The distinguished lecture – Operating Power System towards Net Zero was delivered by Dr Xiaoyao Zhou, at 15.00 pm on 23rd Nov 2023. Dr Xiaoyao Zhou is Operability Policy manager at National Grid ESO. He has two decades of transmission system operation, planning and investment experience. His role is to set out the operability policy for Great Britain’s electricity network to enable the net zero operation, specify the Grid Code technical requirements for new technologies and define future network needs so that market and network owners can invest in the right solutions at the right time. Dr Xiaoyao Zhou is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham, UK.

The topic for the seminar focuses on the operation of the GB electricity system and challenges to operate a low carbon network and what actions and changes electricity system operators are doing to ensure a safe and stable grid system. This session covers real system events in the GB system, what has been done to manage the system risks and further research and development to identify the long-term solutions. To kick off this event, the host, Prof Xiao-Ping Zhang, Counsellor of the University of Birmingham IEEE Student Branch, welcomed everyone and introduced the speaker, Dr Xiaoyao Zhou to the audience. Mr. Zixuan Jia, the Vice-Chair of UoB IEEE Student Branch, briefly introduced the student branch.

The presentation lasted for around one hour and was followed by a twenty-minute Q&A session in which Dr Xiaoyao Zhou commented in detail on questions raised by the audience. For more details about the biography of Dr Xiaoyao Zhou and the abstract of this presentation, please visit the UoB IEEE Student Branch website (https://edu.ieee.org/uk-uob/event/distinguished-lecture-operating-power-system-towards-net-zero/ ).

By Zixuan Jia

Vice-chair, UoB IEEE Student Branch