Project Researcher (PhD. Student) or Postdoctoral Researcher, Electricity Markets and Flexibility (Electrical Engineering) - 2 positions

The University of Vaasa is an inspiring and international community where we work together for a sustainable and responsible future. We combine expertise in business and technology in a unique way, tackling current challenges with determination and collaboration. As part of the Nordic regions largest energy technology hub, we promote sustainable business, energy, and society. We educate future professionals who will create a fairer and more sustainable world.

The University of Vaasa is seeking two motivated and talented Project Researchers or Postdoctoral Researcher to join the Research Council of Finland-funded Electricity Markets and Flexibility project.

The positions are full-time and fixed-term for three (3) years. The preferred starting date is flexible but agreed together as soon as possible. The positions are located in the School of Technology and Innovations and under electrical engineering discipline. The positions are located in Vaasa.

Background

The Electricity Markets and Flexibility project investigates how electricity markets must be designed, and how demand-side flexibility must be mobilised, for a power system dominated by variable renewable generation to remain reliable and affordable.

The project combines quantitative modelling of markets and the wider energy system with empirical analysis of how flexibility is created, priced, and traded by market participants. A central objective is to understand the interaction between market design choices and the total cost of the energy system, and to quantify the value of flexible demand, including the rapidly growing load from data centres, to system operation, investment, and consumers.

The project will produce new knowledge on electricity market design, system-level cost assessment, and demand-side flexibility, as well as new datasets, modelling methods, and blueprints. The results can be directly utilised in the scientific community, but also to improve decision-making in the public and private sectors.

The two positions are divided between two closely connected research themes. Decided theme is chosen depending on the profiles of the selected candidates.

Theme A: Electricity market design and the cost of the whole energy system

Research on this theme addresses the design of wholesale, balancing, reserve, and capacity markets under high shares of variable renewable generation; price formation, scarcity pricing, and locational signals; network charging and cost allocation; and sector coupling with heat and transport. The work involves system-level modelling of investment and operation to assess how alternative market designs affect the total cost of the energy system, security of supply, and the distribution of costs and benefits among market participants.

Theme B: Power system flexibility in data centres

Research on this theme addresses large data centres as controllable electricity loads. Topics include temporal and spatial shifting of computing workloads, the use of on-site energy storage and backup capacity, thermal flexibility and waste heat recovery, participation in wholesale, balancing, and reserve markets, grid connection and connection agreements, and the techno-economic and business case assessment of flexible operation. The work spans the modelling of data centre flexibility potential and its valuation from the perspectives of the operator, the system operator, and society.

https://www.univaasa.fi/en/about/organisation/schools/technology-and-innovations/

Your role

You will play a key role in the project team and actively participate in the implementation of different activities within the research project. The role emphasises the ability to conduct high-quality research and interact with different national and international stakeholders. Your work will contribute directly to project deliverables and high-quality academic publications.

Key responsibilities in the position:

• Contribute to the projects activities.
• Conduct independent and collaborative research within one of the projects research themes.
• Develop, apply, and document quantitative models and analyses of electricity markets, energy systems, or flexible demand.
• Collaborate with an interdisciplinary group of universities, research organisations, system operators, energy companies, technology providers, and data centre operators.
• Participate in data collection, analysis, and validation activities with industry stakeholders and policy makers.
• Lead and co-author high-quality scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals.
• Support teaching or supervision tasks when applicable (according to university guidelines).
• Present research at academic conferences and project meetings.
• Produce a doctoral dissertation based on the research carried out within the project.

The position may also include other tasks to be agreed upon separately. All tasks are agreed in more detail in the Annual Work Plan. The annual working time is 1612 hours.

Requirements

We expect the selected person to have the ability and motivation for doctoral studies and to complete a doctoral degree.

To be eligible for a full PhD student position, the candidate is required to participate in a separate application process which is arranged at least twice a year in order to be admitted and enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of Vaasa. For more information about eligibility and the application process, please visit the Graduate School's website: [Doctoral education | University of Vaasa (uwasa.fi)](https://www.uwasa.fi/en/education/doctoral-education)

Required:

• You have a masters degree or a PhD in a relevant field.
• Strong proven interest in the research area of the project.
• Demonstrated quantitative and analytical skills, including programming or modelling experience.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Motivation to produce high-quality research outputs.
• Excellent communication skills in English.

Desirable:

• Experience with energy system, power system, or electricity market modelling, and with the associated software and programming environments.
• Experience with optimisation, simulation, econometrics, or data analysis applied to energy or market data.
• Knowledge of data centre operations, computing infrastructure, or ICT energy use (Theme B).
• Experience wo