Dr Ibrahim Abdulhadi
PhDLead R&D Engineer
Ibrahim has 10+ years’ experience working in electrical engineering research and development focusing on the experimental validation of smart grid technologies for national and international markets. As a Lead R&D Engineer at PNDC and Senior Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, Ibrahim leads the Digital Substation and Protection and Control innovation themes, advancing power networks and technologies for the future energy system.
Dr Priya Bhagavathy
CEng MIET SMIEEELead R&D Engineer
Priya is a Chartered Engineer with 15+ years of experience in energy system. As a Lead R&D Engineer in Whole Energy System, her key role is to develop and deliver a portfolio of technical research and innovation projects in whole energy system and Hydrogen. Her research focusses on the integration of heat and transport into the electricity vector and the role of hydrogen in the transition to net-zero.
Dr Kinan Ghanem
CEng MIET SMIEEELead R&D Engineer
As a Senior R&D Engineer with 20 years of experience in communications technologies, Kinan leads the Communications & Cyber Security innovation theme at PNDC, accelerating the development and deployment of novel communications systems and solutions for the smart grid in collaboration with government, industry and academia. He holds a Masters and PhD in communications engineering. His main hobbies are walking and volleyball.
Dr Kyle Jennett
PhD MEngLead R&D Engineer
As a lead R&D engineer at PNDC and Senior Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, Kyle leads the Future Control Room innovation theme, accelerating the development and deployment of innovative power networks and control systems. His research interests include real-time simulation, ship power systems, distribution ancillary services, and future power systems encompassing converter interfaces and energy storage.
Ryan Sims
MIETLead R&D Engineer
Ryan is an electrical engineer with 15+ years’ experience working in the smart grid and e-mobility industries. He holds a Masters in Electrical & Mechanical Engineering and has worked in a variety of systems integration, product, and industrial R&D roles. As Lead R&D Engineer, Ryan leads a team of engineers to deliver industrial research and testing projects for PNDC’s industry partners, focussing on electric vehicles, flexibility and demand side response.
Fathy Aboshady
PhD SMIEEER&D Engineer
Fathy received a PhD degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Nottingham, UK. He is an experienced R&D Engineer, Research Fellow and Assistant Professor. His research interests include fault location strategies in distribution systems, protection of electrical transmission systems, integration of renewable energy systems, and fast charging forecourts for electric vehicles. He has experience in different electromagnetic transient simulation software.
Andreas Avras
MEng MIETR&D Engineer
Andreas is a smart grid research engineer working within the Advanced Power and Control Systems team. His research areas include Naval Powers Systems, Energy Storage Systems, Grid Forming Converters, Geographically Distributed Real-time Simulations (GD-RTS), and Power Hardware in the Loop (PHIL). Andreas has co-authored several research papers, including the experimental assessment and validation of inertial behaviour of virtual synchronous machines.
Dr Soumia Ayyadi
PhDR&D Engineer
Soumia has 6 years in developing EV smart charging strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of EV charging on the electrical network. Soumia investigates the future of power systems with high EV numbers, the optimal location to install the EV infrastructure by considering the EV user’s behaviour and the headroom of the electrical network also how DNOs can use EVs as a key part of the transition to net zero.
Dr Anish Babu
PhDR&D Engineer
Anish is an experienced research engineer working within the Electrification of Transport team. His current research focusses on electric vehicle charging infrastructure, demand side response and energy storage systems, working towards transition to net zero. Anish did his Masters and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, focussing on measurement and instrumentation, sensors and wireless power transfer.
Dr Si Chen
PhD MSc MIETR&D Engineer
Si joined PNDC as an R&D engineer, with over 6 years of experience in the modelling and optimisation of integrated energy systems for both heating and power, specifically in the mathematical modelling of energy systems, energy system design, model calibration, and ANN models. Si also has a strong interest in the digitalisation and digital transformations (DTs) in net zero operational and planning.
Edward Corr
Senior R&D Engineer
Edward leads up the asset management theme at PNDC. His research interests include full scale integration testing, de-risking novel network equipment, widescale data capture, LVDC applications, asset life assessment and the behaviour of conventional network equipment in future operating scenarios. Edward has a masters in Electrical and Mechanical engineering and his PhD studies considered the behaviour of partial discharge activity under DC conditions.
Allan Downie
R&D Engineer
Allan received a BEng (Hons) 1st class in Electronic and Electrical Engineering in July 2016 from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. As an R&D engineer at PNDC, Allan is part of the MOD research program and a member of the Advanced Power and Controls team. His research interests include power system analysis and modelling, real time simulation, energy storage and power hardware in the loop studies.
