CSIRO Industry PhD Scholarship: Powering Community Batteries for Power System Transition

Acknowledgement of Country 
CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View our vision towards reconciliation. 

The Opportunity

• Gain experience working with industry to solve real-world problems while you earn your PhD 
• Develop transferable professional skills 
• Get access to specialised expertise, equipment and training 

The CSIRO Industry PhD Scholarship (iPhD) Program is an industry-focused, applied research scholarship and training program that brings together an industry partner, the university and CSIRO. 

You will undertake a co-designed research project that will develop your ability to translate research into commercial outcomes.  

You will get real-world experience and access to specialised expertise, equipment and training.

Our graduates develop transferable professional skills and are well positioned to work at the cutting edge of industry focussed research.  

Scholarship details 

The Program includes:

• admission to the university PhD program  
• a four-year scholarship package of approx. $45,000 per annum  

• a four-year Project Expense and Development package of up to $13,000 per annum  
• an in-business component with an industry partner of at least 3 months 
• professional development training to enhance your applied research skills  
• supervision by CSIRO, the industry partner, and the university  

Project Title:  Powering Community Batteries for Power System Transition 

Project Description:  Australia has seen a rapidly distributed energy resource (DER) uptake in the past decade with one in four households having a rooftop solar system. However, DERs also bring operational challenges to power system operations due to network constraints.  This iPhD project aims to address these challenges by developing a community battery eco-system by investigating community batteries’ functionalities in providing both market and network services in order to make the operation of community batteries sustainable to help enable Australia’s renewable transition. 

Project supervisors:   

CSIRO
    CSIRO supervisor: Brian Liu 
    Business unit: Energy
    Research program: Energy Systems
    Email address: brian.liu@csiro.au    

University
    University supervisor: Jin Ma 
    University of Sydney  
    Email address:  j.ma@sydney.edu.au 
    Faculty: Electrical & Information Engineering 
    School: Center of Future Energy Networks 

Industry
    Company name: ShineHub Pty Ltd 
    Website: wwww.shinehub.com.au 

Location:     

• Primary location of the student:  University of Sydney 
• Other potential locations: CSIRO Energy Centre, Newcastle, NSW, Australia 
• In-business component with Industry partner: ShineHub in Sydney, NSW, Australia 

Overview of who we are looking for 

The ideal student will have:

• A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or other closely related fields. 
• Knowledge and experience in power system modelling and analysis, via programming languages or available tools. Experiences in power system dynamic simulation is a plus.  
• Advanced programming skills in Matlab/Julia is preferred. Skills in Python/Java/C is a plus.  
• Excellent writing and communication skills, and willingness for collaboration. 

It is also desirable that the student will has knowledge and experience in applying optimisation techniques in solving complex problems and in applying game theory in multi-agent competition and collaboration environments.  

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply you must:

•     be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or a New Zealand citizen 
•     meet host university PhD admission requirements 
•     meet university English language requirements 
•     not have previously completed a PhD 
•     be able to commence the program in the year of the offer 
•     enrol as a full-time PhD student 

Applications will be assessed on:

1. Experience relevant to the field of research, including any research experience
2. Suitability for the project
3. Academic excellence
4. Motivation for undertaking an Industry PhD project

About CSIRO
At CSIRO Australia's national science agency, we solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. We put the safety and wellbeing of our people above all else and earn trust everywhere because we only deal in facts. We collaborate widely and generously and deliver solutions with real impact. 

Further information about the CSIRO Industry PhD Program can be found at:  www.csiro.au/iphd  

How to Apply:

For details on how to apply, please see the University of Sydney website at Postgraduate research - Faculty of Engineering (sydney.edu.au)

This advertisement will remain open until filled. Early applications are strongly encouraged.