Kelly Loukatou

kelly.loukatou@neso.energy

I currently work as a Technical Lead at the National Energy System Operator in the UK, as part of their Regional Energy Strategic Planning team, with base in the North West. Before that, I was a Strategic Insight Lead, leading the development of insights/content of Future Energy Scenarios with focus on supply-side generation and flexibility. I was also responsible for all the interactions with the rest of the Strategic Energy Network Planning Processes. I have been the Event Lead of Women's Network within NESO since 2022.

Prior to NESO, I was working as a Lead Research Engineer at the R&D Department of EDF Energy in the UK. There, I specialised in designing algorithms to optimally invest or dispatch standalone or co-located battery storage assets with solar generation and/or load, when participating in multiple electricity markets. Before that, I was a Modelling Analyst at Energy Systems Catapult, working as part of their system integration and innovation team on energy storage, second-life batteries and long-term electricity price forecasting for short-term markets.

I hold a PhD from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Power Networks of The University of Manchester. My PhD research was around investment and optimal dispatch of battery storage assets, when co-located with wind generation. I am a Chartered Engineer with the IET, for which I am also a Professional Registration Advisor. I have served within 2022-2025 as the Industry Chair of UK's IET Energy Storage conference, part of the Powering Net Zero Series. I have a passion about diversity and inclusion, as well as good engineering practices, and therefore I hold relevant volunteering roles within and outside NESO.



Experience

RESP Technical Lead

National Energy System Operator, Regional Energy Strategic Planning (RESP)

Main tasks/achievements include:

  • Work on policy frameworks and guide methodological principles underpinning the RESP plans in all the 11 regions/nations
  • Understand and account for the interaction of these plans with other forms of strategic energy planning and reforms (connections, markets)
  • Enable delivery via effective engagement and analysis for the North West RESP plans while respecting Great Britain's national picture and plans
  • Worked on transitional RESP Pathways with focus on generation and storage predictions for GB; published within Jan. 2026
  • Worked on transitional RESP Nations and Regions Context and Strategic Energy Needs for North West; published within Jan. 2026
  • Event lead of NESO's Women's Network working on initiatives to raise awareness around key DEI considerations and celebrate achievements
Mid. June 2025 - Present

Strategic Insight Lead

National Grid ESO, Strategy and Policy

Main tasks/achievements included:

  • Served as Interim Insights and Stakeholder Manager within Aug. - Nov. 2024. Main focus: team leadership, strategic design of growth of FES, alignment with Strategic Energy Planning, led the design of FES 25 methodology document.
  • Engaged with various units across the business to develop, write and publish the Future Energy Scenarios (FES 2023, FES 2024, FES 2025)
  • Led on data analysis and insights with focus on supply side generation modelling and flexibility
  • Led/Coordinated the stakeholder engagement and dissemination activities regarding FES' supply side and whole system flexibility
  • Helped design the techno-economic dataset needs for PLEXOS for unit-commitment of future possible credible pathways to 2035/2050
  • Data analysis with Python and/or automated workflows
  • Event lead of NESO's Women's Network working on initiatives to raise awareness around key DEI considerations and celebrate achievements
October 2022 - mid. June 2025

Lead Research Engineer

EDF Energy UK R&D

Main tasks/achievements included:

  • Led three BEIS-funded projects regarding long-duration energy storage (LDES). The projects include lithium-based batteries co-located with vanadium flow batteries and renewables, adiabatic compressed-air energy storage utilising EDF's gas storage facilities and hydrogen stored in depleted uranium hydride, combined with fuel cells
  • Product owner of R&D’s python tools for electric vehicle, hydrogen and battery storage valuations. Paper on hybrid storage systems successfully won position to be presented in CIGRE Paris Showcase 2022
  • Successfully deployed long-term electricity price forecasting for short-term markets utilising price spreading algorithms for different EDF long-term scenarios
  • EDF Women's Network Digital Lead: Maintained and updated EDF Women's Network social media and website to promote inclusion and diversity matters
  • Onboarded junior research engineers, mentored and supervised existing team members
December 2021 - September 2022

Research Engineer

EDF Energy UK R&D

Main tasks/achievements included:

