Section: “Smart Grids and Microgrids”

Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Dr. José Matas

Affiliation: Electric Engineering Department, Barcelona East School of Engineering (EEBE), Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain  

Engineering has become a multidisciplinary area that requires a great amount of knowledge about different parts of science, including physics, chemistry, industry, environmentalism, etc. So, becoming an engineer is a highly challenging task that requires a lot of passion and curiosity about science and life itself. You always ask yourself about the mechanism that is behind the scenes of all possible solutions, and you ask yourself if there are other, better ways to solve the problem. This is my case and I believe it is something deep within the souls of engineers. I had been passionate about electronics, digital signal processors, power electronics, control of power electronics, renewables, microgrids, and now electrical engineering in general. At the start of my career, I worked as a product engineer for various electronics companies. Moreover, after joining the university with an academic-oriented activity, I was free, for the first time, to explore many aspects of technology that amaze me. I never imagined, even in my wildest dreams, that I was going to participate in such a high number of innovations. It makes life worth living and gives you a spiritual meaning and a purpose. Therefore, what I bring to the journal is not specific. It is a wide-ranging knowledge acquired through the course of my life. I have discovered that this happens for many engineers who have realized that they have chosen the same path to fulfill an inner, deep curiosity about how things work. 

I must confess that the offer of this role was a surprise to me in the beginning, because, like many other scientists, I was devoted to my endeavors. Soon, I discovered that it was offering me insight into the many exotic areas of research related to renewable energy, microgrids, and smart grids. I must confess that for me, it has been a special gift. An opportunity to participate, somehow, in the discussion of ideas, of new concepts, and the design challenges that many researchers are doing just now, trying to imagine what we can do to create a better means of generating, distributing, and efficiently sharing the energy needed in the future. Furthermore, it is rewarding to be able to contribute to the process of ensuring the quality of the journal, helping to resolve review conflicts related to the works submitted for revision. We should recognize the extraordinary efforts of the researchers who contribute to the journal and help them as much as possible in this regard, by facilitating the publication process. 

I have found that Energies has a good policy regarding open publication. The quality of the journal and the published papers is high. Open access is a means of giving visibility to research and offering it to the global community fast and free. This is only possible today, due to the incredible communication capabilities that we now have. Moreover, Energies is not just a journal. It carries out other activities, like offering publication discounts, free publications to chosen scholars, organizing conferences, and so on. It has a good and increasing impact factor that is now about three, which I am proud of. The journal is drawing more attention and consideration in the research community. However, this does not mean that everything is done. I know that this journal is open to new ideas and suggestions. I believe that soon, we will see new ways of creating a research community for journals. 

Energies is a journal that traditionally dealt with only “energy”, and everything related to it. Now, it considers the rest of the technologies that convert energy to electricity and distribute it to modern society. This includes several topical collections—twenty-seven overall—which honestly is a lot. These collections deal with wide and popular topics like “Electrical Power and Energy Systems”, “Sustainable Energy”, or “Artificial Intelligence and Smart Energy”. They are all really interesting, but what motivates me more are those topics related to “Energy Conversion”, “Smart Grids”, “Microgrids”, “Renewable Energy”, and “Electric Vehicles”. 

Well… Everybody has something fun about themselves; that’s part of being human. The fact is that my wife smiles and laughs a lot when she sees me start moving my foot in the supermarket when they play ambient music that I like. It is surreal and I do not know why I do that. However, at that moment, and with her, I do not feel any shame about it, as I have been a very sensitive person my whole life.