On the morning of January 15, Professor Bikash Pal from Imperial College London, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, visited the Department of Electrical Engineering and delivered a lecture titled “A Journey through Power System Dynamics, Estimation and Control.” Department Dean Kang Chongqing, Deputy Party Secretary Wu Wenchuan, Deputy Director Sun Kai, and graduate students from multiple research teams attended the lecture.

Professor Bikash Pal elaborated on the application value of emerging technologies such as fast dynamic estimation, phasor estimation, and waveform estimation in power systems, pointing out that these technologies have become core means to meet the real-time monitoring and control requirements of power grids. He provided an in-depth interpretation of the core significance of linear robust control, innovative methods for model and control simplification, and low-order robust dynamic estimation and control techniques to ensure stable grid operation, discussing in detail the applicable scenarios and implementation paths of centralized and decentralized control schemes. In addition, Professor Bikash Pal analyzed key technical issues such as feedback signal delay handling and sensitivity-based voltage and reactive power control, taking into account the operational characteristics of distribution networks, and proposed ideas that combine theoretical value with practical feasibility.

During the interactive session, faculty and students actively asked questions about the core content of the lecture, engaging in a lively discussion with Professor Bikash on technical challenges and practical engineering applications.

After the lecture, Kang Chongqing, on behalf of the Department of Electrical Engineering, presented a commemorative gift to Professor Bikash Pal and expressed sincere gratitude for his long-term support of the department’s scientific research and talent development.

About the guest

Bikash Pal, Professor of Power Systems at Imperial College London, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He received his Bachelor of Engineering from Jadavpur University in 1990, Master of Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) in 1992, and PhD from Imperial College London as a Commonwealth Scholar in 1999. Professor Bikash Pal has long been dedicated to research in power system stability, control, and estimation. He has led three multinational, multi-university collaborative research projects involving the UK & China and the UK & India, focusing on renewable energy integration and control technologies, and has established deep strategic partnerships with ABB, Siemens, GE, and National Grid UK.

He collaborated with Siemens R&D teams to develop fast power flow calculation and voltage-reactive power control tools for the flagship module Spectrum Power of Siemens Distribution Management System solutions, now deployed in multiple distribution enterprises worldwide. From 2013 to 2019, under the commission of General Electric, he led a series of studies on HVDC grid interaction issues in wind farms and developed corresponding solutions. Professor Bikash Pal served as Chief Technical Advisor for the UNFCCC CDM Expert Group, providing professional training in power system protection, stability, and control in countries including Chile, Qatar, UAE, Malaysia, and India. The 68-node power system model he developed and validated has been incorporated into the IEEE standard test systems, serving as a universal benchmark for global researchers to conduct stability analysis and control design validation. Professor Bikash Pal has published approximately 140 academic papers in IEEE journals and authored four monographs in power system modeling, dynamic analysis, estimation, and control.

In 2016, his research team received the “President’s Award for Outstanding Research Team” from Imperial College London. For his outstanding contributions to power system stability and control, he was elected Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and Foreign Fellow of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering. In 2025, Professor Bikash Pal received the IEEE PES Prabha Kundur Power System Dynamics and Control Award for his technical breakthroughs in power system control and estimation. In 2023, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering for his profound impact on the development of the power engineering field. In 2025, he was elected Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He currently serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University and a part-time professor at North China Electric Power University.

Professor Bikash Pal served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy from 2012 to 2017, Editor-in-Chief of IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution from 2005 to 2012, and Vice Chair of IEEE Power & Energy Society Publications from 2019 to 2023. From 2026 to 2027, he was elected President-Elect of IEEE Power & Energy Society and will officially assume the presidency in 2028–2029.