  • Led engagement to gather data and project requirements for bid preparation and submission (BEIS, Innovate UK): successfully won three bids
  • Led the development of optimisation Python tools to optimally value energy storage assets co-located with renewable generation, when participating in various electricity markets -- examples include day-ahead and intraday markets, frequency response markets, balancing mechanism and high non-energy cost avoidance
  • Successful workflow automation, integration and data management of existing forecasting tools (data scrapping, database record manipulation, shell/batch scripting, deployment in AWS, testing in operational conditions, efficient documentation)
  • Data collection and analysis of electricity price profiles, used to better inform arbitrage strategies for energy storage assets
June 2020 - November 2021

Modelling Analyst

Energy Systems Catapult
  • Worked as part of the system integration and innovation team to develop the EnergyPath Operations simulation tool to assess system design choices and business models in dynamic future energy system architectures, in different operational time-frames and from local to national scale- Data analysis (Python) of the Future Energy Scenarios of National Grid aiming at informing future supply and demand figures of a merit-order dispatch model built to simulate electricity prices for future years
  • Lead analyst of battery degradation data from the Consumer, Vehicle and Energy Integration project to investigate the profitability of the business case of second life batteries as part of the Innovate UK Technology Benchmarking project
  • Examined if alternative (non-battery) storage technologies, like pumped heat, compressed or liquid air energy storage, can lead to reduced system costs in future electricity systems with high penetration of renewable sources, heat pumps and electric vehicles
  • Worked as part of the Modern Energy Partners to construct dynamic time-of-use profiles and to develop relevant calculators to understand their effect on the bills of commercial sites
  • Investigated the quantification and optimisation of multiple revenue streams (trading in the wholesale market, participation in the balancing mechanism, avoidance of high network charges, ancillary service provision) from batteries installed in non-domestic commercial sites (implemented with receding horizon model predictive control in MATLAB)
  • Investigated if energy suppliers can reduce their costs by taking advantage of their customers’ flexibility through a heat-as-a-service model (implemented in MATLAB and Simulink)
  • Worked closely with the Market, Policy and Regulation team to identify barriers in all the business cases examined as well as in the Distribution System Operator (DSO) transition
February 2019 - May 2020

Postgraduate Researcher

Centre for Doctoral Training in Power Networks, The University of Manchester

Ph.D. Research: Use of Stochastic Dynamic Optimisation for valuing battery storage to identify profitable business cases for wind farms co-located with battery storage

Main responsibilities:

  • Lead researcher into a multidisciplinary team in power systems with specialisation in optimal valuation of battery storage through dynamic programming techniques implemented in C++
  • Developed mathematical models for optimising the operation of battery storage for wind farms (in the short and longer term), while also considering and modelling uncertainty in wind speed and electricity prices
  • Responsible for collection, visualisation and detailed statistical analysis of wind power, electricity price and battery degradation datasets (Python, R, Microsoft Excel)
  • Regularly presenting to diverse audiences in conferences and during monthly group seminars
  • Developed writing proficiency via publishing in international scientific journals / conferences

Taught programme (Oct. 2014 - Jun. 2015):

  • Completed with Distinction (80%)
  • Selected courses taken: Power System Modelling - Analysis – Economics - Stability, Smart Grids, Asset Management and Condition Monitoring , Stochastic Control Theory, Mathematical modelling in finance, Scientific computing, Megaprojects
  • Developed the ability to work in multicultural teams through courseworks and group projects
September 2014 - February 2019

Teaching Assistant

School of Mathematics, The University of Manchester
  • ‘Scientific Computing with C++’: I was the tutorial coordinator of classes of 80 students, supervising and guiding them towards coding and completing their scientific projects in C++. Projects included finite difference schemes, root-finding / interpolation / integration algorithms, numerical solution of ordinary / partial differential equations, sorting algorithms
  • ‘Introduction to Linux’: I demonstrated the basic set of Scientific Linux shell commands (through terminal)
  • ‘Introduction to Latex’: I introduced students to the Latex environment and demonstrated explanatory examples of how to insert text, equations, figures and tables into their latex documents
  • ‘Introduction to Financial Mathematics’, ‘Mathematical Modelling in Finance’: Delivered tutorial classes, marked courseworks and assisted students in gaining insight into mathematical and financial concepts (Hedging strategies, Portfolio diversification)
September 2016 - February 2019

Education

CDT in Power Networks, The University of Manchester

PhD thesis in business models for Wind Battery Storage
In my Doctor of Philosophy, I utilised Stochastic Dynamic Optimisation for valuing battery storage to identify profitable business cases for wind farms co-located with battery storage.

