Baraa Mohandes

Baraa M Mohandes

 

Research and Development Experience

2020 - 2024 Postdoctoral Associate, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg:

Key Tasks and Achievements:

Develop a novel optimization framework for power system operation, and flexibility acquisition.

Boost flexibility coordination mechanism: changed problem formulation from quadratic program to an integer linear program, achieved significant time savings and smaller duality gap.

Investigation and development of mechanism-designs for self-regulating local-flexibility market.

Assist in proposal writing and survey of literature: TESTIFY project, DEFIE Project, EU-Horizon projects, FNR Core calls.

Projects Assignment:

2022 2024: TESTIFY project. Supervisor: Florin Capitanescu

Enhancement of TSO-DSO Coordination for flexibility acquisition

Investigation of mapping PQ flexibility maps to direct cost of flexibility for more efficient coordination

2020 2023: FLEXIGRID project. Supervisor: Daniel Koster

Development of python-based electricity market-simulator SMAART: Stroum-Maart

Leading deliverable 3.4: Quantification of flexibility at distribution level

Collaborating in deliverable 3.2: Design of self-regulating local markets for flexibility

2016 - 2020 Graduate Research Assistant: Electrical Power Group, Khalifa University, Masdar Institute

Supervisor: Prof. Mohammed Shawky El Moursi

Key Tasks and Achievements:

Novel Smart Demand Response (DR) contract for promoting DR programs in residential and industrial sectors.

Novel unit-commitment formulation, integrating commitment constraints of DR participants.

Optimum planning/sizing of hybrid renewable energy plant (solar PV, Wind, Storage).

Novel formulation of hybrid renewable energy for virtual dispatchability: novel constraints on hourly ramping and deviation from hour-ahead schedule. Novel concept of the proxy value of batterys stored energy. Novel concept for incorporation of battery degradation in long-term cost evaluation and planning.

Novel analytics formulation of security constrained OPF, incorporating time-delay of demand-response devices.

Derivation of economic value of response-delay of demand-response devices.

Develop simulation and operate OPAL-RT module for autonomous fully-renewable based islanded microgrid.

Investigation of a fast data-driven decision-making tool for distribution system operation and demand-response dispatch, based on graph-theory analysis.

Investigation of fair sharing of line-losses among voltage-sensitive loads in distribution systems implementing conservative-voltage-reduction schemes.

Investigated utilization of DR and inverter-based renewables for providing dynamic VAR support to the power system, eliminating the need for FACTS devices.

Provide technical support for Masdars Research Center in King-Abdullah City of Atomic and Renewable Energy Project - Saudi Arabia.

2016 - 2020 Teaching Assistant: Khalifa University - Masdar Institute & The Petroleum Institute

Course: Electricity Sector: Market and Policy making. Professor: Sameh. T. El-Khatib

-Nash-Equilibrium principle

-Power system operations

-Carbon Emissions Policies: Cap and Trade Permissions, and Carbon tax.

Course: Advanced Power System Analysis. Professor: Mohammed Shawky El-Moursi

-Newton Raphson Power Flow Solution

-Short Circuit Analysis

-PS-CAD software

 

2009 2010 Undergraduate Research Assistant: Electrical Eng. Dept. Khalifa University, Petroleum Institute

Study of Meteorological conditions effect on thin-film PVs performance (Copper-Indium-Selenide).

Supervisor: Professor Lana El-Chaar

Technical Skills

Optimization Python Pyomo. MATLAB Global Optimization toolbox. Julia JuMP, GAMS, CPLEX, GUROBI

Deep learning Python TensorFlow, Keras. MATLAB Deep Learning Toolbox, Statistics Toolbox, Machine Learning

Online Data Scraping Python BeautifulSoup, Selenium, Requests. JavaScript

Parallel Computing Python Multiprocessing. MATLAB Parallel Computing Toolbox, Distributed Computing Toolbox

Signal Processing MATLAB Signal Processing Toolbox

Data Visualization Python Pyplot, Plotly, Pillow. MATLAB

Blockchain Solidity for Ethereum Smart Contracts and Distributed Autonomous Organizations.

Linux Shell scripting for HPC utilization with various schedulers (SGE, LSF, PBS) and task automation.

Real-Time Data Simulators RT-Lab for OPAL-RT

Technical Design Packages PS-CAD, ETAP, MATLAB-SIMULINK

Graphic Design Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk AutoCAD, MS-Visio

Administrative Tools LaTeX, MS-Office, Python WhisperAI, Coqui-TTS, PyTtsx3, PyPDF, MoviePy, TKinter

Education

2020 PhD in Interdisciplinary Engineering (Honors with Distinction) Khalifa University, Madsar Institute, UAE
Thesis: Provision of Power System Flexibility for Higher Penetration of Renewable Energy in the Power System.