Lewis Hunter
PhD MEng MIETResearch Associate
As a member of the ‘Electrification of Transport’ team, Lewis specialises in the planning and deployment of charging points, development of open-data architectures and testing of V2X (vehicle-to-everything) chargepoint solutions. He has expertise in managing DNO connections, grid capacity assessments, hardware testing and system control. Lewis regularly shares his work with a global audience, including academic researchers, industry experts, policymakers and governments.
Dr Magnus R. Jamieson
PhDResearch Associate
Magnus is a researcher specialising in power system resilience and extreme weather impacts, from transmission scale to microgrids. His recent research has included modelling and visualisation of risk on transmission systems during storms and modelling of cascading outages. Magnus also has a strong interest in the environment, and more specifically the industrial redevelopment of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Shafiqa Keddar
PhDR&D Engineer
Shafiqa is an R&D Engineer at PNDC with a BSc in Electric and Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Renewable Energy Engineering, and she completed her PhD at the University of Strathclyde. Shafiqa’s expertise includes future power networks and smart grids with advanced levels of technical abilities in power system planning development, technical challenges of EV charging, Demand Side Management and techno-economic analysis and analytic skills required for the transition to low-carbon electricity networks.
Rabia Khan
CEng MIETR&D Engineer
With 14 years of expertise, Rabia heads up PNDC’s contribution to the ISCF Digital Security by Design DEFGRID project, which looks at deploying low cost secure hardware in utility networks for sensing and control. Her research interests include AI, ML, data analytics, and cybersecurity implementation, and her current work at PNDC specialises in system hardware and data integration. Acknowledged by Elsevier and IEEE for peer review, she holds an MS degree in Computer Systems
Networking and Telecommunications. Her 400+ IEEE Survey and Tutorial paper citations underline her impactful contributions.
Dr Calum Mackinnon
PhD MEng MIET MIEEER&D Engineer
Calum’s PhD investigates condition monitoring approaches for high voltage direct current systems for baseload interconnection, with a focus on capacitors. He is a software engineer by background with 5 years’ industry experience, and has interests in the translation of information technology to the energy sector. Calum is a member of continuous improvement, outreach, and interdisciplinary professional networks, and in his free time enjoys the outdoors, reading, and travel.
Siraj Matoli
MIETR&D Engineer
Siraj is an R&D engineer in the Digital Substation and Protection and Control Innovation team with over 10+ years of industry experience in engineering, EPC projects, and manufacturing. His research areas include power system protection, digital substations, and condition monitoring of electrical assets.
Joseph Melone
Senior R&D Engineer
Joe is part of the Whole Energy Systems team at PNDC, currently focussing on developing model power distribution networks and systems using PNDC’s real time digital simulator system, and delivering unique testing capability for the diverse technical solutions which will be integrated in the low carbon energy system of the future. In his free time he enjoys playing saxophone and piano.
Dr Max Parker
EngD MEng MIETSenior R&D Engineer
Max leads the Power Electronics, Machines & Drives (PEMD) innovation theme, accelerating the development and deployment of low carbon technologies and propulsion systems within PNDC’s Decarbonisation of Transport focus area. He joined PNDC in 2021, following 10 years in academic research on the main university campus, in a variety of fields relating to power electronics including wind and marine energy, and DC transmission and distribution systems.
Dr Callum Rae
PhD MEng MIETSenior R&D Engineer
Callum is a mechanical engineer with a background in decarbonised energy systems evaluation. Since completing his PhD in 2016, he has developed his knowledge and expertise through working in consultancy and academia. As a senior R&D Engineer in PNDC’s Whole Energy Systems team, his role focuses on the testing, development and deployment of innovative decarbonised heating systems and technologies.
Cephas Samende
DPhil BEngR&D Engineer
Cephas has a DPhil in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford and a BEng in Electrical Machines and Power Systems Engineering from the University of Zambia. He is active in the areas of energy access, local energy markets, and multi-vector energy systems. Cephas now helps to enrich PNDC’s portfolio in whole energy systems, focusing on grid integration of energy systems, live network testing, and real-time power system simulation.
Dr Stephen Ugwuanyi
FHEA MIET MIEEER&D Engineer
As an R&D Engineer within the Communications and Cyber Security Innovation Theme, Stephen collaborates with industry and academic partners to deliver high-value research and knowledge exchange projects. While part of his role involves accelerating innovation and delivering real-world projects across the energy ecosystem, he also ensures that projects satisfy the future energy network requirements, which must be sustainable, resilient, reliable and secure.