First-year taught programme completed with distinction.
October 2014 - June 2019

National Technical University of Athens

Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering (DEng)

Major in Energy and Power Systems and passed successfully 60 courses (GPA: 8.14/10.00, first honours). Specialization fields: Renewable energy sources, Economic analysis of power systems, Energy storage.

In my dissertation with title “Pumped Storage Hydropower Technologies for Wind Energy Storage”, I analysed how fixed and variable speed pumped-hydro turbines affect the overall efficiency and the profit of a wind farm, when the wind farm and the pumped-hydro units are co-located. The aim was to reduce curtailment of wind energy. Supervisor: Prof. Costas Vournas (Grade 10.00/10.00). Software used: Matlab, Simulink

September 2006 - September 2012

Skills & Training

Languages & Tools
Workflow
  • Data Science (with Python): Data insertion, manipulation, visualisation, web scraping, forecasting
  • Power System Planning and Dispatch (Optimisation): PLEXOS
  • Databases: Queries and Requests from Python with SQL
  • Agile Development & Testing: Linux, AWS deployment, Azure

Languages
  • Certificate of Proficiency in English (Common European Framework Level C2)
  • Diplôme d'études en langue française- 2nd Degree Units A3-A4 (Common European Framework Level B1)

Volunteering

Professional Registration Advisor

IET

Main tasks include:

  • Providing advice and guidance to those aspring to become Chartered Engineers (8 successful candidates so far within and outside NESO, currently preparing another 2 candidates)
  • Helping candidates with their competency framework and providing suggestions for growth
  • Preparing candidates for their interviews
June 2023 - Present

Industry Chair of UK's IET Energy Storage Conference (Past)

Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)

Main tasks included:

  • Energy storage is a key enabler for the decarbonisation of our energy systems to achieve a Net-Zero future. Our first Energy Storage conference will provide a platform for energy storage professionals to discuss and share their work with their peers, colleagues, and leading figures in the field.
  • Created technical scope of the conference based on key storage research areas:
    1. Energy storage for decarbonisation of transportation
    2. Energy storage integration with power grids
    3. Emerging storage technologies
    4. Circular economy in energy storage
    5. Energy storage market, regulation and policy
    6. Energy storage infrastructure and supply chain.
  • Reviewed technical papers for the conference and ensured high research quality
  • Arranged for key industry speakers' participation with high impact presentations and insights
  • Attended bi-weekly meetings with key IET representatives and the organising committee
  • Opened the conference in Birmingham during December 2024.
November 2022 - December 2025

Chair of Women in Power Committee for the UK & Ireland Chapter (Past)

IEEE Power and Energy Society

Main tasks included:

  • The main mission of Women In Power (WiP) is to advance the world through the creativity and innovation of diverse leadership, and to foster the careers, connections and talent of women in the power industry to achieve their full potential and become leaders of the future and find their most appropriate route
  • Our role wass to promote female power engineers in academia and industry, liaising between those who have established themselves in their respective area and are now serving as role models or mentors, and early or mid-career engineers who seek guidance and advice on their way to becoming leaders themselves
  • WiP in the UK and Ireland was organising workshops, webinars and similar events to facilitate knowledge exchange, networking and collaboration within and between academia and industry
  • Interacted with the IEEE Power&Energy Long-Range UK Planning Committee - Business Developments, Global Policy Engagement, and Next Generation of Leadership
  • Led and delivered the set up of the first IEEE PES WiP mentoring programme in Region 8 (Europe, Middle East, Africa)

Events co-organised:

