Rupert Gammon is Principle Investigator on the ‘ESCoBox’ project, which is funded by EPSRC, DfID and DECC. This 3-year project, starting in September 2013, will develop a system for monitoring, controlling, financing and expanding electrical mini-grids in the developing world. Based on innovative platforms such as the CASCADE modelling framework and the Wattbox that were co-developed by DMU, and the BitHarvester, created by our collaborators in Kenya, the ESCoBox will encourage the growth of entrepreneurial activities in the developing world by facilitating productive levels of reliable, grid-independent energy supply at low cost to address key international development challenges.
Rupert leads DMU’s team working on the ‘My Electric Avenue’ project under Ofgem’s Low Carbon Networks Fund. In this project, lead by EA Technology and Scottish and Southern Energy, with Nissan as partners, the DMU team are studying the behavioural aspects of smart electric vehicle charging. Smart charging of electric vehicles may be used as a grid balancing option (as required by the widespread introduction of renewable energy), or – as in this case – to ensure that overloading of the electricity network does not occur as a result of local clusters of vehicles recharging simultaneously.
Rupert is MSc Module Leader for Renewable Energy and for BSc Module Leader in Transport Fuels and Energy Storage. He recently worked on the Complex Adaptive Systems, Cognitive Agents and Distributed Energy (CASCADE) Project, which was investigating the smart grid concept using complexity science.
Previously, Rupert was Managing Director of Bryte Energy Ltd, providing consultancy on the design, implementation, market analysis and strategic studies of low-carbon energy technologies specialising in the use of hydrogen in energy systems, smart grids and low carbon transport. In collaboration with Loughborough University, Bryte Energy developed the groundbreaking Future Energy Scenario Assessment (FESA) software model for studying the evolution of future energy markets to aid policy and technical strategy development. Before setting up Bryte Energy Rupert undertook a PhD Loughborough University’s Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) for which he conceived and implemented the Hydrogen and Renewables Integration (HARI) project. He had previously obtained an MSC in Renewable Energy Systems Technology at CREST. Before that, Rupert worked as a freelance consultant, partly in the field of sustainable energy, but more predominantly in the oil, gas and mineral exploration industries. Rupert started his career working for an architectural consultancy, having gained his first degree in 3D Industrial Design (Eng) at Leeds Polytechnic.