Mehdi Nikpendar

Senior Technical Officer

Interests

Mehdi’s main areas of expertise and interest include:

• Distributed Energy Resources (DER) control and integration

• Power electronics and switch-mode converters

• Laboratory engineering and technical support

• Power systems

• Electromechanical systems, motor control, and drives

• Renewable energy

Biography

Mehdi is an electrical engineer with extensive experience in electronics and electrical systems. He currently serves as the Senior Technical Officer for the Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program (BSGIP) at the School of Engineering, Australian National University. In this role, he manages the Distributed Energy Resources Laboratory (DERlab), overseeing daily operations, ensuring WHS compliance, and providing support to both industry projects, and university teaching and research. He liaises with various stakeholders to facilitate and conduct their projects within the DERlab.

Research

As DERlab manager, Mehdi supports industry projects, and university research and teaching activities conducted in the lab.

The Distributed Energy Resources Laboratory (DERlab) is a research facility within the School of Engineering (SoEN) at the Australian National University. The lab simulates a low-voltage distribution system (LV feeder) connected to end customers, providing a fail-safe environment for studying, testing, and verifying the integration of DER devices into the grid and distribution system. It supports research, prototyping activities, and the acquisition and comparison of scientific data.

DERlab is equipped with a range of advanced components, including grid simulators, a Microgrid system, photovoltaic (PV) arrays and inverters, battery storage systems, a PV simulator, EV chargers, precise measuring instruments, energy monitoring devices, smart controllers, real-time simulators (RTS), an on-load tap changer transformer (OLTC), as well as sophisticated computer programs and graphical interfaces.

Websites

https://der-lab.net.au

https://bsgip.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqs7tlfSEuI

You are on Aboriginal land.

The Australian National University acknowledges, celebrates and pays our respects to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people of the Canberra region and to all First Nations Australians on whose traditional lands we meet and work, and whose cultures are among the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

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