  1. Collaboration with Chile, Innovation in the area of transport and energy storage, 30-03-22
  2. Collaboration with UK, Women in Engineering panel during PMAPS, June 2022
  3. Panel discussion with IEEE PES Women in Power with theme "Inspiring the Next Generation of Female Engineers", September 2022
  4. Women in Power session during MEEPS 2022 "Towards a sustainable and diverse future", November 2022
  5. Collaboration with Cigre UK Next Generation Networks, "Enabling the transition to Net Zero", April 2023
  6. Celebration of PES day with Women in Power, Prof. Jessica Bien, "Regulatory aspects of implementing advanced technology", April 2023
  7. Collaboration with IEEE PES Student Branch Chapter of the University of Manchester, "Pathways to Success: Empowering Women in Power Systems Engineering", September 2023
  8. Launch of the first IEEE PES Women in Power Mentoring Programme across Europe, Middle East and Africa
November 2021 - January 2024

Event Lead (Past)

Cigre UK Next Generation Network

Main tasks included:

  • Led the event team, helping coordinate multiple activities. Examples included: diversity and inclusion events, technical webinars and joint events with other Cigre branches
  • Main responsibilities in communicating with the other Cigre teams for smooth deployment of our events, poster and newsletter preparation, as well as communicating key information to the main participants of our events
  • Led the deployment of an innovation event helping with identifying and boosting SMEs' presence in the UK
  • Provided training and guidance at new members in the team
  • Part of the inclusion and diversity panels organised jointly with other international Cigre sections

Events co-organised:

  1. Collaboration with Australia, Cutting Edge Technologies Towards a Net-Zero World (Modern Energy Management Systems, EV Roadmaps), 27-01-22
  2. Collaboration with France, Offshore Wind, 03-02-33
  3. Innovation Showcase in the UK, 26/27-04-22
  4. Collaboration with Romania, Green Technologies in T/S and D/S, 03-05-22
  5. Collaboration with Australia, Energy Markets, 10-07-22
November 2021 - December 2022

Other past volunteering roles

  • Providing mentoring to women working in the energy sector in order to empower professional skills and encourage the next step. Main schemes: Regen's Women in Renewable Energy Network, Women in Utilities (Jan. 2021-Jan. 2026)
  • Project Manager of Cigre UK Women's Network (Jul. 2021 - Jul. 2023)
  • Digital Lead of EDF Women's Network (Jun. 2020 - Sep. 2022)
  • Vice-chair of the IEEE PES Women in Power Network of the UK&I (Jun. 2020 - Jan. 2022)
  • Event Coordinator at Cigre UK NGN (Nov. 2020 - Oct. 2021)
  • Membership development officer and student branch coordinator at the national committee of IEEE UK&I PES (Sep. 2019 - Dec. 2020)
  • Website and social media coordinator at IEEE UK&I PES Student Branch Chapter (Feb. 2018 - Feb. 2019)
  • Industry Liaison at IEEE UK&I PES Student Branch Chapter (Jan. 2017 - Jan. 2018)
  • Active reviewer in the journal of Applied Energy (Jun. 2018 - Jul. 2021)
  • STEM Ambassador in science school festivals (Sep. 2016 - Feb. 2019)
  • Helping with organisation of RLadies Manchester coding and data meetups (Sep. 2016 - Feb. 2019)

