Energy Innovation Summit - Advances in Power Grid Optimization
Sept 10-11, 2024

Prof Keith Bell

Electronic and Electrical Engineering
University of Strathclyde

Keith Bell joined the University of Strathclyde in 2005 having previously worked as a researcher in Bath, Manchester and Naples and as a system development engineer in the electricity supply industry in Britain. He was appointed to the ScottishPower Chair in Smart Grids in late 2013 and became one of the co-Directors of the UK Energy Research Centre in 2014. In July 2018, along with Ian Cotton, he became Scientific Director of the Electrical Infrastructure Research Hub established by the University of Strathclyde with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and the University of Manchester and, in April 2019, became a member of the Committee on Climate Change. He is an invited expert member of CIGRE Study Committee C1 on System Development and Economics, a member of the Executive Board of the Power Systems Computation Conference and a member of the Executive Committee of the IET Power Academy, an initiative to promote electric power engineering as a graduate career in the UK. He is a Chartered Engineer and, at different times, has advised the Scottish Government, the Republic of Ireland government, Ofgem and the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on power systems issues as well as being active in a number of engineering research projects in collaboration with UK and European industry and academic partners.

Camille Pache

R&D Grid operation project manager
RTE France

Researcher at RTE's R&D department, with 10 years of experience in developing decision support methods and tools in uncertain environments for problems ranging from long-term network development to near real-time network operation, including flexibility optimization for congestion management and transient stability assessment. She has primarily worked on optimization-based methods, in contexts of external collaboration with the academic community. She is currently leading an R&D roadmap focused on developing assistants to help operators manage power flows and voltage levels.

Dr.-Ing. Frey Florez

Advisor Digital Services: Asset Management and Strategic Network Planning.
TransnetBW

Professional experience: 25 years of service to ISO/TSO and technology providers.

• TransnetBW GmbH: Advisor Digital Services: Asset Management and Strategic Network Planning.
• Alstom Grid. Power Systems Applications Technical Lead
• Fraunhofer IEE. Visiting Scientist. Grid Dynamics, Grid Stability and Grid Security (N-1) (N-2) (N-k).
• DIgSILENT GmbH. Power system security assessment.
• ISA Colombian TSO. Strategic network planning
• XM Colombian ISO. Short-Term grid planning, project manager, week-ahead, day-ahead, design and development of network ancillary services.

• University of Kassel. PhD in Engineering
• Technical University of Darmstadt. Electrical Engineering
• University Nacional de Colombia. Electrical Engineering

Dr. Graeme Hawker

Lecturer in Future Energy Systems
University of Strathclyde

Jonathan Bowes

Senior Policy Manager
Ofgem

Jonathan is a Senior Policy Manager at Ofgem, working on REMA (Review of Electricity Market Arrangements) and transmission network charging reform. He completed a power systems PhD at Strathclyde in 2020 and before joining Ofgem worked in offshore wind consultancy and as a ClimateXChange Research Fellow.

Fabrizio Lacalandra

Technical assistant to the Board
The Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (ARERA)

Fabrizio is an engineer and applied mathematician with more than twenty-five years of experience. Currently he works as technical Assistant to the Board of the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (ARERA). He has developed specific expertise in applied mathematics with particular reference to problems of optimization, prediction, classification and simulation mainly in the energy sector (electricity and gas market). He is co-author of several scientific publications in reviewed journals and he has been speaker at several conferences.

Simon Baxter

Head of Optimisation
National Grid

I have 20 years of experience in the energy market, with experience optimising the operation of a range of technologies including gas and coal-fired thermal plants as well as pumped-hydro assets.  For the last 6 years I have worked with National Grid in their Interconnectors business and have been party to the enormous growth in their portfolio. My role as head of Optimisation requires me to focus on the efficient operation of the assets to ensure their capabilities are being fully exploited in terms of commercial outcome, impact on consumers, and the role of cross-border links in helping to achieve a low-carbon energy system. 

Mostafa Nick

Analytical capability development manager
National Grid ESO

Mostafa Nick obtained his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2016. Following that, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Distributed Electrical Systems Laboratory at EPFL from 2016 to 2017. Since 2017, he has been a part of National Grid ESO in Warwick, UK. At National Grid ESO, he leads a team focused on power systems analysis, optimization, and advanced analytics. 

