My Expertise
Integration of renewable energy sources into the electricity supply system – technology and wider institutional and policy frameworks. Technology, market, financial and institutional drivers of this industry’s development, policy options to maximise and direct its growth. Theoretical and computational approaches for coordinating the operation of emerging power systems with independent participants and distributed resources. Electricity market structures and pricing for investment and operation. Cooperative, competitive and strategic
participant behaviour, market frameworks at the distribution system level, competition and distributed resources. Operational characterisation and modelling of renewables, novel small-scale generation, distributed energy storage and demand-side options.
* Renewables applications - Large-scale wind power developments, Building
integrated PV, RAPS systems. Renewable options for the developing world
* Distributed Artificial Intelligence - Evolutionary computation, intelligent
agent approaches for complex, uncertain, problem domains.
Fields of Research (FoR)
Renewable Power and Energy Systems Engineering (excl. Solar Cells)SEO tags
Biography
Associate Professor Iain MacGill
School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications and
Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets
Research interest
Level 1: I work on integrating clean energy technologies into the electricity industry.
Level 2: I explore the technical, economic, commercial and policy challenges of integrating new clean energy technologies like wind and solar into the electricity industry
Level 3: I analyse and model...view more
Associate Professor Iain MacGill
School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications and
Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets
Research interest
Level 1: I work on integrating clean energy technologies into the electricity industry.
Level 2: I explore the technical, economic, commercial and policy challenges of integrating new clean energy technologies like wind and solar into the electricity industry
Level 3: I analyse and model the technical, economic and commercial characteristics of integrating low carbon and energy efficient technologies into restructured electricity industries, and the policy challenges of appropriately facilitating their deployment.
Interest in engineering
Why did you get into engineering?
Its where science gets applied to meet practical needs
What are your research goals?
Help us better understand the opportunities yet challenges of transitioning our electricity industry towards a low carbon future
What do people not understand about you do?
With clean energy it is not usually a question of technical feasibility but, instead, economic fundamentals, commercial attractiveness, political realities and societal consensus
Advice for prospective power system engineers
Our job first and foremost is to keep the lights on. Once you can do that, then our job is to work towards a sustainable electricity industry future.
Lectures/Courses taught
ELEC9715 – Electricity Industry Operation and Control
ELEC9714 – Electricity Industry Planning and Economics
Students
Number currently in lab:
8
Number graduated:
5
Student Projects:
Electric Vehicle integration into the grid
PV integration into the grid
PV policy design
Network planning
PV hybrid mini-grid systems for developing countries
Distributed energy storage in the electricity industry
Analysis of the Australian National Electricity Market
Integrated resource planning in the electricity industry
Technology innovation policy for clean energy
Electricity market design to facilitate clean energy
Looking for students for projects related to:
All of the above
Professional Organisations and Consulting positions
Member, IEEE
Fellow, Australian Institute of Energy
Grants
“Robust Policy frameworks for the future grid” within the CSIRO Future Grid Cluster, a Joint project led by the University of Sydney with UNSW, University of Queensland and University of Newcastle.
“Achieving cost-effective abatement from Australian electricity generation”, Joint project with University of Melbourne, funded by ARENA.
“Network benefits of Concentrating Solar Power”, Joint project with the University of Technology Sydney, funded by ARENA.
“The economic value of ‘smart’ integration of Electric Vehicles into the Australian electricity industry”, ARC Linkage Project,
“High penetration of Photovoltaics in electricity grids”, funded by ARENA
“Energy market reform for carbon pricing in China’s electricity sector”, joint project with ANU, funded by theDepartment of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIICCSRETE)
“Integrating Solar Energy into the Australian NEM”, funded by ARENA
“Opportunities and challenges for the development and implementation of community-scale renewable energy projects” funded by the Low Carbon CRC
Patents
None
Education
PhD/postgraduate
PhD (Electrical Engineering) – University of NSW
Undergraduate
B.Eng.(Elec) – University of Melbourne
M.Eng.Sci (Biomed) – University of Melbourne
Contact
Publications
ORCID as entered in ROS
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9587-6835