Claudio Canizares, PEng

Claudio Cañizares is a University Professor and Hydro One Endowed Chair in the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) department at the University of Waterloo, where he has held various academic and administrative positions since 1993. In 2021, he was appointed the Executive Director of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE).

He received an electrical engineering degree from the Escuela Politécnica Nacional (EPN) in Quito, Ecuador in 1984, where he held different academic and administrative positions between 1983 and 1993, and his MSc (1988) and PhD (1991) degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the USA.

Dr. Cañizares’ research activities focus on the study of stability, control, optimization, modeling, simulation, and computational issues in bulk power systems, microgrids, and energy systems in the context of competitive energy markets and smart grids. In these areas, he has either led or been an integral part of securing many grants and contracts from government agencies and private companies worth close to $118 million. Dr. Cañizares has collaborated with multiple industry and university researchers in Canada and abroad and supervised/co-supervised nearly 180 research fellows and students. He has authored/co-authored more than 370 publications with over 29,000 citations and a 77 H index in Google Scholar, including journal and conference papers, several technical reports, book chapters, disclosures and patents, and has been invited to deliver over 225 keynote speeches, seminars, tutorials, and presentations at numerous institutions and conferences worldwide. He is the current Editor-In-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineering (IEEE), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE)

Dr. Cañizares is the recipient of the 2017 IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award, the 2016 IEEE Canada Electric Power Medal, and multiple IEEE PES Technical Council and Committee awards and recognitions, holding leadership positions in several IEEE-PES Committees, Working Groups, and Task Forces. In 2021 and 2022, he received the Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision from the University of Waterloo.

• Nonlinear systems theory, Simulation, FACTS and HVDC, applications in power systems, computational tools, Energy Systems, Hybrid and electric vehicles, Energy storage, Power systems, Renewable energy, Smart buildings, Smart communities, Big data/analytics, Smart grids, Microgrids

• 1991, Doctorate Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
• 1988, Master of Science Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
• 1984, Diploma Ingeniero Eléctrico (Electrical Engineer Diploma), Escuela Politécnica Nacional Quito-Ecuador, Ecuador

• ECE 140 - Linear Circuits
  • Taught in 2023, 2024
• ECE 390 - Engineering Design, Economics, and Impact on Society
  • Taught in 2019
• ECE 467 - Power Systems Analysis, Operations, and Markets
  • Taught in 2019, 2020, 2021
• ECE 6601PD - Power System Components and Modeling
  • Taught in 2019, 2022, 2024
• ECE 6613PD - Power System Analysis
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2023
• ECE 662 - Power Systems Analysis and Control
  • Taught in 2021

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Energy storage: An overview of the extensive work on energy storage systems for power grids, including remote communities. carried out by Prof. Cañizares’ research group is provided in the paper: F. Calero, C. A. Cañizares, et al., “A Review of Modeling and Applications of Energy Storage Systems in Power Grids,” Proceedings of the IEEE, The Evolution of Smart Grids Special Issue, published in 2022.
• New stability phenomena for grids with renewables: Professor Cañizares led the section defining new stability phenomena for grids with renewables in the reference report by the IEEE PES Task Force (TF) on Stability Definitions in Systems with Power Electronic Interfaced Technologies. The preceding TF publication, in which he also participated, has been cited over 4,200 times, while the new one has been cited over 270 times already: N. Hatziargyriou, J. V. Milanović, C. Rahmann, V. Ajjarapu, C. Cañizares, et al., “Definition and Classification of Power System Stability–Revisited & Extended,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vo. 36, no. 4, July 2021, pp. 3271-3281. IEEE PES Best Paper Award, July 2022.
• First microgrid stability definitions and classification: Professor Cañizares led the reference report by the IEEE-PES TF on Microgrid Stability Analysis and Modeling where microgrid stability was defined for the first time. This report has been cited over 390 times already: M. Farrokhabadi, C. A. Cañizares (Co-chair), et al., “Microgrid Stability Definitions, Analysis, and Examples,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 35, no. 1, January 2020, pp. 13-29.
• Planning of remote microgrids: Professor Cañizares group’s research work demonstrated the feasibility of significantly reducing the use of diesel by integrating renewables in the Canadian Arctic. This work appeared in a Special Issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE on global energy access, which he organized and edited as Guest Editor-In-Chief: I. Das and C. A. Cañizares, “Renewable Energy Integration in Diesel-based Microgrids at the Canadian Arctic,” IEEE Proceedings, Special Issue “Electricity for All: Access to Electricity Issues and Solutions for Energy-disadvantaged Communities,” invited paper, vol. 107, no. 9, September 2019, pp. 1838-1856.
• Microgrid controls: Professor Cañizares led the reference report by the IEEE PES TF in Microgrid Control where microgrid controls were codified for the first time. It has been cited over 2,900 times and is the most cited paper of the IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid: D. E. Olivares (Student), A. Mehrizi-Sani, A. H. Etemadi, C. A. Cañizares (Chair), et al., “Trends in Microgrid Control,” IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 6, no. 4, July 2014, pp. 1905-1919. IEEE-PES Technical Committee Working Group Recognition Award, July 2015.