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Zema Energy Studies Scholarship

Zema Energy Studies Scholarship

Generously supported by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)

Monash University and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) launched the Zema Energy Studies Scholarship in March 2019, a world-class PhD program to develop the nation’s future energy leaders.

The Scholarship has been established to honour the memory of AEMO’s founding Chief Executive Officer, energy reform leader and Monash alumnus Matt Zema, and is designed to support the next generation of leaders to meet Australia's energy sector challenges. It was created with the support of the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council and in partnership with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

The Zema Scholarship aims to create a cohort of energy professionals with advanced multidisciplinary knowledge across engineering, IT and business and economics. The PhD program is intended to deepen student’s expertise, unlock their full leadership potential and help them gain exposure to Australia’s national energy industry. The scholarship provides a $53,608 per annum stipend plus the opportunity for a paid internship with AEMO, and will support the successful applicant for the approved duration of their PhD candidature, to a maximum of three-and-a-half years.

Candidates interested in a Masters by Research will also be considered.

Matt Zema

As the founding CEO of AEMO, Matt Zema epitomised the spirit of energy sector reform leadership, bringing a passion for customer-centred reform, first to Victoria, and then nationally.

On 23 July 2016, AEMO's inaugural Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Matt Zema tragically passed away during his eighth year of leadership.

Matt's accomplishments throughout his 30 years in the energy industry are many and long-lasting. His incredible contribution to the energy industry is unparalleled and all those who knew him remember Matt as an exceptional and visionary leader.

From 1999 to 2008, Matt was CEO of the Victorian Energy Networks Corporation (VENCorp), which was responsible for operating the principal transmission system for gas in Victoria and for the planning, procurement and augmentation of the Victorian electricity transmission network. Matt successfully led VENCorp through a number of complex emergency events, such as the gas supply disruption from the Longford incident in September 1999, and electricity supply issues in January 2007 due to severe bushfires and in April 2008 due to damaging storms.

Prior to this, Matt worked in general management roles with PowerNet Victoria, GPU PowerNet and GPU International, extending himself beyond the strong engineering foundation he had built at the State Electricity Commission of Victoria from 1983. He progressed quickly with exposure to regulatory management issues, IT, and people leadership and development.

Matt was appointed inaugural MD and CEO of AEMO in 2009, leading the transformation of the newly established entity, and building its reputation as a trusted, respected, independent resource for policymakers and industry.

Become a Zema Scholar

The prestigious PhD scholarship opportunity will empower you to build on your passion, gain exposure, and contribute to the energy community. You will work with supervisors from the engineering, information technology, and business & economics faculties to explore and solve pressing energy problems. And you will work collaboratively with the energy sector, enabling you to establish an industry presence and develop leadership networks.

Candidates interested in a Masters by Research in the below topic areas, will also be considered.

To be eligible for this scholarship, applicants must be Australian citizens or Permanent Residents.
You can apply to pursue one of the Zema scholarship projects or contact a willing supervisor and design your own project. See the list of potential supervisors at Monash.
Please note that researchers receive many requests for supervision. Make sure your email is specific for the Zema Scholarship and describes the research area/project you wish to work in, and provides details of your academic record. If the researcher agrees to be nominated on your application, you should proceed to the next step.
The process for applying for a PhD scholarship at Monash varies for each faculty, but in general you will need to find a supervisor (an academic at Monash) and then submit an expression of interest with your faculty, after which you will be invited to make a full submission.
Business School
Engineering
Information Technology
After you have received an invitation to apply, you can submit an application via the online portal.
The deadlines for submitting full applications are 31 May (for Semester 2 commencement) and 31 October (for Semester 1 commencement), so you should be making contact with potential supervisors by early May/October.

Potential research areas and supervisors

These are example projects listed under the Zema Energy Studies Scholarship. If you would like to contact a supervisor and design an energy related research project, this would be considered. Multidisciplinary projects will be given priority.

Links to information about research areas in engineering, information technology, and business & economics.

