Xiao-Ping Zhang is a Professor of Electrical Power Systems, Director of Smart Grid, Birmingham Energy Institute, and Co-Director of Birmingham Energy Storage Centre sponsored by UK, and Head of the Electrical Power & Control Systems Group

Professor Zhang has been conducting active research in the fields of Energy Union, Global Power & Energy Internet, Super Power Grids, Smart Grids, modelling and control of FACTS and HVDC, renewable generation (wind and wave) control, integration of EVs into power grids, energy markets & game theory applications, smart metering, distributed energy management and services for homes and buildings and wide area grid awareness. He has received major grants from UK Government Science City Initiative, FP7 EU Smart Energy Network (Smart Grid) Programme, EPSRC and Industry etc. In 2010, he initiated the UK-China Smart Grid Workshop series, which has led to 13 UK-China joint research projects on smart grid, electric vehicles and energy storage.

In June 2011, he proposed the concept of “Global Power & Energy Internet” in the CIGRE Workshop held at the University of Birmingham. He pioneered the concept of “Energy Union”, which has been adopted by European Commission. He also pioneered the vision and concept of Midlands as the UK’s “Energy Valley” where this became true with the establishment of UK’s Energy Research Accelerator and UK’s Energy Systems Catapult in the region.

He co-authored 5 books (including the monograph “Flexible AC Transmission Systems: Modelling and Control”, Springer 2006/2012, and “Restructured Electric Power Systems: Analysis of Electricity Markets with Equilibrium Models”, IEEE Press/Wiley in 2010), 100+ journal papers and 150+ conference papers. He was an Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellow in 1999/2000. He is an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer on HVDC, FACTS and Wave Energy Generation. He was elected as a Foreign Fellow of Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE), among the 10 CSEE’s first batch of Foreign Fellows in 2019. Prof Zhang has been named an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to “modeling and control of high-voltage DC and AC transmission systems.”

Professor Zhang is Chair of the IEEE WG on Test Systems for Economic Analysis and also Secretary of IFAC Technical Committee on Power and Energy Systems Control. He is advisor to the IEEE PES UK & Ireland Chapter. He published the visionary article on Smart Energy Community for Smart Cities in the IEEE Smart City News Letter in 2018.

Jiabing Hu is a Professor and Ph.D. supervisor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. He is also a Fellow of the IET and the convener of the IEC SC8A JWG5 working group. Dr. Hu received his Bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees from Zhejiang University in 2004 and 2009, respectively. From 2009 to 2011, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Sheffield. His research interests include stability and control of power electronics-based power systems, large-scale renewable energy integration, and multi-scale complex systems theory.

Dr. Hu has been awarded several prestigious grants, including the National “Ten Thousand Talents Plan” Young Talents Project, the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, the Ministry of Education’s Changjiang Young Scholars Program, a National Key Research and Development Project, and key projects from the Joint Fund. He has published over 100 SCI-indexed papers as the first or corresponding author, with an H-index of 41, and has authored three books. As the lead contributor, he has won one Special Award from the China Power Supply Society and one First Prize from the China Electrotechnical Society.

Currently, Dr. Hu serves as an editorial board member for IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion (TEC), IET Renewable Power Generation (RPG), and Automation of Electric Power Systems and has frequently acted as a guest editor for IEEE/IET and other leading journals. From 2016 to 2021, he was continuously listed as one of Elsevier’s Most Cited Chinese Researchers in the field of electrical and electronic engineering.

Xiong Du is a Professor and Ph.D. supervisor at Chongqing University, where he also serves as the Associate Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering. He earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. degrees from Chongqing University in 2000, 2002, and 2005, respectively. From 2007 to 2008, he was a visiting scholar at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in the United States. His primary research areas include the stability and reliability of power electronics systems.

Dr. Du has been recognized as a National Youth Talent and a National Talent. He is the Vice Chairman of the China Power Supply Society. He has received numerous accolades, including the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the China Power Supply Society, the Ministry of Education’s New Century Excellent Talents Program, and the Chongqing Distinguished Young Scholars Fund.

He has led six major research projects, including a key project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and has published over 150 academic papers and been granted more than 20 invention patents. His research achievements have been honored with the Special Prize of the China Power Supply Society for Scientific and Technological Progress, as well as first, second, and third prizes at the provincial and ministerial levels for natural science.

Dr. Du is currently the Deputy Director of the editorial board of the Journal of Power Supply and serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of Electrical Engineering.

Yong Li is a Professor and Ph.D. supervisor at Hunan University, where he also serves as the Associate Dean of the College of Electrical and Information Engineering. He is the Director of the Engineering Research Center for New Technologies of Power Transmission and Transformation (Ministry of Education) and the Deputy Director of the International Joint Research Center for Smart Grid Optimization and Control Technologies (Ministry of Science and Technology). Additionally, he holds the position of Deputy Director of the Youth Committee of the China Electrotechnical Society.

Dr. Li is a National Distinguished Young Expert, an Innovation Talent under Hunan Province’s “High-Level Talent Program,” a Yuelu Scholar at Hunan University, and a Donghua Software Young Scholar. He has been awarded the Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship, the Ministry of Education’s New Century Excellent Talents Program, and the Huxiang Young Talents Program.

He serves as an editorial board member for over ten academic journals, including IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, IET Power Electronics, CSEE Journal of Power and Energy Systems, Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy, Protection and Control of Power Systems, and Chinese Journal of Electrical Engineering. Dr. Li is a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of the IFAC Technical Committee on Power and Energy Systems, a director of the Hunan Electrotechnical Society, a member of the China Power Electronics Committee, and a member of the China Electrotechnical Society’s Electric Vehicle Charging and Testing Systems Committee.