Prof Gareth Taylor received his BSc degree from the University of London, UK in 1987 and MSc and PhD from the University of Greenwich, UK in 1992 and 1997, respectively. He was the National Grid UK post-doctoral scholar at Brunel University, UK from 2000-2003. He is currently a Professor and Director within the Brunel Institute of Power Systems, Brunel University London, UK. He is also the leader of the Smart Power Networks theme in the Institute of Energy Futures, Brunel University London. He is also the CIGRE UK Regular Member for Study Committed D2 ‘Information Systems and Telecommunication’. He is also a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Member of the IET. He is also the Chair of the IEEE PES Future TSO-DSO Interaction Task Force. His research interests include smart grids, novel ICT solutions for power systems and network optimization