Special Session 15
Decarbonization and Flexibility Advancement in Integrated Energy Systems
Integrated Energy Systems (IESs) are increasingly recognized as a cornerstone for achieving decarbonization and enhancing operational flexibility in modern energy infrastructures. Realizing these objectives requires synergistic efforts across multi-energy coordination, adaptive operational strategies, supportive market mechanisms, and digital intelligence. However, the efficient and low-carbon operation of IESs remains highly challenging, due to significant system volatility introduced by large-scale renewable integration and the underutilization of flexibility resources that are essential for balancing multi-energy interactions. This session focuses on advancing decarbonization and flexibility of IESs by integrating engineering, market, and digital approaches. It provides a platform for experts and practitioners to share recent advances and interdisciplinary insights on multi-energy coordination, low-carbon planning and dispatch, flexibility enhancement strategies, market-enabled operational frameworks, and AI-driven optimization approaches. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:1. Multi-energy coordination and integrated operation strategies for IESs
2. Low-carbon planning and optimal dispatch in multi-energy systems
3. Flexibility enhancement through demand-side management and energy storage
4. Market mechanisms for promoting low-carbon and flexible IES operations
5. Artificial intelligence and data-driven methods for decision support and operational optimization in IESs
Chairs:
Prof. Zhaoyang Dong, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Prof Z.Y. Dong (Fellow, IEEE) is currently a Chair Professor, STEM Professor and Head of Department of Electrical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. His immediate position is Singapore Power Group (SPG) Endowed Chair Professor of Power Engineering, and Co-Director of SPG-NTU Joint Lab at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His previous roles include SHARP Professor with the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. He was the inaugural Director of UNSW Digital Grid Futures Institute, Director of ARC Research Hub for Integrated Energy Storage Solutions, Ausgrid Chair Professor and Director of Ausgrid Centre for Intelligent Electricity Networks providing R&D support for the AU$500m Smart Grid, Smart City national demonstration project. His research interest includes power system planning, load modelling, smart grid, smart cities, energy market, renewable energy and its grid connection, and computational methods and their application in power system analysis.
Prof. Junhua Zhao, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
Junhua Zhao (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, in 2007. He was a Senior Lecturer with the University of Newcastle and also with the Center for Intelligent Electricity Networks, University of Newcastle, Australia. He is currently a Professor with the School of Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, China. He is also the Executive Director of CUHKSZ - CSIJRI Joint Centre of Smart Energy Storage, the Director of the Energy Market and Energy Finance Laboratory at Shenzhen Finance Institute (SFI) and a researcher at Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society (AIRS). His research interests include power system analysis and computation, smart grid, electricity market, data mining, and artificial intelligence.
Dr. Jing Qiu, The University of Sydney, Australia
Jing Qiu (Senior Member, IEEE) is currently a Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. He obtained his B.Eng. degree in electrical and control engineering from Shandong University, China, M.Sc. degree in environmental policy and management, majoring in carbon financing in the power sector, from The University of Manchester, U.K., and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from The University of Newcastle, Australia, in 2008, 2010 and 2014 respectively. His areas of interest include power system planning, data-driven energy market analysis, and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted energy pricing and trading strategies.
Assoc. Prof. Jiaqi Ruan, Sichuan University, China
Jiaqi Ruan is an Associate Professor at the College of Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University. He received his Ph.D. from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and was a Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research focuses on smart grids, cyber-physical security, artificial intelligence, and climate risk management. He has published over 40 SCI/EI-indexed papers in journals or conferences such as Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering, The Innovation (Cell Press), and IEEE Transactions, and issued three patents. He serves as a young editorial board member or guest editor for several journals, including Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems, Energy Conversion and Economics, Scientific Reports, etc. He is also a committee member of the Cyber-Physical Power Systems and Energy Management Technical Committee of the Sichuan Society for Electrical Engineering.
Dr. Liang Yuan, Central South University, China
Liang Yuan(IEEE Member, CEEE Member)received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 2020. In 2021, he joined the School of Automation at Central South University as a Lecturer and a Master's Supervisor. In recent years, Dr. Yuan has published over 40 high-level academic papers (13 as the first or corresponding author), 4 papers on educational reform, and has been granted 6 Chinese/overseas invention patents. He has also co-authored one monograph. He serves as the principal investigator for one project funded by the National Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China and one provincial/ministerial-level project. His primary research interests include the stability analysis and stabilization techniques for renewable energy integration, load and renewable energy forecasting, optimal dispatch of integrated energy systems, and power system planning.
Dr. Jingjie Huang, Changsha University of Science & Technology, China
Jingjie Huang(IEEE Member, CEEE Member) received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New South Wales in 2020. She is currently a Lecturer and Master's Supervisor at the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Changsha University of Science & Technology. Dr. Huang has published over 20 academic papers in prominent domestic and international journals, has been granted 12 Chinese/overseas invention patents, has authored one monograph, and has co-authored one textbook. She is the principal investigator for one project funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and three provincial/ministerial-level projects. Her primary research interests include power system operational optimization, integrated energy systems, integration of transportation and energy networks, and active distribution networks.
Dr. Yuechuan Tao, City University of Hong Kong, China
Yuechuan Tao received a Ph.D. degree in the University of Sydney, Australia in 2023. From 2023-2024, he was the Wallenberg-NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in Nanyang Technological University. Currently, he is a Global Research Assistant Professor in City University of Hong Kong. He was selected as Stanford's top 2% most highly cited scientists 2024. His research interests lie in data-driven low-carbon energy transitions, with a focus on power system planning, electricity market modeling, transportation electrification and AI-driven solutions for smart grid operations, renewable energy integration, and optimal energy management.
Assist. Prof. Shuying Lai, City University of Macau, China
Shuying Lai (Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. degree in Finance, Accounting and Management from the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China, in 2017, the M.Com. degree in Finance, Accounting from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2019, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2022. She is currently an assistant professor at the faculty of Data Science, City University of Macau, Macau. Her main fields of interest include data-driven energy market analysis, demand response, and low/zero-carbon energy management.
Mr. Xiang Luo, Electric Power Research Institute, State Grid Fujian Electric Power Co., Ltd., China
Xiang Luo is a specialist in distribution automation technology at the Power Distribution Research Institute of the State Grid Fujian Electric Power Research Institute. He is a senior member of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering and the Chinese Electrotechnical Society, a member of the National Standardization Committee for Low-Voltage Complete Switchgear and Control Equipment, a member of the Distribution Network Working Group of the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Power System Management and Information Exchange, a director of the IEEE PES Subcommittee on Distribution Network Protection and Control Technology and Distribution Technology, and a part-time external faculty member at Fuzhou University. He has been engaged in the operation and maintenance of distribution switchgear, practical application improvement of distribution automation and other related work for a long time. He mainly conducts technical research in the fields of smart distribution network technology, intelligent power equipment and fault diagnosis technology. He has led the compilation of several institutional norms and guiding documents such as the practical application of primary and secondary integrated equipment in Fujian Province and the improvement of distribution network single-phase grounding fault handling capabilities. He has extensive experience in equipment testing and on-site practice.
Mr. Yi Yang, Electric Power Research Institute, State Grid Fujian Electric Power Co., Ltd., China
Yi Yang, (member, IEEE) earned his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, Australia in 2025. He is currently an intermediate engineer at the Power Distribution Research Institute, Electric Power Research Institute, State Grid Fujian Electric Power Co., Ltd. His main research interests include low-carbon system transition, vehicle-grid interconnection, and coordinated operation optimization of micro-distribution networks.