Professor Vassilios G. Agelidis

Director of the Centre of Excellence in Power Engineering, University of Sydney

Professor Vassilios G. Agelidis is Director of the Centre of Excellence in Power Engineering at the University of Sydney and holds the EnergyAustralia Chair of Power Engineering. He is also the Director of the Electrical and Information Engineering Foundation.

Professor Agelidis graduated from Democritus University of Thrace, Greece with a bachelor of electrical engineering (first class honours, five years of study) in 1988. He obtained a master of applied science from Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1992. He gained his Ph.D. Degree from Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia in 1997. Professor Agelidis was awarded the graduate diploma of business (GradDipBus) from the Curtin Graduate School of Business, Perth, Australia in 2000 and also holds a graduate certificate of education (GradCertEd) from Curtin University of Technology (1994).

Prior to his current appointment, he held the inaugural chair of power engineering at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia (2005-06). Professor Agelidis also worked at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom as the research manager of the Centre for Economic Renewable Power Delivery (CERPD, 2000-04) and Curtin University of Technology (1993-99) initially as an associate lecturer and then as a lecturer and prior to leaving for the UK as a senior lecturer.

Professor Agelidis leads the fastest growing, most dynamic and internationally recognised power engineering research group in Australia towards finding:

• Innovative and economical means to operate electricity infrastructure
• Advanced electronic control of electricity grids using utility power electronics
• Electrical energy generated with sustainable energy sources
• Increased efficiency of delivery and quality of electrical power
• New technologies that integrate telecommunication, computer and software systems with power system principles to deliver the intelligent grid of the future

His most significant research contributions so far have been in the field of power-electronic energy conversion, with the goal of achieving more efficient energy use through motor control and electrical energy processing. He has reported design methods of advanced equipment for electrical utilities able to support a ‘smarter’ grid infrastructure based on fast automated electronic control. In the area of sustainable energy systems, his work includes grid integration techniques of distributed generation based on solar, wind and fuel-cell energy converters through electronics and more economic direct current (DC) transmission technologies using voltage-source converters. In 2004, he received the UK’s most prestigious research fellowship for a young researcher, the advanced research fellowship from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. His research involves collaborations with various companies and government organisations and many universities worldwide. In 2007, he received an Endeavour Executive Award from the Australian Government for a three-month visit to Seoul National University of Technology, South Korea where he worked on research projects with fuel-cell energy conversion systems. In 2008-09, he was a VESTAS visiting research Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark for a period of three months working on high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnections of large offshore wind farms with the electricity grid.

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