Academic Staff

Professor Zhao Xu received B.Eng, M.Eng and Ph.D from Zhejiang University (China), National University of Singapore, and The University of Queensland in 1996, 2002 and 2006 respectively. He joined as an Assistant Professor, and later became Associate Professor, at Centre for Electric Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU) since 2006. In Feb 2010, He joined Department of Electrical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), where he is now a Professor and Leader of Smart Grid Research Area.

He is the Directors of Power System Laboratory and Smart Microgrid Laboratory, and Leader of B. Eng (PT Electrical Engineering 41080).

He has edited 1 book, and published over 150 technical papers in international top journals, and conferences. He has led and participated in several large scale research and consulting projects in Europe, China, and Australia, concerning wind energy, demand side, electric vehicles, electricity market, and power system planning etc., including Hong Kong Research General Council Theme Based Research Projects on Smart Solar Energy harvesting, Storage and Utilization and Sustainable Power Delivery Structures for High Renewables, Wind Energy Development in China (www.dwed.org.cn) and the EDISON project (www.edison-net.dk). He has secured more than 20 million HK$ research funding from local and overseas authorities and organizations. Since 2006, he has successfully supervised 10 PhD students, and more than 30 M.sc students as main or co-supervisor.

Professor Xu is a Co-Principle Investigator and Leader of PolyU team for the 5-year Theme Based Research Project ‘Smart Solar Energy harvesting, Storage and Utilization’ (2014-18, total budget HK$60.33 Million), sponsored by Hong Kong Research General Council. He is also a Co-Investigator for Theme Based Research Project ‘Sustainable Power Delivery Structures for High Renewables’ (2015-19, total budget HK$47.12 Million).

Professor Xu is an Editor for the following journals

- IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid
- IEEE Power Engineering Letters (for IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Transactions on Power Systems, Smart Grid, Sustainable Energy, Power Delivery, and Energy Conversion)
- Electric Power Components and Systems (Taylor&Fancis),

He also Member of Editorial Board, Springer Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy, which is the China's first power engineering journal in English. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, and Chairman of IEEE PES Joint Chapter, IEEE Hong Kong Section. Under his Leadership, the IEEE Hong Kong JC won 2017 Best Chapter Award from IEEE IES Society.

Prof. Xu receives the Top Five Best Algorithm Award in IEEE Competition on 'Application of Modern Heuristic Optimization Methods for Solving Optimal Power Flow Problems' in 2014. Under his supervision, his PhD students receive Third Prize in 2014 IEEE Hong Kong Student Paper Contest, organized by IEEE HK Section, 2nd Prize in 2015 IEEE Region 10 (Asia Pacific) Postgraduate Paper Contest, and the Best Poster Award in 2015 CUHK EneryDay Event. He is the recipient of 2005 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Overseas Student Aboard. He is a foreign Associate Staff of Centre for Electric Technology, Technical University of Denmark.

Prof. Xu is actively looking for excellent candidates as Research Postgraduates/Research Staffs in the following areas (please contact Prof. Xu directly via email)

• Solar/wind/battery storage system design, control and hardware implementation
• Electronic converter design, modeling/simulation and hardware implementation
• Microgrid control and optimization, stability analysis and hardware implementation
• Power system operation and control, and security analysis under high wind/solar penetration
• Cyber-physical power system modeling and security analysis
• Optimal and robust commitment/system dispatch considering uncertainties and risks
• Emerging/Evolutionary optimization techniques for system operation and planning
• Demand side management and control, modeling and simulation

• Bachelor of Engineering, Zhejiang University
• Master of Engineering, National University of Singapore
• Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland