// SMART GRIDS
Smart grids & microgrids
Designing resilient, self-sustaining local energy systems that keep power flowing when the wider grid is under stress.
Profile
Vahid Vahidinasab is Professor and Chair in Sustainability at the University of Salford, working where energy systems, markets, policy and people meet. Across more than twenty years in academia, industry and national research leadership, he has built the models, markets and tools that help clean energy systems run, and led the teams, labs and programmes that put them to work. His research centres on self-sustaining, resilient communities that are fair and affordable, spanning smart grids, local flexibility markets, electric vehicles and whole-energy systems. He is an IEEE Senior Member, an author of seven books, and an editor of leading international journals.
//
Selected publications
IEEE Trans. Power Systems
Tree-partitioning as an emergency measure to contain cascading line failures
Electric Power Systems Research
Peer-to-peer energy management of distributed ledgers in renewable smart energy systems
IEEE Trans. Sustainable Energy
Arbitrage strategy of renewable-based microgrids via peer-to-peer energy trading
IEEE Trans. Industrial Informatics
A new false data injection attack resilient model for energy forecasting
Sustainable Cities and Society
Enhancing smart city operation management with a subway synergism hub
Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews
A review on demand-side tools in electricity market
Browse the full record on Google Scholar and ORCID.
[01]
Research focus
Building the tools that make energy markets fair, resilient and open to everyone.
// COMMUNITIES
Local energy communities
Giving neighbourhoods the flexibility and control to run their own energy, and put people at the centre of the net-zero shift.
// MARKETS
Electricity markets & P2P trading
Market designs that let households and communities trade energy directly, securely and privately, and get paid fairly for flexibility.
// MOBILITY
EVs & vehicle-to-grid
Turning mass electric-vehicle uptake into an asset for the grid through smart charging and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology.
// AI
AI forecasting & optimisation
Autonomous forecasting and control of generation, demand and storage, tuned to what real households and operators actually need.
// WHOLE SYSTEM
Whole-energy systems
Bridging electricity, gas and hydrogen networks through sector coupling, power-to-gas and green hydrogen for a flexible low-carbon system.
[02]
Career & leadership
Two decades of research and senior leadership across UK and international energy institutions.
Dec 2024 – Present
Professor and Chair in Sustainability
Salford Business School, University of Salford, Manchester
Leading sustainability research and strategy across the business school, working at the intersection of energy systems, policy, markets and people.
2021 – Dec 2024
Reader in Sustainable Power & Energy Systems · Founder of NTU-GridLab
Nottingham Trent University
Founded and directed NTU-GridLab, led the Sustainable Energy Research Group, and served as School Research Impact Champion, overseeing impact case studies for the REF submission in Computer Science and Engineering.
2018 – 2021
Senior Research Associate
EPSRC National Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI), Newcastle University
Delivered flagship EPSRC and EU energy programmes on smart distribution grids, active buildings and vector-coupling storage, and managed the H2020 inteGRIDy project.
2016 – 2018
Vice-President for Management & Resources Development and Directorate
Niroo Research Institute, Iran's national electric power research institute · on secondment from Shahid Beheshti University
Designed and launched a first-of-its-kind national research funding scheme (still in use), signed partnerships with 20 universities, and led a directorate of around 100 staff with six directors reporting.
2014 – 2016
Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (APVC) for Research & Secretary of the Research Council
Niroo Research Institute, Iran's national electric power research institute · on secondment from Shahid Beheshti University
Restructured the country's largest electric power research institute into 20 research departments, each with industry and academia oversight built around equality, diversity and inclusion.
2012 – 2014
Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (APVC) for Education & Secretary of the Education Council
Power and Water University of Technology (Abbaspour Faculty of Engineering), Tehran · later part of Shahid Beheshti University
Applied Lean Six Sigma and 5S methods to redesign the education office, cutting response times roughly fourfold and setting a model later adopted across the university.