Supervisor: Prof. Mohammed Shawky El-Moursi (KU-UAE), Prof. James L. Kirtley (MIT-USA).

2015 MSc in Electrical Engineering (Honors) - Khalifa University, UAE
Thesis: PID Controller Optimization for Multiple Inputs Using Integral Performance Index Criteria.

Supervisor: Prof. Igor Boiko, Prof. Yossef L. Abdelmagid

2010 BSc in Electrical Engineering (Honors) - Khalifa University, UAE - (Full sponsorship by ADNOC)
Graduation Project:
Solar Power Enhanced Electrical Wheelchair.

Supervisor: Prof. Lana El-Chaar

Awards & Honors

2020 Outstanding Reviewer award by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems

2020 Recognition for bug-fixes and added features by MATPOWER development team

2019 MIT-Science Review Nomination for young innovators under 35.

2017 Selected for Masdar Institute & Massachusetts Institute of Technology Exchange Program

2009 Outstanding Student Award for Electrical Engineering Department - Petroleum Institute

2009 Winning Team at UAE-IEEE Competition: Design of Simplex Free-Space Optical Transceiver

2005 Recipient of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Full Scholarship for Undergraduate Students

2010 Renewable Energy Competition UAE University - shortlisted for second round of evaluation

Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications

B. Mohandes, et. al, Boosting the efficiency of flexibility provision in modern TSO-DSO coordination mechanisms, Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks, vol. 43, p. 101752, Sept. 2025.

M. I. Alizadeh, B. Mohandes, et. al. A Tractable Sequential Linear Programming-based Approach to Coordinate TSO and DSO Operations, submitted to IEEE Transactions of Power Systems. R1 Revision Under Review.

M. Wahbah, B. Mohandes, et. al. Unbiased cross-validation kernel density estimation for wind and PV probabilistic modelling, in Energy Conversion and Management, 266, 115811, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2022.115811

K. Antoniadou-Plytaria, et. al, "Scenario-based Stochastic Optimization for Energy and Flexibility Dispatch of a Microgrid," in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, doi: 10.1109/TSG.2022.3175418.

H. Beder, B. Mohandes, et. al., "A New Communication-Free Dual Setting Protection Coordination of Microgrid," in IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, doi: 10.1109/TPWRD.2020.3041753.

B. Mohandes, M. S. El Moursi, N. Hatziargyriou and S. El Khatib, "Incentive based Demand Response Program for Power System Flexibility Enhancement," in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, doi: 10.1109/TSG.2020.3042847.

B. Mohandes, et. al, "Optimal Design of an Islanded Microgrid With Load Shifting Mechanism Between Electrical and Thermal Energy Storage Systems," in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 2642-2657, July 2020

B. Mohandes, et. al,, "Renewable Energy Management System: Optimum Design and Hourly Dispatch," in IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 1615-1628, July 2021

B. Mohandes, M. S. E. Moursi, N. Hatziargyriou, and S. E. Khatib, A review of power system flexibility with high penetration of renewables, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 34, pp. 31403155, July 2019.

B. Mohandes, Y. L. Abdelmagid, and I. Boiko, Development of PSS tuning rules using multi-objective optimization, International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 100, pp. 449 462, 2018

B. Mohandes, I. Boiko and Y. Abdel-Magid, "Control System Loop-Shaping as a Mathematical Optimization Problem: An Ensemble of Models," in IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 137185-137197, 2020,

B. Mohandes., El-Chaar, L., Lamont, L., Application Study of 500W Photovoltaic (PV) System in the UAE, Applied Solar Energy Journal, Vol. 45, n. 4, pp. 242-247, December, 2009.

B. Mohandes, et. al, Advancing cyberphysical sustainability through integrated analysis of smart power systems: A case study on electric vehicles, I.J. of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Volume 23, 2018, Pages 33-48,

Al Shereiqi, A, B. Mohandes, et. al, Co-optimisation of wind farm micro-siting and cabling layouts. IET Renew. Power Gener. 2021; 15: 1848 1860.

Other Publications

B. Mohandes, M. S. El Moursi and S. El Khatib, "A New Index of Power System Flexibility: Response Delay ( ) of Distributed Devices," 2019 International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and Technologies (SEST), Porto, Portugal, 2019, pp. 1-6. doi: 10.1109/SEST.2019.8849013

Usman, M., Mohandes, B., et. al, Scalable uncertainty aware ancillary services procurement tool for active distribution systems, 27th International Conference and Exhibition on Electricity Distribution - CIRED 2023, Rome (Italy). 12-15 June 2023. In: CIRED 2023: Conference proceedings, e-ISBN: 978-1-83953-855-1

B. Mohandes, et. al, "AI-Based Estimation of Available Flexibility at Individual House Level," 2023 IEEE Power & Energy Soc. Gen. Meet. (PESGM), Orlando, FL, USA, 2023, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/PESGM52003.2023.10252702.

