Biography
Dr Scot Wheeler is a Senior Researcher and Departmental Lecturer in Energy Systems within the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on smart, flexible energy systems, investigating how digitalisation, data-driven methods and artificial intelligence can accelerate the transition to secure, low-carbon energy systems.
Before joining Oxford, Scot completed his PhD at Imperial College London, where he investigated charge recombination losses in perovskite and organic solar cells. He subsequently worked on rural electrification and energy access, developing optimisation tools for renewable-powered mini-grids in developing countries.
Alongside research, Scot teaches modules on Energy Infrastructure and Python for Energy System Analysis for the Energy Systems MSc course and is a Stipendiary Lecturer at Christ Church.
Research Interests
Scot’s work spans buildings-, local- and national-scale energy systems, with particular interests in energy flexibility, system forecasting, optimisation, and decision support for electricity system operation. He works closely with industry, local government and network operators to translate research into practical tools that support real-world energy system transformation.
Scot has played leading research roles in several major UK energy innovation programmes, including Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire), one of the UK's flagship smart local energy system demonstrators, where he contributed to flexibility market design, whole-system modelling and the development of methods for integrating flexible technologies into local energy systems. More recently, he led research with the National Energy System Operator (NESO) on next-generation AI approaches for real-time electricity demand prediction, developing explainable deep learning methods to support operational decision-making in the control room.
