Shahab Dehghan of the School of Engineering at Newcastle University

The transition to a climate-resilient, net-zero energy system requires a re-evaluation of how energy infrastructures are planned, operated, and invested in, from decentralised microgrids to highly interconnected supergrids, Advanced mathematical optimisation and decision-making approaches under uncertainty provide the foundation for achieving a resilient, flexible, and equitable decarbonisation of the power and energy sectors. The first part of this lecture focuses on local enengy systems and microgrids, examining the planning of distributed generation, flexibility resources, and low-inertia converter-based technologies under different types of uncertainty sources. Particular attention is given to resilient microgrid investment planning, based on advanced oplimisation models that capture both high-impact-low-frequeney (HILF) and low-impact high-frequency (LIHF) uncertainties, These models integrate static and dynamic islanding security constraints to ensure system stability and continuity during grid disturbances, The discussion also explores the role of reactive power management and converter-based voltage support in maintaining voltage stability and enhancing dynamic resilience in future low-inertia electricity networks. The second part of the lecture addresses national energy systems and supergrids, where large-scale electricity, heat, and hydrogen networks are coordinated to achieve net-zero objectives under climatic uncertainty. Emphasis is placed on investment planning and uncertainty modelling for climate exiremes, including scenario generalion and risk-aware decision frameworks. The integration of data centres, hydrogen systems, and district heating networks is highlighted as a critical enabler of fexibility, resilience, and sectoy coupling in decarbonised syslems. Overall, the lecture presents a systems approach involving resilient micro-level cnergy communities with coordinated macro-level supergrids, outlining pathways towards climate-resilient, reliable, and adaptive net-zero energy systems.

Biography:

Dr Shahab Dehghan (IEEE Senior Member, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy) is currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Prior to joining Newcastle University, he was a Researcher at Imperial College London from 2021 to 2022 and at the University of Leeds from 2018 to 2021. He is Principal investigator of the EPSRC-funded £800k Climate ResilientI Heat Electrification for Net-Zero Emission Whole Energy Systems (RENEW) project, and a Co-Investigator in the EPSRC-funded £l5m Energy Demand Research Centre (EDRC) and the EPSRC-funded £l0m Hydrogen Integration for Aecelerated Energy Transition (HI-ACT) Hub, His research interests include investment and operational planning, under uncertainty in decarbonised power and energy systems, reliability and resilience analysis in low-inertia electricity networks, and the dynamics of clectricity markets and energy cconomies. Dr Dehghan also serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy and IEEE Powel Engineering Letters, and was recognised as an Outstanding Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy in 2024. His contributions have been further acknowledged through several awards, including the Best Paper Award at the 17th Intemational Conference on Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems (PMAPS), 2022 for the paper A Data-Driven Optimisation Model for Desiening Islanded Microgrids, and the Best Paper Award at the IEEE PES innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT) Europe, 2021 for the paper Comparison of AC Optimal Power Flow Methods in Low- Voltage Distribution Networks.