Aron Zingler

Researcher
RWTH Aachen University (AVT.SVT)

Aron Zingler is currently pursuing a PhD at the chair of Process Systems Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, with a focus on improving existing algorithms for hierarchical optimization to further their applicability in real-world applications. He is passionate about the practical implications of optimization methodologies in solving complex problems and actively contributes to open-source optimization software. In collaboration with RTE, he works on modelling and robustly optimizing power transmission networks under uncertainty, aiming to enhance system reliability and efficiency.

Waqquas Bukhsh

Lecturer in Advanced Optimisation for Power Systems
University Strathclyde

Waqquas Bukhsh is a Lecturer in Advanced Optimisation for Power Systems at the University of Strathclyde. He specialises in power system modelling and leads research in optimisation problems and their application to power systems. Waqquas joined Strathclyde from the Technical University of Denmark and previously studied operational research at the University of Edinburgh.  

Marco Gehrmann

Research Assistant
InnOpTEM (FGH)

M.Sc. Business Administration and Engineering: Electrical Power Engineering at RWTH Aachen Research Assistant at FGH e.V. since 2020 Research Areas: Transmission Grid, Capacity Validation, Operational Planning and Congestion Management, Topology Optimization, Machine Learning

Martha Frysztacki

Head of Energy System Modelling
Open Energy Transition

Martha holds an M.Sc. in Mathematics from FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg and a PhD from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Her journey with PyPSA, the renowned open-source energy planning optimization framework, began in 2019 as she started her PhD studies and joined the core development team. Her focus was on achieving an accurate representation of the electricity grid and ensuring its secure operation today and in a future, more renewable, system. After graduating in 2023, she co-founded Open Energy Transition (OET), a non-profit environmental think tank and software company dedicated to addressing energy planning challenges. At OET, Martha takes the lead in Energy System Modeling and Optimization.

Felix Preuschoff

Research Associate
IAEW, RWTH Aachen University

Felix Preuschoff obtained his M.Sc. in Business Administration and Engineering: Electrical Energy Technology at RWTH Aachen University and in currently pursuing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the Institute of High Voltage Equipment and Grids, Digitalization and Energy Economics (IAEW) in the field of topology optimization.

Kashyap Vasudevan

Specialist Engineer, Analytical Tool Development Team
National Grid ESO

Kashyap Vasudevan has been in the field of Power Systems since 2010. For 10 years, he was with Power Research and Development Consultants, a global consulting house in the power business. Since 2020, he has been associated with National Grid ESO, where he currently leads the design and development of diverse power system planning tools using mathematical optimization.

Philipp Reuber

Research Field Electricity Grids
InnOpTEM (FGH)

M.Sc. Electrical Engineering, Information Technology and Computer Engineering at RWTH Aachen Research Assistant at FGH e.V. since 2021 Research Areas: Transmission Grid, Operational Planning and Congestion Management, Topology Optimization, Machine Learning, Capacity Validation

Marc Hohmann

Head of Operational Decision Support
Swissgrid

Marc Hohmann leads a team at Swissgrid that provides tools to support the decision making in transmission systems operations.

Emmanouil Loukarakis

Optimisation Manager
National Grid

Emmanouil Loukarakis is part of the Balancing Transformation Programme in NESO, focusing on the operation research aspects of the new control room infrastructure. He has several years of experience in the industry and academia, focusing on energy systems modelling, control and markets analysis.

Roman Manulik

Policy Consultant for network development
Bundesnetzagentur (GER)

M.Sc. In Business Administration and Engineering: Electrical Power Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. At Bundesnetzagentur as Policy Consultant for network development and system stability since 2022.

Nils Pfeifer

Consultant for network development
Bundesnetzagentur (GER)

M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering: Automation Engineering and Electrical Power Systems at the University of Siegen. At Bundesnetzagentur as Consultant for network development and system stability since 2024.

