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Staff Profile

Dr Natalia Zografou-Barredo

EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow

Background

Natalia is a researcher in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University, and works within the Electrical Power Research Group. Her main passion at work is to participate in projects that address challenges and identify opportunities that can help us all reach Net Zero. Driven by the goals to meet net zero carbon emissions by 2050, her research aims to provide solutions to drive and facilitate this transition. 

She received her PhD degree in Electrical Power Systems from the School of Engineering, Newcastle University and the Diploma degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Greece. Her PhD was part of the National Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI) research project, and was funded by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) and Newcastle University. She investigated modelling methods to optimally schedule energy resources connected to radial electricity distribution networks (which may form an active distribution network or a microgrid), aiming at delivering improvements in operational cost, security of supply and environmental sustainability. Following the completion of her undergraduate studies, she was awarded the 2016 IEEE Greece Power and Energy Society POWERED Award (16th Workshop on Power Engineering Dissertations). During her PhD, in 2019, she obtained the 3rd Place in the Three-minute Thesis Competition by the Durham Energy Institute, at the 10th Anniversary Research Symposium.

During her PhD, in 2019, Natalia co-founded the 'Optimisation Group Webinars' within the 'Power Systems and Energy Storage' group of Newcastle University, which she co-led until 2023. The 'Optimisation Group Webinars' were regular webinar presentations on energy systems optimisation with invited guest speakers from both UK and international institutions. Webinar information can be found on the website Webinars - National Centre for Energy Systems Integration - Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk), and recorded talks on the YouTube channel, Optimisation Group Webinars - YouTube.


Research

Current research focus:

  • energy systems resilience (including offshore systems)
  • whole energy systems (including hydrogen)
  • mathematical optimisation methods for power systems


Current / Past Projects

1) HyCoRe Alpha - Hydrogen Cost Reduction

(Oct 2023 - Apr 2024)

Type: Consultancy

Vision: HyCoRe Alpha aimed to identify UK regions with a high potential of producing green hydrogen using offshore wind. This includes National modelling to identify high-potential areas based on offshore/onshore constraints and opportunities, and ambitious innovation on improving energy system resilience and robustness.

Project description: REF:10079341 | ENA Innovation Portal (energynetworks.org)

Press release: Funding secured to explore hydrogen potential for clean energy transition | Northern Gas Networks

Online public project presentation: (from min 30:00 onwards): Ofgem SIF Session 2: Improving resilience using multi-energy systems (youtube.com)

Lead Funding Licensee: Northern Gas Networks

Project Partners:

  • Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult
  • Kinewell Energy
  • Arup
  • Newcastle University
  • Unasys
  • National Gas Transmission


2) D-Suite Alpha

(Jan 2024 - Jul 2024)

Type: Research (TRL 4-5)

Project summary: With the electrification of our daily activities to achieve the transition to net zero, such as using electric vehicles and heat pumps, electricity demand is growing rapidly in LV networks. Led by SPEN (Scottish Power Energy Networks), this project explored the applicability of the following 'suite' of technologies to address the issues associated with the increase in demand: LV Distributed STATCOM (D-STATCOM), Distributed Soft Open Point (D-SOP) and Distributed Smart Transformer (D-ST).

Project information: 10060423-A (1) | ENA Innovation Portal (energynetworks.org)

Lead Funding Licensee: SP Energy Networks (SPEN - SP Manweb Plc)


3) Supergen Energy Networks (SEN) - Phase 2

(Nov 2023 - present)

Type: Research

Vision: SEN is a £9m research project funded by the EPSRC (Engineering Physical Sciences Research Council), which aims to carry out highly impactful interdisciplinary research such that energy networks become a driving force towards a rapid, safe and just transition to Net Zero.

Website: Energy networks community - Supergen (supergenen.org)

Project partners:

  • University of Bristol
  • The University of Manchester
  • University of Bath
  • University of Birmingham
  • Cardiff University
  • University of Leeds
  • Newcastle University


4) EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship

(Nov 2021 - Nov 2023)


5) EPSRC National Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI)

(Sept 2017 - Jul 2022)

Type: Research

Vision: The £20m EPSRC National Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI) brought together energy experts from around the world to understand the opportunities that whole energy systems approaches can offer.

Website/More information: About Us - National Centre for Energy Systems Integration - Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk)

Publications