Professor Xiao-Ping Zhang is Co-Director of the Birmingham Energy Institute, Co-Director of Birmingham Energy Storage Centre sponsored by the UK EPSRC, and Head of the Electrical Power & Control Systems Group

He is a Fellow of the IEEE “for contributions to modeling and control of high-voltage DC and AC transmission systems”, a Fellow of IET and a foreign Fellow of CSEE. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2025 IEEE PES NARI HINGORANI FACTS Award “for contributions to modelling and design of FACTS controllers in AC and DC transmission systems.”

He has published over 180+ research papers in scientific journals, 200+ conference papers/presentations as well as reviews.  Prof. Zhang is the co-author of several books, including Flexible AC Transmission Systems: Modeling and Control (Springer, 2006 and 2012) and its translated Chinese edition. He has been a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) on HVDC, FACTS, and renewable energy generation. He currently serves as Senior Editor of the IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy.

His research spans modelling and control of HVDC, FACTS, Wind and Wave Generation, and low frequency transmission; electricity market modelling; power system planning; Energy Quality; Energy Union and Global Electricity Grid with 100% Renewable Energy; Global Power & Energy Internet; Super Power Grids; integration of EVs into power grids; energy markets & game theory applications; smart metering, distributed energy management and services for homes and buildings; and wide area grid awareness. In June 2011, he proposed the concept of “Global Power & Energy Internet” in the CIGRE Workshop held at the University of Birmingham. He pioneered the concept of “Energy Union”, which has been adopted by European Commission. He also pioneered the vision and concept of Midlands as the UK’s “Energy Valley” where this became true with the establishment of UK’s Energy Research Accelerator and UK’s Energy Systems Catapult in the region.

Prof. Zhang served on the Expert Advisory Group for the UK Government’s Offshore Transmission Network Review between 2020 and 2023 and contributed to two reports for UK Government’s Science Office.