Professor Xin Zhang

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Professor in Control and Power Systems

Xin Zhang
Profile picture of Xin Zhang
xin.zhang1@sheffield.ac.uk
Sir Frederick Mappin Building

Full contact details

Professor Xin Zhang
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

I am the Professor and Chair in Control and Power Systems at 爆料TV. Currently, I hold the prestigious  'Digitalisation of Electrical Power and Energy Systems Operation, MR/W011360/2, 拢1.5m', and the  'Grid flexibility through multiscale modelling and integration of power systems with electrified air transport, EP/W028905/1, 拢400k'.

My research experience covers power system operation and control, cyber-physical power systems, cybersecurity and resilience of power systems, real-time digital simulation, and grid integration with land-air transport electrification. 

I lead the  (CAPS Lab) of 爆料TV. At CAPS, we investigate digitalisation technologies that could potentially improve the monitoring and control of power grids in both cyber and physical aspects. We explore the advanced grid monitoring platform, state estimation techniques, cybersecurity strategy, contingency analysis, vulnerability assessment, and robust network control. At CAPS, we develop co-simulation platform for digital power grids, that enables the fundamental integration of cyber and physical simulators for the accurate, efficient and large-scale grid simulation. Our work involves the interfacing design for model-to-model integration of different complex networks, simulation synchronisation at various time steps,  and advanced computing methods and algorithms to create a co-optimised analysis of cyber-physical power systems.

My industrial experience (2011-19) was gained from National Grid ESO as the GB Electricity System Operator, where I was professionally trained as a power system engineer in the real-time power system operation, mainly in the GB Electricity National Control Centre. My specific industrial expertise includes power system modelling and operational tools development for energy balancing and network control, to improve the security, resilience and economic operation of the GB power transmission systems.

Research interests

My research is interdisciplinary across power, energy, and digital aspects of system engineering. My primary research interest is in power systems, with wider research interests of cyber-security, machine learning, digital twins and their applications in power & energy industry.

Broadly, I investigate net-zero energy networks as critical infrastructure, integrating transport, information and communications, renewable, storage and hydrogen. I address energy security and resilience challenges across Energy Theme.

  • Power system planning, operation and control (transmission, distribution, microgrid, renewables)
  • Cyber-physical system modelling and co-simulation (networked system control, power, energy, communications, transport)
  • Laboratory research platforms, hardware and facilities for simulation and control of power grid (real-time digital simulators, power electronics, intelligent computing)
  • Transport electrification (electric vehicle / aircraft charging, transport-energy nexus)
Publications

Journal articles

  • Du M, Zhang X & Guerrero JM (2026) . IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 1-12.
  • Terzija V, Dehghan S, Giaouris D, Greenwood D, Zhang X, Mueller J & Milojicic D (2026) . IEEE Energy Sustainability Magazine, 2(1), 57-68.
  • Du M, Zhang X, Zhang J, Zhang R & Zhao J (2026) . IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 1-15.
  • Du M, Zhang X, Zhang J & Bu S (2026) . IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 1-1.
  • Du M, Zhang X, Zhang J, Wang Z & Terzija V (2026) . IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 1-1.
  • Zhang G, Wang J, Li H, Zhang F, Ding L, Zhang X & Liu H (2026) . IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 41(2), 1591-1604.
  • Xiao Y, Zhang J, Ruiz HS, Roumeliotis I & Zhang X (2025) . Energy, 338, 138782-138782.
  • Du M, Zhang X, Zhang J & Zhang R (2025) . IEEE Internet of Things Journal.
  • Du M, Zhang X, Taylor G & Terzija V (2025) . Cyber-Physical Energy Systems.
  • Li B, Zhang J & Zhang X (2025) . eTransportation, 100485-100485.
  • Zhang S, Zhang X, Zhang R, Gu W & Cao G (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 1-1.
  • Qiu D, Liu M, Zhang R, Luo T, Griffo A & Zhang X (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems, 3, 429-441.
  • Du M, Zhang X & Zhao J (2025) . IEEE Internet of Things Journal.
  • Wang B, Zhang Z, Wang M, Liu M, Ye R, Deng R & Zhang X (2025) . IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 12(11), 17413-17429.
  • Wang S, Zhang X, Du M & Pei W (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, 1-13.
  • Liu M, Zhang X, Zhao C & Deng R (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 40(4), 3144-3159.
  • Zhou J, Xiang Y, Zhang X, Sun Z, Liu X & Liu J (2025) . Renewable Energy, 238.
  • Liu M, Zhang X, Zhang R, Zhou Z, Zhang Z & Deng R (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 16(2), 1744-1761.
  • Chen Q, Bu S, Zhang X, Yi S & Wei Y (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 40(2), 1636-1648.
  • Liu M, Zhang X, Zhu H, Zhang Z & Deng R (2024) . IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 19, 7824-7840.
  • Du M, Zhang J, Gu C & Zhang X (2024) . IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, 15(4), 2625-2637.
  • Zhou Z, Zhang X, Zhang J & Taylor G (2024) . IET Smart Grid, 7(4), 370-385.
  • Xiang Y, Li L, Li R, Zhang X, Gu C, Zeng P, Pu T & Liu J (2024) . The Innovation Energy, 1(3).
  • Qiu D, Zhang R, Zhou Z, Zhang J & Zhang X (2024) . IET Smart Grid, 7(1), 13-27.
  • Qu B, Wang Z, Shen B, Dong H & Zhang X (2024) . IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 15(1), 863-873.
  • Guo Z, Lai CS, Luk P & Zhang X (2023) . Journal of Energy Storage, 64, 107123-107123.
  • Guo Z, Li B, Taylor G & Zhang X (2023) . eTransportation, 17.

