Power systems
The future of our energy use is electrical, and our power systems are providing the critical underpinning infrastructure needed to make this happen. The way that power systems are designed and operated is changing as we move towards more sustainable energy sources. Our research enables secure, resilient and economic operation and planning of future power systems.
Long-term strategic relationships with leading industrial partners.
One of the largest and long-standing power systems groups, covering wide aspects of power engineering.
Real Time Digital Simulator capabilities.
Powering the energy transition through world-leading research and partnership
Power systems are going through unprecedented changes as we are decarbonising our energy use and as infrastructure ages.
We are seeing new technologies connected both at high and low voltage levels, including renewable generation, electric vehicles, batteries, HVDC interconnectors, large loads, etc. There is also more data available to help us in our decision making but understanding how to make sense of this data is a complex task.
Our research tackles the challenge of transforming power systems to deliver clean, secure and affordable energy and ensure resilience of critical infrastructure.
Our expertise and research focus covers all key areas of power system design and operation from large scale national infrastructure to millions of distributed devices. In close partnership with industry and policy makers, we turn our science into the tools, standards and decisions shaping tomorrow’s energy networks.
Power systems are among the most complex human-made systems and form part of critical infrastructure. It is crucial to design, build, and operate power systems in a reliable, efficient and sustainable manner to ensure uninterrupted access to electricity in an increasingly electrified world.
Panagiotis Papadopoulos - Group Lead and Reader
Research
Our areas of research
Data-driven and AI approaches for power systems
Digitalisation of power systems is an enabler for the secure and cost-efficient integration of new and low carbon technologies in future power systems. We are investigating ways that data-driven and AI methods can help address future power system challenges, improve security, and cut costs.
Our data-driven and AI methods focus on improving monitoring and situational awareness, detecting instability, offer decision support, and automated control in complex power systems under increased uncertainty.
Improving network performance using flexibility from storage and demand
Control and operation of integrated low-carbon distribution and transmission networks is needed to exploit additional flexibility from RES, storage and demand.
Our research delivers methods for coordination of a multitude of widely dispersed storage and demand technologies with variable temporal and spatial characteristics.
Modelling and analysis of complex multi-energy systems
Achieving net zero requires whole-system thinking. Today’s electricity, heat and gas networks are still planned and operated in isolation, missing major opportunities for cost savings and decarbonisation.
Our work helps policymakers and operators design systems that deliver cleaner, cheaper and more resilient energy.
Predictive distributed control of intelligent buildings and microgrids
Intelligent buildings and microgrids are building blocks of future energy systems and potential energy and emission savings are still not achieved.
Building-to-grid integration will turn buildings into flexible devices for grid support. We are delivering predictive control to enable online learning of uncertainty and simultaneously adjust multiple energy device set-points.
Probabilistic asset health, reliability and resilience assessment
Future power systems will be dominated by variable energy sources and will be operated closer to their limits to cope with the increased demand caused by massive electrification.
Our research into probabilistic reliability and resilience assessment methods is quantifying uncertainties in grid performance under various conditions, enhancing prediction of failures, and optimising strategies for risk management, ensuring consistent and resilient energy supplies.
Stability of power-electronics rich systems
New generation and load are power electronics interfaced. This introduces new instability mechanisms, and new analysis methods are required to understand system behaviour.
We are researching the advanced modelling and AI techniques needed to represent different systems and subsystems, and creating new analysis techniques to ensure accurate and stable controls. .
System and substation digitalisation and data-driven operation
Electrical power systems and substations are increasingly digitalised, enabling real-time monitoring, big data and AI applications, but also creating new cyber and digital system vulnerabilities.
We are researching how to exploit this new data to optimise operation as well as creating new methods to find and fix system weaknesses.
Our research facilities
Real Time Digital Simulator Lab
Our group is home of a Real Time Digital Simulator Lab.
Laboratory setup:
- 6 racks with 30 PB5 cards.
- 5 MMC emulator units.
- Analogue and digital input and output facilities as well as communication capabilities using well known standards (eg, IEC 61850, C37.118 and IEC 60870).
Applications:
- Hardware in the loop testing of physical equipment such as control and protection devices, and complex solutions involving a large number of intelligent electronic devices.
- Digital substation virtual site acceptance testing and training of multi-vendor solutions.
- Integration and coordination of renewable energy sources, energy storage devices, multi-terminal HVDC, etc.
Study with us
Your career in power systems starts here!
You can find relevant postgraduate research programmes and PhD projects on our Department page.
Master's courses relevant to our group are:
Connect with us
Industry and policy partnerships
We partner closely with UK and international transmission and distribution network operators, equipment manufacturers, regulators and policy bodies to translate research into practice. By working collaboratively with industry, government and the wider energy sector, we ensure our research addresses real-world challenges and emerging priorities.
Our partnerships create a two-way exchange of knowledge, enabling us to co-develop innovative solutions, influence policy, and accelerate the adoption of technologies that support the transition to a more resilient, cost-efficient and sustainable energy system.
Our people
- Peter Crossley - Professor of Power Systems
- Aoife Foley - Professor of Net Zero Infrastructure
- Haiyu Li - Professor
- Pierluigi Mancarella - Professor of Smart Energy Systems
- Jovica Milanovic - Professor of Electrical Power Engineering
- Alessandra Parisio - Professor of Control of Sustainable Energy Networks
- Robin Preece - Professor in Future Power Systems
- James Brooks - Reader (T&S)
- Panagiotis Papadopoulos - Reader
- Eduardo Martinez-Cesena - Senior Lecturer
- Ali Ehsan - Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow
- Mahdieh S Sadabadi - Lecturer
- Damian Vilchis-Rodriguez - Technical Specialist
Get in touch
Contact our team
If you’d like to discuss collaboration or explore our work in more detail, contact: