People

Among her achievements with us: set-up and maintenance of the GIS (Geographic Information System) server, energy networks and critical infrastructures modelling and visualisation with GIS tools, development of energy-related GIS applications.

Mircea Ardelean got his BSc in Geography at West University of Timisoara and holds a PhD degree from Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He had previously worked in academics in the field of Cartography and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
He joined Joint Research Centre in September 2012 focusing on spatial data gathering, data consistency check, building geodatabases and map production. Since 2015 he carries out research concerning long power interconnections.

Among his achievements with us: definition of the scientific strategy on power system integrated assessment, supervision of several PhD students, introduction of innovative research streams on complexity science and agent based modelling, co-auhtorship of peer-review publications on power systems, critical infrastructures and electricity markets.

Among his achievements with us as a PhD student: development of EUPowerDispatch, a minimum-cost dispatch model of the European electricity system, and publication of his PhD thesis entitled "Electricity Without Borders - The need for cross-border transmission investment in Europe".  Detailed information here.

Among his achievements with us: development of physical and market models of the Baltic States, multicriteria decision analysis on offshore wind integration into the grid, studies on the interoperability of electric vehicles and smart grids with larger penetratin of distributed energy resources.

Stamatios Chondrogiannis graduated from the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2001. He received his MSc in Power System Engineering & Economics from UMIST in 2004 and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Manchester in 2007. During his PhD studies he worked on the integration of offshore wind farms to the UK Grid, under a DTI project.
He worked in the EPC Photovoltaic sector for 5,5 years. He joined the European Commission in the “Smart Electricity System and Interoperability” unit in October 2013. His research interests include Smart Grids, Renewable Generation and Power System analysis.

Among his achievements with us: scientific supervision of smart grid laboratory activities and power system component testing expansion, scientific publications on smart grid deployment and opportunities in Turkey and Europe, scientific work on wind integration and balancing in evolving power systems, international events organisation.

Among his achievements with us as a trainee: creation and maintenance of the smart grid projects database, system modelling of portions of the European power grid (UK,...)

Catalin Felix Covrig holds a Diplomat Engineer Degree (5 years) in Mechanical Engineering (minor in energy generation and supply) and a Doctorate Degree, both from the University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania.
Currently he is a researcher and the laboratory manager for the Smart Grid Interoperability Laboratory, Petten. Before joining the European Commission he was an Operations Engineer in the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, Romania. Some of his research interests are in the field of power systems, renewable energy, energy storage, electric vehicles, V2G, IoT, data visualisation and big data.

Among his achievements with us: assessment of cost and impact of innovative technologies (FACTS) on the European transmission system, evaluation of the impact of large penetration of Distributed Generation in the European distribution grids, analyses on energy storage technologies and integrated systems.

Marco Flammini has a bachelor degree in Mechanical engineering from the Politecnico of Milano, and a double master degree in Renewable Energy from Ecole Polytechnique, France. He is a PhD student of the Politecnico of Torino. He joined the "Smart Electricity Systems and Interoperability" group at the European Commission, Directorate Energy, Climate and Transport, Joint Research Centre in November 2016. His research activities focus on techno-economic modelling of electric vehicles and power grid systems.

Gianluca Flego holds a first degree in philosophy from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, with a strong focus on social sciences. He switched then to economics through an MA from Collegio Carlo Alberto, and MPhil from Cambridge and a PhD from Bocconi University. His work in the academia specialised on the political economy of liberalisation, sustainable development and on empirical industrial economics. He joined the "Smart Electricity Systems and Interoperability" group at the European Commission, Institute of Energy and Transport, Joint Research Centre, working on techno-economic modelling of Europe's electricity markets and cost-benefit analysis of smart grids infrastructures.

Among her achievemntes with us: analysis of the socio-economic aspects of smart grid projects, demand response programs and consumer engagement strategies.

Among his achievements with us: smart grid project inventorying and analysis, development of a complete cost-benefit methodology for smart grid projects, policy support and research on smart grids at European and international level (EC Smart Grid Task Force, European Electricity Grid Initiative, EU-US Energy Council).

Among his achievements with us as a trainee: support to electricity demand forecasting, generation adequacy analysis and smart grid data analytics.

Luca Jansen received her Bachelor's in Physics from the University Duisburg-Essen and holds a double-degree Master's in Renewable Energy Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology - KTH, Sweden and Ecole Polytechnique, France. She joined the Unit in 2018 as a Trainee and is currently a Grantholder pursuing her PhD in Intelligent Information Systems in collaboration with the University of Zilina, Slovakia. Her research is focused on the modeling of electricity grids and markets.

Among his achievements with us as a trainee: contributions to activities related to the smart grid interoperability laboratory set up and to the smart grid projects assessment.

Among his achievements with us: contributions to real time simulation activities, electricity transmission and distribution systems modeling and support to competitive research activities (FP7 projects).

Alexandre Lucas received his Electrical Egineering degree in 2007 from the Instituto Suerior de Engeharia de Lisboa and in 2009 his Master in Business and Industrial Strategy from the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. From 2009 to 2013 he pursued his PhD degree in Sustainable Energy systems in the MIT Portugal Program (IST/MIT). He developed research at MIT during 2011/2012 and complementary training at Harvard E. School in Energy Management. He worked in the private sector in Systems Engineering field as project manager, basic project development and tendering team coordinator for International Markets for Power Transport and Distribution facilities. His research and publications focus on energy supply infrastructures. He currently joined the "Smart Electricity Systems and Interoperability" project within the Energy Security Unit. His areas of interest are electric chargers, energy conversion technologies, alternative powered vehicles, energy management and Life Cycle Analysis.

Among her achievements with us: cost-benefit assessment of smart grids infrastructure, analysis on PV systems perfomances and system integration in collaboration wirh the Engineering Faculty at the University of Salento, Italy. 

Antonios Marinopoulos received a Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2003 from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He continued with post-graduate studies in the same University and he received a PhD in Power Systems Engineering in 2009. From 2010 to early 2017 he was with ABB Corporate Research Centre in Sweden, where he worked on renewable energy sources and energy storage grid applications as a principal scientist. Since March 2017 he has joined the "Smart Electricity Systems and Interoperability" project within the Electricity Distribution, Security and Markets Unit of Directorate C, DG JRC. His research interests are in the field of power systems and renewable energy sources, distributed generation, and battery energy storage.

Among his achievements with us as a trainee first and Phd student afterward: Smart Grid Projects Outlook, regulatory analyses on the emerging distribution systems, PhD studies in cooperation with Politecnico di Torino.

Jose Mendes contributed to the administrative activities of the "Smart Electricity Systems and Interoperability" Action and assisted with the set-up and expansion of the smart grids experimental activities.

Among his achievements with us: contribution to setup the smart grid interoperability laboratory, with particular focus on the TLC and ICT parts, smart grid laboratories inventorying, scientific output on the role of telecommunications in smart grids.

Among her achievements with us as a trainee: contribution to the cost-benefit assessment of smart grid projects in Europe, evaluation of consumer engagement towards smart grid concepts.

Ioulia Papaioannou received the B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 2004 where she continued her Ph.D. studies in Energy. She received her doctorate in 2010. She joined the JRC in 2010 as a grant- holder and later worked in the Association of Distributed Energy Resources Laboratories (DERlab e.V.) Her expertise is in the field of Smart Grids, Distribution grids, Distributed Generation and Renewables integration and Power quality.

Marta Poncela received a PhD in Automation and Systems Engineering from the University of Valladolid, Spain in 2012 and a MSc in electrical engineering in 1998.
She has more than 15 years of working experience in research organizations and engineering companies, always related with energy, mainly renewable energies, distributed generation and grid integration.
Her research interests include renewable energies, electricity markets, forecasting applied to energy systems and grid integration.

Arturs Purvins is an electricity system modeller with a record of over 20 well-cited peer-review articles. These articles focus mainly on techno-economic assessment of future electricity system development scenarios. His educational background in electrical engineering forms the foundation of his thorough technical knowledge and experience. A. Purvins currently works for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission on impact assessment of various policy options such as the Baltic synchronisation project.

Among his achievements with us as a trainee: contribution to data gathering and processing for the smart grid projects inventory, contribution to the cost benefit analysis for the city of Rome.

Amanda Spisto holds a degree in Economics a MS in Environmental Economics and Territorial studies and a PhD in Environmental Law and Economics. She spent part of her studies at the Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg, the University of Barcelona and the University of Nottingham. Before joining the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and after a short period as post-doctoral fellow at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, she worked for the Italian Ministry for the protection of the environment, the Italian Power Market Exchange and the Italian Compensation Fund for Energy Tariffs. At JRC she conducts techno-economic analysis of the power system with focus on the economic impacts of energy technologies (i.e. renewable generation, electricity storage systems) and on the proposals for a new European electricity market design.

Among her achievements with us as a trainee: support to the development of tools for smart grid inventorying and assessment, contribution to data gathering and processing for power system modelling.
 

Eva Urbano received his MSc in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnical University of Catalonia in 2019, where she is currently doing a Ph.D. in Electronical Engineering. Her research interests include energy sizing optimisation, qualitative and quantitative investment evaluation, uncertainty analysis, renewable energy sources, and energy transition. She joined the “Energy Security, Distribution and Markets” unit at the European Commission (JRC) as a trainee in 2022, where she supports distribution energy system and market modelling.

Michel Vandenbergh received his degree of electromechanical engineering from the “Université Libre de Bruxelles” in 1987, and his PhD in energy engineering in 1997 from the “Ecole des Mines de Paris”. He has more than 20 years experience in energy systems management, design and simulation, with a special focus on the integration of renewable energy technologies, smart grids and the production of electricity in rural areas.

In January 2014 he joined the "Smart Electricity Systems and Interoperability" team. His main activities are power system modeling and the management of the smart grid laboratory.

Julija Vasiljevska received her degree at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University Sc. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, majoring in Power Systems. She holds a Ph.D degree from the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Porto in collaboration with INESC Porto. During this period she was actively involved in several European Commission funded projects focusing on large scale deployment of microgeneration and microgrids. Her research interests include optimization of power system operation, including microgeneration, microgrid operation, control strategies for microgrids deployment and multicriteria decision aid.
Since May 2012 she is with the "Smart Electricity Systems and Interoperability" group at the European Commission, Institute of Energy and Transport, Joint Research Centre.

Alessandro Zani graduated in Informatics Engineering and holds a PhD in “Computational methods for forecasting and decision in Economics and Finance” (Università Degli Studi di Bergamo). With a Master in the Electricity Sector at Universidad Pontificia Comillas of Madrid (2008), in 2007-2008 he collaborated with the Regulation Department of Endesa. From 2008 he worked in RSE on topics related to power markets. Since October 2018 he has been collaborating with the Energy Security, Distribution and Markets Unit at JRC Ispra.