Dr Phil Grünewald

Deputy Director of Energy Research

Phil is Deputy Director of Energy Research at the University of Oxford and an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Fellow.

He obtained a PhD in Energy Research from Imperial College London for his whole-system assessment of the future role of electricity storage. Since then he joined the Lower Carbon Futures group in the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford, where he leads the theme on Flexibility, as a means to support the integration of renewable energy sources.

Phil's core research interest is the interplay of physical storage with demand side flexibility. As PI of the METER project (http://www.energy-use.org) he collects a combination of time-use and electricity consumption data to establish baselines for UK household electricity use and possible modes of flexibility.

As part of Oxford Energy, Phil seeks to foster cross-disciplinary research at Oxford. He supported the creation of the Oxford Energy Network, comprising 200 senior energy researchers.

By background Phil is an engineer. He obtained his first degree in Business Engineering from Wedel, Germany. Phil worked in industry as Technology Leader and Product Line Manager. He developed laser processes and mass production equipment for the photovoltaic industry as well as the world's first commercial 13nm micro-stepper for Intel.

Phil moved to the UK in 2000 as a Marie Curie Fellow. His PhD was funded by the UK Energy Research Centre, of which Phil continues to be an affiliated researcher. He is a visiting researcher at the Centre for Energy Policy and Technology at Imperial College London and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Phil received an EPSRC Fellowship to pursue his interdisciplianry research on demand side flexibility.