Aug 2010 – Sep 2018
Assistant Professor of Power & Energy Systems · Founder of the Soha Smart Energy Systems Lab
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran
First permanent academic post: built a research and teaching profile in smart grids, power markets and AI for energy, supervising 80+ theses and projects, and founded a smart-energy laboratory that remains active today.
2004 – 2010
Research Assistant, Energy & Electricity Research Centres
Niroo Research Institute & Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran
Where it started: built AI-based load and electricity-price forecasting and optimal bidding tools for national grid and regional electricity companies, several still in operational use.
[03]
Books
Seven authored and edited volumes with Springer Nature and Elsevier.
[04]
Major projects & platforms
Research delivered at pilot and national scale, and the tools and labs it produced.
Horizon Europe · 2023–present
DriVe2X
Conceived the idea, built the consortium and wrote the proposal for a programme on mass electric-vehicle deployment enabled by vehicle-to-everything (V2X): customer-centric local flexibility markets, grid-impact analysis and real-world pilot demonstration. Led from Nottingham Trent and now delivered at the University of Salford.
Principal Investigator · Work Package Leader · UK pilot lead
Research platform
NTU-GridLab
A laboratory founded to develop open, data-driven tools for local communities, design local flexibility markets, and coordinate flexibility between transmission and distribution operators.
Founder & Director
EPSRC · 2019–2021
Active Building Centre Research Programme
Control and optimisation of distributed energy (renewables, storage and EVs) at building and network level, making energy-positive buildings work economically while keeping occupants comfortable.
Senior Research Associate
EU H2020 · 2018–2021
inteGRIDy
One of Europe's largest smart-distribution-grid projects, spanning 30 partners. Built an Integrated Simulation Environment that lets decision-makers test planning and operation strategies for future distribution networks.
Project Manager & Research Associate
EPSRC · 2018–2021
National Centre for Energy Systems Integration
Defined vector-coupling storage based on power-to-gas, linking the gas and electricity networks to give system operators greater flexibility.
Senior Research Associate
EPSRC · 2018–2022
Supergen Energy Networks Hub
Showed how power-to-gas as a vector-coupling technology can relieve heavily constrained electricity networks and improve whole-system efficiency while cutting cost.
Senior Research Associate
[05]
Recognition
Awards & honours
- IEEE Power & Energy Society Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award, 2023
- Vice-Chancellor Research Excellence Award, Nottingham Trent University, 2023
- Top 2% of world scientists (Energy), Stanford University / Elsevier, 2021 and 2022
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
- Exceptional Talent Prize (2010) · Young Professors Prize (2011)
- Exceptional Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems (2020, 2021)
Editorial roles
- Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems (2024–present)
- Associate Editor, IEEE Power Engineering Letters (2024–present)
- Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (2022–present)
- Associate Editor, Nature Scientific Reports (2022–present)
- Associate Editor, IEEE Access (2020–present)
- Subject Editor, IET Smart Grid and IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution (2019–present)
- Editor-in-Chief, Springer Smart Grids & Sustainable Energy (2022–2025)
Memberships & service
- IEEE Senior Member · Member of the IET (MIET)
- Co-Chair, IEEE PES Chapter Awards (2025–present)
- Vice Chair, IEEE Industry Applications Society, UK & Ireland
- Secretary, IEEE UK & Ireland Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee
- Full Member, EPSRC Peer Review College (2021–present)
- Panel member, UKRI and Innovate UK Panels of Assessors
- Author of 7 books · keynote speaker at international energy conferences
Education & executive development
PhD & MSc, Electrical Power Systems · Iran University of Science and Technology
BSc, Electrical Engineering · K. N. Toosi University of Technology
Oxford Senior Executive Leadership Programme · University of Oxford
MBA Essentials · London School of Economics (LSE)
Negotiation · London School of Economics (LSE)
[06] Contact
Let's build the energy system that comes next.
v.vahidinasab@salford.ac.ukSalford Business School · University of Salford · Manchester M5 4WT, UK