Supervisors: Dr Behrooz Bahrani
This project investigates the small-signal stability of power grids increasingly dominated by inverter-based resources (IBRs). As traditional synchronous generators are replaced by IBRs, particularly grid-forming inverters, the dynamics of the system change, posing new challenges for stability. The project focuses on developing tools and methodologies to assess how grid-forming inverters interact with the rest of the system under small disturbances. A key objective is to leverage impedance-based analysis techniques to identify and mitigate potential instabilities, ensuring reliable grid operation with high renewable penetration.
Supervisors: Prof Asad Islam, Prof Russell Smyth and A/Prof Choon Wang (Economics)
Quantifying how information influences electricity consumers’ behaviour is vital to understanding the potential of demand-side management in the electricity sector. DELWP has initiated the Victorian Energy Compare (VEC) website and the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program to help Victorian households to reduce their energy bills. Using survey data collected from the website users, this project addresses the questions of whether the existence of such website creates more competition and lower energy prices, and whether provision of information to electricity consumers results in lower energy bills.
Supervisors: Prof Lata Gangadharan, A/Prof Anke Leroux and Prof Erte Xiao (Economics)
The project examines the voluntary reduction or shift of electricity use by customers, which can help to keep a power grid stable by balancing its supply and electricity demand. This kind of demand response typically involves paying some energy consumers to voluntarily cut or shift their use of power to better match supply. This project examines the role of monetary and non-monetary incentives through trials of volunteers receiving two separate bills; one with real time price incentives, and the other based on a standard contract, with the volunteers able to choose which bill to pay.
Supervisors: A/Prof Guillaume Roger and Dr Ivan Guo
Because electricity is not meaningfully storable, a replicating portfolio that is normally used to enforce the no-arbitrage condition necessary to price derivatives cannot be constructed. Instead practitioners have relied on proxies based on fuel (e.g. coal), because fuel can be stored and the necessary no-arbitrage condition between fuel price and the derivative on fuel can be enforced.
As the energy transition progresses, fewer thermal generators operate and electricity storage arises. This has two consequences: first, no-arbitrage directly on electricity can be considered; second, the fuel-based proxies disappear. This project aims at developing pricing methods that rest on storage rather than fuel. It is steeped in economics and in mathematics.
Supervisors: Prof Yolande Strengers and Prof Sarah Pink (Emerging Technologies Research Lab, Faculty of Information Technology and/or Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture)
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems have historically been a key driver for peak electricity demand, and are closely tied to comfort expectations in Australian households and businesses. However, in recent years air quality concerns resulting from the Covid pandemic, bushfires, allergens and pathogens have started to shift Australian’s expectations for indoor air and comfort. In addition, a desire to move away from natural gas will drive further demand for heat pumps. This project will develop future-focused design ethnographic methods to better understand how people’s expectations for indoor HVAC systems, air quality, and thermal comfort are changing. The project will inform energy forecasting and scenario planning for the Australian energy sector. Eligible candidates must have a degree in the social sciences or cognate discipline (e.g. anthropology, sociology, geography, design).
Supervisors: Dr Roger Dargaville
Energy storage can take many forms, e.g. lithium ion batteries at a variety of scales, pumped hydro energy storage, or thermal storage. Understanding the optimal mix of technologies is challenging and is dependent on requirements of both power (GW) and energy (GWh) and characteristics of the generation fleet (mix of wind, solar, hydro etc) and the likelihood of wind and solar ‘droughts’. Also, a mix of utility scale and residential/SME scale batteries are influenced by different sets of economics and policies. Finally, project risk can also be a factor, with long timescale build projects such as PHES being at a disadvantage to quite-to-install technologies such as Li-Ion. This project will investigate, through numerical analysis, the optimal and likely mix of storage in the mix.
Supervisors: Prof Hai L Vu (Engineering) and TBD
Electric vehicles (EVs) become increasingly popular due to their efficiency and environmental friendliness. However, mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) will result in significant power demand due to battery charging which in turn affects the power distribution network. This project will develop models to study and evaluate this impact taking into account the fact that EV chargings are spatial and temporal variables depending on individual activities, traffic conditions and recharge routines etc. Insights gained from the models can be then used to
1. design strategies to incentivise preferable charging/discharging behaviours or to load balance the power grid, or
2. evaluate the overall benefits of large-scale EV adoption by utilising the existing economic model, e.g. CGE model.
Supervisors: Dr Behrooz Bahrani
This project examines the large-signal stability of power grids with high shares of inverter-based resources, particularly grid-forming inverters. The focus is on how these systems respond to significant disturbances, such as major faults or rapid load changes, and their impact on overall grid stability. The project aims to develop advanced control strategies for grid-forming inverters that enhance the grid’s resilience to large disturbances. Additionally, it explores how to coordinate conventional protection schemes with new inverter control mechanisms to ensure stable and robust grid performance under extreme conditions.
Supervisors: Dr Mehdi Ghazavi Dozein, Dr Hao Wang
Power systems around the world are undergoing a technological revolution
due to massive grid integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) and the
corresponding phase-out of synchronous generators. This technological
revolution is fundamentally changing the dynamics and characteristics of this
class of complex systems to these physically disparate devices, and impacting
the traditional approaches to system stability analysis and assessment. Power
system dynamic studies with high share of renewables and inverter-based
resources often involve computationally-intensive methodologies and models,
while also requiring substantial data that may not be readily available due to
limited measurements and confidentiality constraints with original equipment
manufacturers. These data scarcity issues contribute to uncertainties and
inaccuracies in power system dynamic analyses, thus diminishing the
effectiveness of conventional stability assessment methods. This project
seeks to investigate the potential of machine learning techniques, such as
physics-informed neural networks, in addressing these challenges associated
with the dynamic analysis of emerging power systems characterized by a high
share of renewable resources. Additionally, the project will explore the
limitations and challenges inherent in these innovative approaches, with the
ultimate goal of enhancing the efficiency of power system stability
assessments in the face of technological change.

