Dr José Zapata

Principal, Modelling and Analytics

Canberra, Australia

Jose brings 15 years experience in the renewable energy sector to ITP, where he is Principal, Modelling and Analytics, leading work on grid integration modelling for external clients and across our internal projects. He is the lead developer of openCEM, an open-source model of the national electricity market. José and his team have developed a growing ecosystem of in-house modelling and analytics tools, that each deliver powerful insights into critical parts of the energy market, including:   

– Producing energy security models for microgrids; residential, commercial and industrial solar and battery energy and storage systems (BESS); and financial data analysis 

– Financial optimization for how large-scale BESS operate within energy and FCAS markets 

– Planning remote power for mining operations and hydrogen production

– Co-ordinated DER and embedded micro-grids in distribution networks 

In 2024, José led the development of an on-spec version of openCEM for the Samoan Office of the Regulator, and the island nation’s Electrical Power Corporation. Delivery of this project encompassed creating a fully featured, Samoa-specific set of input assumptions, a workbook and database. Further, a web portal was built to facilitate the configuration, cloud-running and analysis of openCEM scenarios, with extensive training materials and in-country training to enable a long-term electricity planning process for Samoa, able to accommodate its growing population. 

José has a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering (First Class Honours) from Universidad de Concepción and a PhD in Engineering from the Australian National University. 

Contact him at: jzapata@itpau.com.au