Ali Jahanbani Ardakani
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Iowa State University
About
I lead research on long-term planning of renewable-dominant power systems, focusing on capacity expansion, grid resilience, and the integration of weather and climate data into planning models. My work has been cited in U.S. congressional testimony and the President’s Economic Report.
I hold a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Power Engineering) from McGill University, where my thesis on umbrella constraints in power scheduling received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE PES 2014 General Meeting. Before joining Iowa State as a Research Assistant Professor in 2021, I held postdoctoral positions at Iowa State University and the University of Calgary, working on large-scale transmission planning and energy storage analysis.
Research funding: PI/Co-PI for over $4.4 million in funded projects since 2021, including Department of Energy grants for developing nationwide planning tools and AI-enhanced power system analysis platforms.
Research Interests
Capacity Expansion Planning
Long-term generation and transmission planning for power systems with high renewable penetration.
Offshore Wind Integration
Designing offshore HVDC grids for large-scale wind integration on the U.S. East Coast.
Climate-Resilient Planning
Incorporating weather and climate data to account for extreme weather events in power system planning.
AI for Power Systems
Developing AI-enhanced analysis platforms for major U.S. ISOs including SPP.
Demand Response
Assessing the role of demand response in reserve procurement for 100% renewable futures.
Network Reduction
Novel reduction algorithms for efficient power system planning studies.
Metrics
1,340+
Google Scholar Citations
17
h-index
$4.4M+
Research Funding
20+
Students Supervised
Contact
Office: 1129 Coover Hall
2520 Osborn Dr.
Ames, IA 50011
Email: alij [at] iastate.edu
Education
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering
McGill University, 2015