Experiences

Senior Power System Analyst, LCRA

January 2025-present

• Conduct weekly short-term maintenance outage studies to assess system reliability impacts, evaluate contingency scenarios, and ensure planned maintenance activities comply with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standards and internal reliability criteria.

• Perform steady-state power flow analysis using industry-standard tools (GE EMS, PowerWorld, PSS®E) to identify potential thermal overloads, voltage violations, or other operating limit concerns resulting from planned outages.

• Perform midterm and long-term outage studies to assess seasonal or project-based reliability impacts and develop strategic mitigation measures.

• Coordinate with operations, maintenance, and planning teams to develop mitigation strategies such as re-dispatch, switching plans, or temporary operating guides to minimize system risks during outages.

• Support real-time operations by providing technical expertise and contingency support during unplanned events related to outage work.

• Review outage requests for compliance with operational policies, regulatory requirements, and system constraints before approval.

• Prepare technical reports and outage impact summaries for internal review, documenting methodology, assumptions, and recommended solutions.

• Participate in interdepartmental coordination meetings to align outage schedules with system operational requirements.

• Support real-time operations by providing technical expertise and contingency support during unplanned events related to outage work.

• Maintain and update system models to reflect network changes, equipment ratings, and new interconnections, ensuring accurate study results.

• Collaborate with transmission planners and protection engineers to evaluate system performance under normal and contingency conditions during outage periods.

• Submit and track change in grid structure for temporary or permanent contingencies, ensuring accurate model representation and operational awareness.

• Develop specialized software tools, process improvement and automated solutions to improve study efficiency, outage planning accuracy, and operational decision-making.

• Prepare technical specifications for software and processes with limited precedents; complete related computations and draft schematics and diagrams

Senior Research Engineer, Texas A&M University

(Promoted from Postdoctoral Research Associate)

July 2020- present

• Project Leadership and Power Grid Design: Leading multiple projects focused on the design, evaluation, and enhancement of large synthetic grids for electricity market analysis and power system studies. Ensured grids are non-confidential and are designed for extensive utility and academic applications.

• Academic Mentorship: Mentoring several PhD, Master’s, and undergraduate students, guiding them through various projects that integrate theoretical learning with practical application in the field of power systems electrical engineering. Fostered a collaborative environment that encouraged innovation and academic excellence.

• Advanced Power System Modeling and Simulation: Creating detailed models of electric grids to accommodate a diverse range of scenarios including varying weather conditions, load demands, energy storage integration, and electric vehicle impacts. Utilized historical and forecast weather data to inform operational planning and enhance renewable generation strategies.

• Machine Learning and AI Implementation: Applying machine learning techniques for faster unit commitment and developed AI-driven tools for scenario clustering, real and reactive power control zone creation, and grid data analysis, significantly improving operational efficiency and solution times.

• Data Management and Visualization: Implementing innovative data clustering approaches based on real and reactive reserve zones, providing detailed scenario analysis and data provision for each zone. Enhanced situational awareness through the visualization of large-scale electric grids, improving decision-making processes.

• Research and Development: Leading research initiatives to improve power flow models for increasing the accuracy of models such as direct inclusion of weather, avoiding issues such as alternative solutions, and reducing computational complexities. Investigated sparse matrix statistics and the computational complexity of matrix factorization within large-scale power systems, contributing to the development of scalable solutions for growing grid infrastructures and synthetic versus real grids.

• Power System Reliability and Resilience Improvement: Developing and implementing preventive and remedial actions to improve grid reliability and resilience, ensuring robust infrastructure performance against a variety of operational challenges such as extreme load and weather scenarios and increased electric vehicle penetration.

Lecturer Faculty, Texas A&M University

Jun 2021- May 2022

• Teaching ECEN 340, Electric Energy Conversion. The syllabus includes an overview of energy conversion, phasors, complex power, three-phase circuits, DC-DC converters, inverters and rectifiers, electromagnetic systems, electromechanical systems and machines, transformers, PV applications, and Wind applications.

• Teaching ECEN 215, Principles of Electrical Engineering. The syllabus includes resistive circuits including circuit laws, network reduction, nodal analysis, mesh analysis; energy storage elements; inductors and capacitors, first-order RC and RL transients, DC power and equivalent circuits, AC signals and phasors, AC power, equivalent circuits, frequency response and bode plots, Op-Amps, simple amplifiers, integrators and active filters, diodes and their applications, transistors, logic gates, new areas in electrical engineering and computer engineering

Senior Data Analyst at Newton Energy Group, Boston, MA

Sep 2019 - June 2020

• Preparing and updating power system and market data for multi-interval operations.

• Monitoring and tracking major regulatory changes and updates in electric market rules, as well as proposed and newly implemented power generation and transmission projects, ensuring these changes were accurately reflected in market analysis and modeling.

• Benchmarking and quality assurance of electricity market data to ensure reliability and accuracy.

• Leveraging statistical models for forecasting load and energy prices.

• Performing unit commitment and economic dispatch simulations using ENELYTIX, a cloud-based, parallel computing software.

Research Assistant in Lab of Optimization in Electrical Engineering at Louisiana State University, LA

Jan 2017 - April 2020

• Modelling temporal and geographical distributed and decentralized optimization and coordination algorithms for unit commitment and economic dispatch.

• Modelling inter-temporal constraints for parallel computing.

•  Implementing a multi-class learning-based strategy to determine the optimal number of subproblems.

•  Dissertation: "Temporal Decomposition for Multi-Interval Optimization in Power Systems"

Guest Lecturer for Electric Power in Electrical Engineering Department at Louisiana State University, LA

January 2019 - May 2019

• Giving lectures as a guest lecturer in the course  #EE 3410, Electric Power. 

Teaching Assistant for Power Systems Operation and Control in Electrical Engineering at Louisiana State University, LA

September 2018 - December 2018

• Grading  and helping with the lectures for the course #EE 4445, "Power System Operation and Control"

Teaching Assistant for Power System Reliability of in Electrical Engineering at Louisiana State University, LA

January 2018 - May 2018

• Grading  and facilitating lectures for the course #EE 4000, "Power System Reliability"

  Lab Instructor at Azad University, Tehran Province, Iran 

Feb 2016 - Nov 2016

• Giving lectures and conducting experiments in the electrical circuits lab

Technical Expert at Porsoo Electronic Company, Tehran, Iran

 Jan 2015 - Jan 2016

• Technical support for Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) devices and their components.

• Providing user manual for installation, commissioning, and operation of new devices. 

• Drawing UPS circuit diagrams using electric AutoCAD.

  Instructor at Andisheh Hamon Institute, Tehran, Iran

 Jan 2012 - Dec 2016

• Teaching mathematics, heuristic algorithms, and physics.

  Researcher at Iran Keton (Polyester Resin) Factory, Alborz Industrial Town-Qazvin, Iran

 Oct 2012 - March 2013

• Energy auditing of the factory.

Power Electrical Engineer at Engineers Without Border Iran, Karaj, Iran

 April 2011 - September 2012

• Energy efficiency in the residential and office building projects in Azhandboroun and Douraghi companies.

  Research Assistant at Iranian Smart Grid, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

 Jun 2011 - Aug 2011

• Assessment of power quality in smart grids

  Intern at Tarasht Power Plant, Tehran, Iran

 Jun 2010 - Aug 2010

• Acquired proficiency in different sections of the gas power plant

  Intern at Great Tehran Electrical Distribution Co., Iran

 Jun 2009 - Aug 2009

• Acquired proficiency in the operation and control of substations