Professor Campbell Booth

Personal statement

I have been a member of the Strathclyde community since I began studying as an undergraduate student in the department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering in 1987.  I completed my Phd, then occupied a number of research posts before becoming a lecturer in 2007, and I am now a Professor and am presently serving as Vice Dean - Research, in the Faculty of Engineering, having previoulsly held the position of Head of the EEE Department from 2017-2021.

My research is aligned with my belief that the future for energy networks in the UK and internationally will present numerous technical challenges. There remains political and technical uncertainty surrounding the future energy mix, with nuclear, renewables, clean coal and carbon capture, gas (including gas sourced from the "fracking” process), all potentially having a role in supplying future energy needs. Research into large and small scale storage continues, and the omnipresent “smart grid” continues to attract attention and investment. Regardless of the future situation, it is clear that it will be markedly different from the present day, and the dynamic behaviour of the power system, and consequently its control and protection, will require significant investigation to ensure that future systems are fit for purpose and continue to provide secure, reliable and quality power for consumers.

My activities focus on the protection and control of present and future power systems incorporating high penetrations of distributed renewable energy sources, storage, power converters and DC links. I ensure that my work leads to tangible outputs wherever possible: many of my projects involve prototyping, real time simulation and laboratory demonstration, which is increasingly including activities at the Power Networks Demonstration Centre (PNDC).  My recent publications have addressed: demonstration and quantification of protection issues for power systems incorporating distributed generation; strategies for operation, control and protection of multi-terminal HVDC systems; the design and applicability of superconducting fault current limiters; the design and applicability of distributed optical sensing for power system control and protection; and adaptive protection and communications technologies for the enhanced protection and monitoring of future systems.