Roya Ahmadi

Innovation Programme Manager
National Grid

Christian Fester

Research Associate
IAEW, RWTH Aachen University

Christian Fester holds a M.Sc. in Business Administration and Engineering: Electrical Power Engineering from RWTH Aachen University and a M.Sc. Electric Power Engineering from KTH Stockholm. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Power Engineering at the Institute of High Voltage Equipment and Grids, Digitalization and Energy Economics (IAEW) in the fields of voltage control and grid operation optimization. As part of his master thesis, Christian extended a topology optimization framework in the InnOpTEM project.

Lukas Kalisch

Team Manager (R&D)
FGH GmbH

Lukas Kalisch holds a M. Sc. in Business Administration and Engineering: Electrical Energy Technology from RWTH Aachen. He started at FGH end of 2016 as a research assistant. Since end of 2021he is working as a project and team manager for the department of research and development. His focus is on projects regarding operational planning and remedial action optimisation.

Jasper Schumacher

Expert Energy system modelling
Bundesnetzagentur (GER)

Markus Geulen

Engineer for Grid Analysis
Amprion GmbH

Markus Geulen works as an Engineer for Grid Analysis at Amprion GmbH, focusing on the optimal use of non-costly remedial actions for congestion management such as topology measures. Prior to working at Amprion GmbH, he worked as a Research Assistant and conducted transient network analyses in the RMS and EMT time domain with a focus on dynamic stability assessment in hybrid AC/DC networks. He graduated with an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, and Computer Engineering at RWTH Aachen University.

Benedikt Wegener

Energy and Optimization consultant
d-fine GmbH

Benedikt Wegener holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Rome as Marie-Curie-Sklodowska fellow. Since his start at  d-fine at the beginning of 2022, he was involved in projects focusing on energy system modelling and grid stability planning.

William Ramsay

Operational Manager
National Grid ESO

William works in Great Britain’s Electricity National Control Centre and leads teams conducting the real-time operation of the electricity balancing market, transmission network risk management and optimisation.

Philipp Härtel

Senior Scientist Operations Research
Fraunhofer IEE

Philipp Härtel is a Senior Scientist for Operations Research at Fraunhofer IEE and the University of Kassel, leading the Method Development Team in the Energy Economics and System Analysis Department. Researching advanced and scalable optimization methods for design and operation planning problems, his work lies at the intersection of energy systems, optimization, machine learning, economics, and game theory. He received his doctorate (Dr.-Ing.) from the University of Kassel, his MSc in Industrial Engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and his BSc from the University of Siegen, including a semester at the University of Newcastle. He has also been a Visiting Research Scholar in the Computer Science Department at Princeton University and the Department of Electric Energy at NTNU.

Dr. Frank Sensfuss

Head of Competence Center Energy Policy and Energy Markets
Fraunhofer ISI

Studied industrial engineering (energy and environmental management) at the University of Flensburg. Studied abroad at the University of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg, graduating as B.Sc. Exportengineer. In 2007, doctorate (Dr. rer. pol.) at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Karlsruhe (TH). From April 2004 to December 2011, project manager and project employee in the Competence Center Energy Policy and Energy Systems at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, since January 2012 in the Competence Center Energy Policy and Energy Markets and since then also Head of the Business Unit Electricity Markets and Infrastructures. Deputy Head of the Competence Center Energy Policy and Energy Markets since February 2019 and Head of the Competence Center Energy Policy and Energy Markets since October 2023.

Juan-Carlos Mani

Mr. Mani started his professional career in the Chemical and Pharmaceutical industries, holding staff and management positions in process development, chemical production and plant simulation/optimization environments. He then moved into the B2B enterprise and analytics software sector and has now more than 20 years of experience in roles across sales, technical pre-sales, business and analytics consulting, product management and product marketing. Before Gurobi, he was Vice President Sales Europe at Trufa, a German/Silicon Valley predictive and prescriptive analytics start-up (now part of Deloitte Digital), where he grew the business by 300% p.a. over 3 years. Prior to Trufa, Mr. Mani held senior roles in Elemica, Process Systems Enterprise, Honeywell, i2 Technologies and AspenTech. He has lived and worked in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Mr. Mani holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Basel Institute of Technology (Switzerland) and completed Doctoral courses in Business Administration at International School of Management (Paris, New York, Shanghai).