Profile
From early concept to operational impact
I am Zahra Tajalli, a power systems engineer and researcher with a PhD in power systems engineering and more than four years in Denmark leading Horizon Europe and national research projects — from distributed and heuristic optimization to AI, automation and laboratory validation, working directly with utilities, DSOs, living labs and industrial parks.
What excites me most is the space between research and industry: taking a promising idea out of the lab, proving it holds up under real operating conditions, and handing it to the people who will run it every day. I thrive on bridging that gap — turning technical depth into decisions that utilities, technology providers and industrial partners can act on.
Experience
2023 — Present
Formal title: Postdoctoral Researcher
Innovation & R&D Project Lead
DTU Wind and Energy Systems, Kgs. Lyngby
- Takes technology from concept through pilot and validation toward deployment on infrastructure owned by external partners, including building and automating containerized lab-test infrastructure for AI-based sector coupling in district heating.
- De-risks before go-live: reproduces real process behavior on a scaled test setup, defines acceptance criteria and staged commissioning, and agrees fallback procedures with asset owners.
- Owns scope, priorities, timelines, deliverables and reporting for work packages in Horizon Europe and national programs, delivering to milestones across four concurrent projects.
- Coordinates cross-functional stakeholders across utilities, DSOs, the TSO, technology providers, software teams and research institutes; runs technical meetings, workshops and steering updates.
- Develops proposals, work plans and budgets as lead and co-applicant; supervises engineers, student assistants and junior colleagues.
2022 — Present
Technical Advisor
ATLAS OS Industrial Intelligence
- Advises on technology strategy, product validation and business development for a company working on industrial monitoring and digital-twin technology; assesses feasibility and the route from prototype to product.
2022 — 2023
Guest researcher, funded by two competitive grants
Test & Validation Engineer
Aarhus University, Denmark
- Specified, built and commissioned a real-time hardware-in-the-loop test platform (Speedgoat, OPAL-RT); validated control strategies experimentally and handed the setup over to colleagues.
2018 — 2023
PhD project
Research Engineer, Power Systems
SUTech and Aarhus University
- Developed distributed and heuristic optimization methods for the operation, optimization and dispatch of power systems and microgrids under uncertainty; validated forecasting and control methods using real-time simulators and experimental test setups.
- 10+ peer-reviewed publications, 270 citations.
Featured projects
View all projects →Horizon Europe
AI-EFFECT
AI- and LLM-assisted automated lab testing infrastructure for AI-based sector coupling in district heating
Elforsk
3PhaseInsight
Open analytics platform turning three-phase smart-meter data into distribution-grid decisions
GreenLab Skive · Villum
GreenLab Grid Designer
Rule-based distribution grid design and flexibility tools for an industrial park
Skills
Project delivery
Scope, schedule and milestone management · risk identification and mitigation · work-package and deliverable ownership · stakeholder and partner coordination · budgeting · workshop facilitation · technical reporting · supervision
Innovation & technology
Pilot design and experimental validation · concept-to-industrialization handover · automation and control · AI and machine learning · digital twins and condition monitoring · data pipelines · optimization · modelling and simulation
Software
Python · MATLAB / Simulink · Docker · Git · DIgSILENT PowerFactory
Education & certification
2018 — 2023
PhD, Power Systems Engineering
SUTech, Iran and Aarhus University, Denmark
2016 — 2018
MSc, Power Systems Engineering
Shiraz University of Technology
2012 — 2016
BSc, Control Engineering
Shiraz University of Technology
2026
Project Management Professional (PMP), exam preparation
35 contact hours
Languages: English (professional), Persian (native), Danish (basic, in progress).
In the field
Workshops, consortium meetings, conferences and lab visits across European energy-research projects.
Let's work together
If you are taking a technology from prototype toward operational use, or need someone to own both the plan and the site work, I would like to hear about it.
Start a conversation →