Presentations

Energy-storage and low-carbon technologies related presentations

  1. Potential Applications of Energy Storage in Networks, Cigre C1 Technical Liaison Meeting, Birmingham, April 2025.
  2. The role of supply-side flexibility via electricity storage, dispatchable generation and interconnectors in future power grids, Decarbonise, Power and Store Conference, Manchester, April 2025.
  3. The role of grid-scale electricity storage for flexibility provision in future power networks, Fuel and Energy Research Forum, Sheffield, April 2025.
  4. Part of Electricity Storage Panel at the University of Manchester Alumni Power and Energy Event, September 2024.
  5. Official launch of the Future Energy Scenarios 2024, led supply side generation and flexibility insights, July 2024.
  6. How should electricity markets change to accommodate the Net Zero transition? at the City University of London, December 2023.
  7. Future Energy Scenarios - Knowledge exchange with bp, October 2023.
  8. Opening and closing remarks as the industry chair of the first IET Energy Storage Conference, Glasgow, November 2023.
  9. Future Energy Scenarios, lessons learned with the Strategy, Innovation and Market Analytics Group of National Grid, August 2023.
  10. Official launch of the Future Energy Scenarios 2023, led storage and flexibility insights, July 2023.
  11. When the wind does not blow: Long duration energy storage breakfast briefing with Energy UK and DESNZ, April 2023.
  12. Best practices used when working with electricity storage technologies, IEEE PES Women in Power- Birmingham Webinar, March 2023.
  13. Potential electricity storage routes to 2050, Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) Workshop, February 2023.
  14. Long-term projections of electricity storage in the UK, part of our Future Energy Scenarios (FES) work, January 2023.
  15. The role of energy storage in the GB energy system, during Energy Systems Catapult Dissemination Event for Port Decarbonisation, November 2022.
  16. Effective ways of working with energy storage, during Manchester's MEEPS Conference, November 2022.
  17. The business case of Green Hydrogen, during Cigre Paris Showcase August 2022.
  18. Statistical modelling of electricity modelling in day-ahead markets, during PMAPS conference June 2022.
  19. Presentation of Grid Energy Management Storage Models, at the Optimisation Group of Newcastle University, February 2022. Please find the video here.
  20. Moderator of workstream session 2 ('Decarbonising Local Communities') of the COP26-Youth Engineering Climate Change Conference organised by National Grid, September 2021. Please find the video here.
  21. Lessons learned from energy storage projects, Women in Power Session, Manchester Energy and Electrical Power System Symposium 2020: Envisioning the Power and Energy Systems in an Industry 4.0 era, November 2020
  22. 60-second insights regarding my PhD Research, School of Mathematics, September 2019
  23. Optimal joint strategy of wind battery storage unit for smoothing and trading of wind power, 3rd Annual Conference in Energy Storage and Its Applications, September 2018

Inclusion, diversity and volunteering events

  1. Exploring my journey from academia to industry and the strategic energy planning, as well as the pivotal steps that led to chartership. Podcast here, September 2025
  2. 'The route to continuous professional development', 2nd WIE Career Development Workshop at Electrical and Electronic Engineering Career Path to Net Zero, Nottingham, October 2023
  3. Transition from academia to industry for young professionals, Supergen Energy Storage Network Conference, October 2022
  4. Panel discussion with IEEE PES Women in Power with theme "Inspiring the Next Generation of Female Engineers", September 2022
  5. International Women in Engineering Day - Roundtable discussion! (How to build emotional resilience when working on demanding projects), Cigre UK, June 2022 (Starting at 22h:00min)
  6. EDF Leadership Campaign, May 2022
  7. Interview with EDF Energy UK R&D for IWD 2022, link here
  8. CIGRE UK NGN Women in Energy Roundtable discussion, October 2021
  9. EDF interview with Energy Systems Catapult about the effective ways of iteraction between industry and academia, September 2021
  10. Benefits of joining a professional institution, Cigre UK NGN for COP26-Youth Engineering Climate Change Conference, September 2021, podcast here
  11. Benefits of joining IEEE PES, International PES Day , IEEE UK&I PES SBS, April 2020 (Starting at 00h:12min)
  12. Help me help you!, IEEE UK&I PES SBC, October 2019 (Starting at 01h:27min)
  13. You can do anything but not everything!, IEEE UK&I PES SBC, September 2018 (Starting at 01h:40min)

Data conferences and meetups

  1. Data analytics and workflow automation in Smart Energy Systems, European Data Science Conference, November 2020 - Video here
  2. Extracting and visualising NASA’s MERRA-2 data, PyDataMCR, April 2020 - Video here (Starting at 00h:15min)

