resource for balancing and load shifting in energy networks, especially where variable renewable energy sources are involved. Emerging digital and cyber-physical systems technologies are an integral component of grid interactive efficient buildings. Through advanced control and operation of building HVAC systems, these technologies support both energy efficiency and flexible demand objectives. Model predictive control (MPC), which involves physics-based building energy models, and reinforcement learning (RL), which is data-driven, are two powerful control techniques. MPC techniques are well-established, while RL techniques are gaining popularity due to increasingly available sensor and meter infrastructure, affordable computational resources, and advanced modeling algorithms. MPCs excel in handling constrained optimizations and new operational conditions, whereas RLs offer computational efficiency and the ability to handle uncertainties. This project aims to identify promising RL-MPCs for application and upscaling in real-life building management settings.

As PhD candidate you will contribute to SEEDS, a research and innovation project funded by the European Commission, and a large global expert network under the IEA EBC Annex 96 - Grid Integrated Control of Buildings.

Responsibilities and qualifications

The project's primary objective is to enhance the energy flexibility of buildings by employing advanced data-driven energy management techniques. A few available studies indicate that RL-MPC control strategies can result in significant savings in operational energy management for a building. However, the impact and scalability of these results for the large variety of building stock are unknown. 

The required selection criteria include: 

  • Knowledge of building physics and HVAC system
  • Experience in advanced controls (e.g., RL, MPC) 
  • Programming knowledge (e.g., Python, R, MATLAB)
  • Experience in built environment monitoring
  • Fluent English skills, both written and spoken. Ability to publish the research results in high-reputation international journals 

Personal characteristics 

  • Confidence in working independently and in teams
  • Ability and willingness to work in inter- and transdisciplinary teams
  • Critical thinking 

You must have a two-year master's degree (120 ECTS points) or a similar degree with an academic level equivalent to a two-year master's degree.

Salary and appointment terms 

The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. The allowance will be agreed upon with the relevant union. 

The period of employment is 3 years. The starting date is 1 September 2025 (can be negotiated based on mutual agreement). 

Application procedure 

Click the 'Apply' button

Application deadline: 2 May 2025 (23:59 Danish time).  

You can read more about DTU Construct at www.construct.dtu.dk and about DTU at www.dtu.dk/english

We value your feedback on the quality of our adverts. If you have a comment to make about the overall quality of this advert, or its categorisation then please send us your feedback
Advert information

Type / Role:

Subject Area(s):

Location(s):

* Salary has been converted at the prevailing rate on the date placed
PhD tools
 

PhD Alert Created

Job Alert Created

Your PhD alert has been successfully created for this search.

Your job alert has been successfully created for this search.

Ok Ok

PhD Alert Created

Job Alert Created

Your PhD alert has been successfully created for this search.

Your job alert has been successfully created for this search.

Manage your job alerts Manage your job alerts

Account Verification Missing

In order to create multiple job alerts, you must first verify your email address to complete your account creation

Request verification email Request verification email

jobs.ac.uk Account Required

In order to create multiple alerts, you must create a jobs.ac.uk jobseeker account

Create Account Create Account

Alert Creation Failed

Unfortunately, your account is currently blocked. Please login to unblock your account.

Email Address Blocked

We received a delivery failure message when attempting to send you an email and therefore your email address has been blocked. You will not receive job alerts until your email address is unblocked. To do so, please choose from one of the two options below.

Max Alerts Reached

A maximum of 5 Job Alerts can be created against your account. Please remove an existing alert in order to create this new Job Alert

Manage your job alerts Manage your job alerts

Creation Failed

Unfortunately, your alert was not created at this time. Please try again.

Ok Ok

Create PhD Alert

Create Job Alert

When you create this PhD alert we will email you a selection of PhDs matching your criteria.When you create this job alert we will email you a selection of jobs matching your criteria. Our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy apply to this service. Any personal data you provide in setting up this alert is processed in accordance with our Privacy Notice

Create PhD Alert

Create Job Alert

When you create this PhD alert we will email you a selection of PhDs matching your criteria.When you create this job alert we will email you a selection of jobs matching your criteria. Our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy apply to this service. Any personal data you provide in setting up this alert is processed in accordance with our Privacy Notice

 
 
 
More PhDs from Technical University of Denmark

Show all PhDs for this organisation …

More PhDs like this
Join in and follow us

Browser Upgrade Recommended

jobs.ac.uk has been optimised for the latest browsers.

For the best user experience, we recommend viewing jobs.ac.uk on one of the following:

Google Chrome Firefox Microsoft Edge