B. Mohandes, MATPOWER/MOST User Manual: User-Defined Variables, Constraints, And Cost Terms.

Citations Profile

Citations

1195

 

h-index

12

 

i10-index

13

Leadership Activities & Voluntary Work

Ongoing Peer Reviewer for Q1 top-tier journals

Transactions on Power Systems 17 Papers

Transactions on Smart Grid 13 Papers

Engineering Letters 7 Letters

Transactions on Sustainable Energy 4 Papers

Transactions on Energy Conversion 1 Paper

Ongoing Collaborator on MATPOWER-MOST Project:

Contributions include: Three bug reports, including a proposed fix for one bug, and four new features

June 2025 Official Photographer of 2024 IEEE 15th International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems

Sept 2022 Official Photographer of LIST Open Energy Day

April 2019 Invited Judge for UAE-skills competition. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Category

Professional Trainings and Certifications

Sept 2025 Core Concepts of Cryptography - LUX DLH

Sept 2025 Demystifying Quantum Computing - LUX DLH

July 2025 Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): Redefining Trust in the Digital Age - LUX DLH

July 2025 Blockchain Programming Fundamentals & Smart Contracts: A Hands-On Approach LUX DLH

July 2025 Amazons Innovation Culture Luxembourgs Digital Learning Hub

June 2025 How to use web services with JavaScript Luxembourgs Digital Learning Hub

May 2025 Introduction to Computer Networks Luxembourgs Digital Learning Hub

April 2025 Introduction to Blockchain OffChain and Luxembourgs Digital Learning Hub

March 2025 Advanced Industrial Robotics TechAcademy and Luxembourgs Digital Learning Hub

Nov. 2013 Functional Safety Management for TV-SD Certification

Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) and HAZOP. Passed the certification test at first attempt.

Apr. 2012 Electric Wiring Regulations Certification By Regulation and Supervision Bureau-UAE

Nov. 2011 Pearl Sustainability Buildings Rating System of Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council

Workshops, and Seminars Appearances

Dec 2018 TRANSCO - CIGRE Day Invited speaker. Power flexibility with high penetration of renewables

Feb 2019 Power Energy Summit Dubai UAE 2019, Invited speaker under young researcher category: new
flexibility index for demand response units

Industrial Experience: Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals Sector

2010 - 2016 Electrical Engineer, Abu Dhabi Polymers Industries (Borouge) Part of Borealis group and ADNOC group
Technical Group Function, Ruwais production plant.

-    Non-intrusive Online Cable Testing Project for all Borouge-2 plant 33KV cables.

-    Feasibility study, Front End Engineering Design and Supervision during EPC Phase for the following projects:

Construction of new ethane storage sphere at Borouge-3 plant site

Construction of containers yard for low density polyethylene at Borouge-3

Improving acid dosing system in ethylene unit at Borouge-1

Revamping and expansion of single site catalyst at polyethylene units of Borouge-2 and Borouge-3

Installation of impressed-current cathodic protection for the repair of Borouge-2 failed seawater basin

Relocation of six HV motors plus site facilities for the repair of Borouge-2 failed seawater basin

Procurement and installation of a thyristor controlled heater for Borouge ethane handling unit at export jetty

Procurement and installation of new vapor return arm at Borouge export jetty

Replacement of obsolete control cabinet for Active-Magnetic-Bearing (by SKF) for 7MW Compressor.

-    Site engineer at Borouge major turnaround 2012/2013. Provide technical support and supervision of execution in:

Extension of bus bar for Borouge new colored grid compounding project

Installation of a new switchgear cubicle and new control relays in distributed-control-systems cabinets and HV & LV cable joints for Borouge catalyst expansion project.

-    Review of electrical design plans and material approval requests for two office buildings at Borouge site. Scope includes lighting fixtures, power fixtures, cabling work and uninterruptible power supply system:

Conversion of Existing Admin Building to New Technical Group building; project cost ≈ 20M AED

Borouge New Training Center: project cost ≈ 55M AED

-    Attach to Technical Compliance department

Acquiring concepts of HAZOP, HAZID, HSEIA, QRA, COMAH and HSECES procedure.

Production of performance standards for HSECES systems

-    Review of Borouge standards documents and electrical safety procedures

-    Execute bad actor analysis study for all sites electrical equipment for a 2 years period

-    Production of new specifications guideline document on Earthing, equipotential bonding and lightning protection

-    Technical study and construction support for several small-budget projects (cost < 81,000 USD)

-    Investigation & production of technical reports for failures and warranty claims of different equipment

Jun-Aug 2009 Electrical Engineering Intern, Abu Dhabi Gas Industries

Skills

Spoken Languages Luxembourgish: B1.1 English: C1/C2 (IELTS Test system: 8.0/9.0)

French: A2.1 German: A2.1

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