SDU Center for Energy Informatics Research Receives an Honourable Mention at the 2026 ISGAN Awards of Excellence
Odense, Denmark – 22 October 2026. The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) has received an Honourable Mention at the 12th ISGAN Awards of Excellence for its work on uncertainty-aware cable renewal planning. The recognition highlights research at the SDU Center for Energy Informatics (SDU CEI) aimed at making electricity-grid investment decisions more reliable, transparent and evidence-based.
The recognised contribution, “Uncertainty-Aware Cable Renewal Planning for Smart Distribution Grids: A Danish DSO Decision-Support Framework,” addresses a growing challenge for electricity distribution system operators: deciding which ageing underground cables should be replaced first, even when fault histories and asset records are incomplete. As electricity networks adapt to increasing electrification, accurate renewal planning can help operators direct limited resources to the assets that need them most.
As one of Denmark’s active representatives and contributors to ISGAN, the SDU Center for Energy Informatics has developed, through the PowerGridOptimiser project, an approach that combines cable asset information, geographic data, maintenance records, and fault histories to estimate failure risks and explain the factors influencing each assessment. Importantly, it also examines whether the recommended renewal priorities remain robust when data and assumptions are uncertain. The framework was demonstrated using 1,201 Danish 10 kV cable sections and 657 fault records.
The results show the potential of interpretable, data-driven tools to support more defensible renewal priorities than age-based planning alone. By combining risk estimates with tests of decision stability, the framework can help utilities identify critical assets while avoiding premature replacement of healthy cables. The methods are also designed to be adaptable to other underground cable networks.
The recognised work is led at SDU by Professor Hamid Reza Shaker, together with Mohammad Reza Shadi and Hamid Mirshekali, from SDU Center for Energy Informatics, in collaboration with ReMoni A/S and TREFOR Elnet. It forms part of PowerGridOptimiser, supported by the Danish Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Programme (EUDP).
The ISGAN Awards are organised by the International Smart Grid Action Network, an International Energy Agency Technology Collaboration Programme, in partnership with the Global Smart Energy Federation. The 2026 awards focused on long-term planning of smart distribution grids under uncertainty; nominations were submitted from ten countries and assessed by an independent international jury.
Further information: ISGAN 2026 Awards | 2026 ISGAN Awards of Excellence – Official Brochure