The Changing Energy System: What I Should Know, What I Think I Know, & What I Don’t Know
The Texas A&M Energy Institute Annual Distinguished Lecture will feature Dr. Mark O’Malley, the Leverhulme Professor of Power Systems at Imperial College London and a Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University, on Thursday, December 5, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. CST. The topic will be “The Changing Energy System: What I Should Know, What I Think I Know, & What I Don’t Know.”
This lecture will be part of the Texas A&M Energy Institute’s 15th Anniversary Celebration, which will be held at the College Station Hilton Hotel and Conference Center.
Abstract
The energy system is in a period of unprecedented change and every stakeholder has their own perspective. As an electrical power engineering academic with decades of research experience in the integration of variable renewable energy resources into the electricity grid, there are things I should know. Adjacent to this and peripheral to my expertise are things that I think I know. For example, policies, markets, and flexible loads as these all impact and are strongly linked to the things I should know. Further away from my expertise and still related to electricity are things I don’t know but I would have an opinion on, and I would probably wish them to conform with my own biases and perspective. For example, the future of green hydrogen and its role in electricity grid adequacy. One thing I do know is that electricity will be central to the future energy system and that puts electrical power engineering in a pivotal position despite the possibility that I may know nothing at all.
Biography
Mark O’Malley is the Leverhulme Professor of Power Systems at Imperial College London. He is a co-founder of the Global Power System Transformation Consortium, Global Director for the international research centre, Electric Power for a Carbon free Society, and a Hagler Fellow at Texas A&M. Between 2020 and 2022 he was the Chief Scientist at the Energy Systems Integration Group and between 2018 and 2020 he was the Chief Scientist, Energy Systems Integration at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA. In 2017 he was the James M. Flaherty Visiting Professor in Electrical Engineering at McGill University. He is recognized as a world authority on Energy Systems Integration and in grid integration of renewable energy. He works closely and collaboratively with industry and researchers across the globe in a multitude of disciplines, including economics, social scientists, mathematicians, and geologists to address the challenges of transitioning the energy system. He is a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and a foreign fellow of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering and has received two Fulbright Fellowships