Publications

  1. Technical brochure on - The Potential Roles of Energy Storage in Power Systems, Cigre C1 Working Committee, December 2025.
  2. Future Energy Scenarios 2025 - Main author of the renewable energy generation, storage and interconnectors chapter, NESO Publication, July 2025.
  3. Future Energy Scenarios 2024 - Main author of the supply side generation and flexibility chapter, National Grid ESO Publication, July 2024.
  4. Future Energy Scenarios 2023 - Main author of the introduction and flexibility chapters, National Grid ESO Publication, July 2023.
  5. Potential electricity storage routes towards 2050, National Grid ESO Thought Piece at National Grid ESO, December 2022.
  6. Business cases for green hydrogen, Paris Cigre Showcase 2022, August 2022.
  7. Statistical modelling of electricity prices and impact on battery storage revenues, IEEE paper at PMAPS conference, June 2022.
  8. Storage and Flexibility Net Zero Series: Second-life batteries, Energy Systems Catapult, June 2020.
  9. Storage and Flexibility Net Zero Series: Non-Battery Electrical Storage, Energy Systems Catapult, May 2020.
  10. Business cases for Wind Battery Storage, PhD Thesis, June 2019.
  11. Optimal valuation of wind energy projects co-located with battery storage, Applied Energy, October 2020 (Citations: 49)
  12. Optimal joint strategy of wind battery storage unit for smoothing and trading of wind power, Energy Procedia, September 2018 (Citations: 10)
  13. Stochastic wind speed modelling for estimation of expected wind power output, Applied Energy, June 2018 (Citations: 101)

Awards & Certifications

  • Women's Engineering Society: 'Highly Recommended' for 'The 2025 Top 50 Women in Engineering: Together We Engineer', link: here (June 2025).
  • NESO First Awards: 'Catalyst Change' award for leading the Azure Machine Learning Coding Cafe Series (March - July 2024).
  • Institute of Engineering and Technology with Women's Engineering Society: 'Outstanding Engineer 2023' for years of dedicated work on energy storage, flexibility and the net zero transition (December 2023). Relevant link for the Karen Burt Award here.
  • IEEE Power and Energy Society UK and Ireland Award: 'Outstanding Volunteer 2023' for years of dedicated services to the society and various contributions to the power and energy sector (December 2023).
  • National Grid ESO Award: 'Find a better way - Embrace the power and opportunity of diversity' for launching the 'Women in Data & Tech' webinar series, as part of my role of 'Event Lead' within Women in Non-Traditional Roles in National Grid (June 2023).
  • National Grid ESO Award: 'Find a better way - Embrace learning and new ideas' for becoming a Chartered Engineer (April 2023).
  • National Grid ESO Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Team Away Day: Runner up for the most helpful and dedicated employee in the S&C affairs department (April 2022).
  • Paper selected for Paris Cigre session 2022: Business models for the green hydrogen case.
  • The UoM Volunteer of the Year Award 2019: Nominated by the IEEE PES UK and Ireland SBC Committee and shortlisted for the 'Volunteer of the Year' award of the university of Manchester.
  • Best oral presentation: Awarded for presentation of the paper "Optimal joint strategy of wind battery storage unit for smoothing and trading of wind power" during the 3rd Annual Conference in Energy Storage and Its Applications, 3rd CDT-ESA-AC, 11–12 September 2018, Sheffield, UK.
  • Certified Associate Project Manager: Awarded from the Project Management Institute in December 2017.
  • EPSRC Doctoral Award: Awarded 4-year EPSRC scholarship for postgraduate research in power networks (September 2014).

Interests

I am passionate about yoga and I like walking in sea and residential areas, as well as visiting bookshops and engineering/data meetups!

When indoors, I would probably spend my free time exploring the latest advancements in the energy sector, diversity, leadership and inclusion.

I used to knit and keep a blog of my knitting experience in the winter months.

Some of my previous fundraising pages regarding various running and other challenges can be found here and here.

Interests interests

News

Latest news include:

  • Transitional RESP suite of documents is published! I worked extensively on tRESP Pathways with focus on electricity supply generation and storage, as well as tRESP Nations & Regions Context and Strategic Energy Needs for North West. Please see all documents with their interactive maps and narratives here.
  • FES 2025 is out! I worked extensively on electricity supply generation and storage. For more details please see here.
  • FES 2024 is out! Please also see my article around supply side generation and flexibility insights here.
  • Hooray! IET nominated me for the Karen Burt 'Outstanding Female Engineer 2023' Award and I won! It has been an honour to give the Karen Burt Memorial Lecture at London's Geological Society during December 2023. NESO's article here.
  • FES 2023 is out and full of insights (July 2023). Please also see my article around flexibility insights here: here.
  • I won the 'Outstanding Volunteer 2023' award from the IEEE Power and Energy Society of the UK and Ireland; for years of dedicated service to the society and to the power and energy sector (December 2023).