PhD Studentship: Open Energy Demand Data for Monsoonal South Asia

Supervisor details:

Lead Supervisor

Kieran Hunt, k.m.r.hunt@reading.ac.uk, Department of Meteorology

Co-supervisors

Hannah Bloomfield, Hannah.Bloomfield@newcastle.ac.uk, University of Newcastle

Project description: 

Reliable, high-resolution electricity demand data are scarce across the global south, limiting our understanding in these regions of the relationship between weather and energy demand and climate resilience. In this project, we will compile, clean, and publish open-access demand records from across South Asia, spanning India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Myanmar, and Bhutan (covering 2013–present, at resolutions from 15-minute to daily). Objectives for this project are flexible, but include:

• Harmonising timestamps, units, and metadata across the seven national datasets;
• Documenting dataset provenance and performing simple quality control checks;
• Prepare a Zenodo release with FAIR compliant metadata;
• Draft sections (e.g. “data description” and “technical validation”) of a scientific data paper, to be released alongside or after the publication of the dataset; and
• Carry out a short, illustrative analysis to demonstrate the utility of the data (e.g. seasonal cycles).

The student will also have the opportunity to attend a one-day workshop on “Opportunities and Challenges in Global South Energy-Meteorology” hosted at the University of Reading on July 15^th, providing them an opportunity to network and get feedback on their work.

Student profile:

Some experience in data analysis would be very helpful, as would a working familiarity with a programming language (e.g. Python, R, or Matlab). The student should also have a basic knowledge of statistics and an interest and enthusiasm for weather-energy and climate energy links.

Support:

The student will have weekly meetings with the supervisory team. They can also choose to attend weekly research group meetings for tropical meteorology and/or energy meteorology (both of which allow virtual attendance). In addition, both members of the supervisory team will share code and provide support where needed.

Feasibility:

Objectives for this project are well defined and the student will have the flexibility to tackle the objectives that align most with their interests and skillset.

Scope for initiative:

The student is free to choose which project objectives they wish to pursue, and analysis for (v) is open-ended and can be led by the student and their interests.

Remote Working:

Is this project suitable for remote working? Yes

Remote working details: No on-site attendance required, but attendance at the workshop is encouraged.

Flexibility:

Is it possible to do this project part-time? Yes

How to apply:

Apply online via the above ‘Apply’ button.

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