Vera Silva
Vera Lucia Fernandes de Paiva da Silva is a Portuguese engineer and the chief technology officer (CTO) at General Electric (GE) grid solutions part of GE Renewable Energy business. She is one of the few women to hold a chief technology officer position at General Electric. She works on electricity grids technology and renewable energy integration.[1]
Vera Silva | |
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Born | Vera Lucia Fernandes de Paiva da Silva |
Alma mater | University of Porto (BSc and MSc) Imperial College London (PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Variable generation Power systems economics Electric vehicles Demand side management Optimisation[1] |
Institutions | General Electric EDF Polytechnic Institute of Porto |
Thesis | Value of flexibility in systems with large wind penetration (2010) |
Doctoral advisor | Goran Strbac |
Early life and education
As a child Silva visited a large hydro power plant and this sparked her interest for electricity systems. Silva studied electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Porto.[2] She earned a bachelor's degree in 1999 and a master's degree in 2003 both in electrical engineering. She moved to the United Kingdom for her doctoral studies, earning a PhD in the electrical and electronics engineering in 2010.[2][3] Her PhD investigated the value of flexibility in systems that use wind power[4] and was supervised by Goran Strbac.
Research and career
She worked as a lecturer and data scientist at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto.[2] After completing her doctorate, Silva joined EDF R&D in France, where she directed their program on Energy Systems and Markets.[2][5] As of 2019 Silva is the chief technology officer at General Electric (GE) grid solutions, where she leads 3,400 engineers around the world. She is one of the few women to be made technology leader.[6] At General Electric, Silva works on new electricity grid technology [7] She believes the future will involve more sustainable and flexible technologies, integrating microgrids and high voltage direct current (DC) transmission lines.[7] She is pushing for utilities operators to find it easier to integrate renewables in homes.
References
- Vera Silva publications indexed by Google Scholar
- "Grid solutions - Transforming electricity networks to enable the energy transition". imperial.ac.uk. Imperial College London. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- "Vera Silva". setplan2016.sk. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- da Silva, Vera Lucia Fernandes de paiva (2010). Value of flexibility in systems with large wind penetration. archives-ouvertes.fr (PhD thesis). Imperial College London. OCLC 930656826. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.526357.
- "2011 EU-US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium". naefrontiers.org. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- Gordon, Philip (2019-02-08). "Encouraging women to leadership roles in transmission and distribution". smart-energy.com. Smart Energy International. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- "Agenda". powersummit.ie. Retrieved 2019-03-13.