Book chapters

  • Tan S, Xie P, Guan Y, Vasquez JC, Guerrero JM & Zhang X (2024) In N酶rregaard J酶rgensen B, Ma ZG, Wijaya FD, Irnawan R & Sarjiya S (Ed.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 372-378). Springer Nature Switzerland

Conference proceedings

  • Qiu D, Liu M & Zhang X (2025) . 2025 IEEE Kiel PowerTech (pp 1-6), 29 June 2025 - 3 July 2025.
  • Qiu D, Liu M & Zhang X (2024) . 2024 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence of Things and Systems (AIoTSys) (pp 1-6), 17 October 2024 - 19 October 2024.
  • Zhou Z, Zhang J & Zhang X (2023) . 2023 IEEE 6th International Electrical and Energy Conference (CIEEC) (pp 4539-4545), 12 May 2023 - 14 May 2023.
Grants
  • Royal Society International Exchanges Grant, 鈥淢ulti-Agent Interactive Game and Network Co-Evolution for Shared Energy Storage Communities鈥 拢12,000, 2025-2027, IEC\NSFC\242449, as PI
  • UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, 鈥淒igitalisation of Electrical Power and Energy Systems Operation (DEEPS)鈥 拢1,490,121, 2022-2026, MR/W011360/1, as PI
  • EPSRC New Investigator Award, 鈥淎viation-to-Grid: Grid flexibility through multiscale modelling and integration of power systems with electrified air transport鈥 拢402,860, 2022-2025, EP/W028905/1, as PI
  • Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), 鈥淗uman Resilience in Cybersecurity of Future Energy Systems鈥 拢100,000, 2023-2027, RQ0000024688, as PI
  • UK Department for Transport, Transport-Technology Research and Innovation Grants, 鈥淪olar-Hydrogen-Storage Integrated Electric Vehicle Charging Station in Future Cities鈥 拢30,000, 2020-2021, T-TRIG 2020, as PI
  • EPSRC, Supergen Energy Networks Hub Flexible Fund, 鈥淕Rid flexibility by Electrifying Energy Networks for Airport (GREEN Airport)鈥 拢50,000, 2019-2021, EP/S00078X/2, as PI
  • UK Department for Transport, Transport-Technology Research and Innovation Grants, 鈥淎ircraft to Grid (A2G): Hybrid and Smart Charging for Electric Aircraft鈥 拢30,000, 2019-2020, T-TRIG 2019, as PI
Professional activities and memberships
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (TSG)
  • Associate Editor - IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy (TSE)
  • Associate Editor - IEEE Transactions on Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems (TiCPS)
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Power Engineering Letters (PELS)
  • Associate Editor, Cyber-Physical Energy Systems (CPES)
  • Associate Editor, Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (PCMP)
  • Associate Editor, Energy Conversion and Economics (ECE)
  • Senior Member, IEEE
  • Chartered Engineer, IET

Links

  Electrical Machines and Power group  Control and Power Systems Lab