Vera Silva
Portuguese engineer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vera Silva is a Portuguese engineer and the chief strategy and technology officer (CSO/CTO) at the GE Vernova electrical grid Electrification Systems division. She is one of the few women to hold a chief technology officer position in the electricity transmission and distribution space. She works on electricity grids technology and renewable energy integration.[1]
Imperial College London (PhD)
Power systems economics
Electric vehicles
Demand side management
Optimisation[1]
EDF
Polytechnic Institute of Porto
Vera Silva | |
|---|---|
| Born | Vera Lucia Fernandes de Paiva da Silva |
| Alma mater | University of Porto (BSc and MSc) Imperial College London (PhD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Variable generation Power systems economics Electric vehicles Demand side management Optimisation[1] |
| Institutions | General Electric EDF Polytechnic Institute of Porto |
| Thesis | Value of flexibility in systems with large wind penetration (2010) |
| Goran Strbac | |
Early life and education
As a child Silva visited a large hydro power plant which sparked her interest in electricity systems. Silva studied electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Porto.[2] She earned a bachelor's degree in 1999 and a master's degree in 2003 both in electrical engineering. She moved to the United Kingdom for her doctoral studies, earning a PhD in the electrical and electronics engineering in 2010.[2][3] Her PhD investigated the value of flexibility in systems that use wind power[4] and was supervised by Goran Strbac.
Research and career
She worked as a lecturer and data scientist at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto.[2] After completing her doctorate, Silva joined EDF R&D in France, where she directed their program on Energy Systems and Markets.[2][5] As of 2019[update] Silva was the chief technology officer (CTO) at General Electric grid solutions, where she led 3,400 engineers around the world and worked on new electricity grid technology.[6] She was one of the few women to be made CTO at General Electric.[7] She believes the future will involve more sustainable and flexible technologies, integrating microgrids and high voltage direct current (DC) transmission lines.[6] She is pushing for utilities operators to find it easier to integrate renewables into homes.[citation needed]
