Professor Jie Bao

Professor Jie Bao is a leading expert in Computer Process Control, focusing on improving the efficiency of energy-intensive industrial processes and developing integrated energy storage solutions that include industrial scale demand-side power management or virtual energy storage with potential to impact the National Electricity Market (NEM). His expertise is particularly relevant to the optimisation of flexible manufacture technologies that improve the control of energy-intensive operations, impacting sectors such as aluminium production and energy storage systems. He also works on monitoring and control of vanadium flow batteries and autonomous control of distributed battery systems, collaborating with industry and research organizations to advance energy storage technologies globally.

As the Director of the ARC Research Hub for Integrated Energy Storage Solutions and the leader of the Process Control Research Group in UNSW’s School of Chemical Engineering, Professor Bao is not only a distinguished researcher but also a devoted educator, influencing the next generation of engineers.

Through industry partnerships with Emirates Global Aluminium, Rio Tinto, North Harbour Clean Energy, Xstrata, Bluescope Steel, and Trimet, Professor Jie Bao demonstrates the real-world impact of his research, including power modulation of aluminium smelting cells for facilitating virtual storage through demand-side power management, which allow energy intensive processes to be powered (at least partially) by renewable energy sources and help stabilizing the grid, for improved energy efficiency and sustainability.