Supporting the Next Generation of Energy Leaders

These scholars represent the future of Australia’s energy landscape, and the Zema Energy Studies Scholarship continues to play a crucial role in fostering innovation and leadership in the energy sector. Through multidisciplinary research across engineering, economics, and IT, the scholarship recipients are well-positioned to lead the nation’s energy transition.

For more information about other opportunities under the Monash Energy Institute, visit our scholarships page.

Student testimonials

"The ZEMA scholarship has been instrumental in advancing my research in energy economics, specifically in analysing the dynamics of electricity markets and the effects of policy reforms. This support has enabled me to focus deeply on the project, access valuable resources, and collaborate with a network of experts. The scholarship has not only helped me develop my expertise but has also given me opportunities to communicate insights that can inform Australia’s energy sector."
– Eric Liu, 2024 scholarship recipient

"Since receiving the ZEMA Energy Studies Scholarship, I've had the rewarding opportunity to connect with leading minds in both the energy industry and academia. Engaging with experts, sharing ideas, and learning from their invaluable knowledge and experience has been instrumental in advancing my research. My work has focused on enhancing long-term planning by creating a better balance between energy and reserve, utilizing the capabilities of existing, new, and emerging technologies. I am grateful to be part of the effort to address Australia’s energy challenges and help shape the future of the industry."
– Saeede Nazari Goldar, 2022 scholarship recipient

"The ZEMA scholarship fund has been invaluable to my PhD experience by simultaneously providing real world motivations for my research as well as a level of financial stability that is not offered by any other scholarship.Working with AEMO has allowed me to discuss the impacts of my work with the very people in industry who will need to use it. Surprisingly, this expanded my understanding of the benefits of my research. When you are so close to your own research it can be hard to imagine the people who will be using it in several years time, several steps down the pipeline. Being connected with those very people allowed me to see uses for my research that didn’t occur to me and helped to ground my research in its real world impacts"
– Harriet Mason, 2022 scholarship recipient

"An important part of being a PhD student is approaching new challenges with curiosity and optimism. The ZEMA Energy Studies Scholarship recognises that this mindset is not only essential for academic research, but it is also crucial for the ongoing energy transition. It has been incredibly encouraging to know that the skills I have developed during my PhD studies are also appreciated by the industry. Furthermore, the Zema Energy Studies Scholarship has given me the opportunity to interact with energy leaders and experts and I am very grateful to have learned from them"
– Lakshan Bernard, 2020 scholarship recipient

Monash Energy Institute

Monash Energy Institute

Zema Energy Studies Scholarship

Generously supported by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)

Matt Zema

Become a Zema Scholar

Potential research areas and supervisors

Supporting the Next Generation of Energy Leaders

Lakshan Bernard

Harriet Mason

Saeede Nazari Goldar

Merry Hoang

Eric Liu

Jaleel Mesbah

Shaylin Chetty

Raheel Raniga

Frederick Madriaga

Madeleine Neaves

Student testimonials

Support our energy scholarships