Ahmed S. Alahmed
I am an assistant professor in the electrical engineering department at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. I received my Ph.D. degree, supervised by Prof. Lang Tong, from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Cornell University. I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Lab for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at MIT, working with Audun Botterud and Saurabh Amin.
My research focuses on accelerating the energy and water transition through the optimization, control, economics, and AI-enabled design of energy and water-power systems. I study the integration of distributed energy resources (DER), such as solar PV, batteries, and electric vehicles, into smart grids, the aggregation and adoption dynamics of DER, and the design of competitive, equitable transactive energy markets. I employ mathematical analysis, optimization, control theory, and AI principles, alongside microeconomics, game theory, and mechanism design, blending theory and practical insights to inform resilient, efficient, and sustainable energy and water system operations.
Please feel free to browse the website. If you have any question or enquiry whether technical or general, or just would like to say “hi”, please go ahead and fill out the contact form.
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Summary of blog posts:
06/20/2026: Published a preprint on game-theoretic-based evaluation of distribution grid congestion management mechanisms. [SSRN]
05/31/2026: Our paper on “Wholesale Market Participation of DERA: Competitive DER Aggregation,” has been accepted at IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems. Co-authors: Cong Chen (Dartmouth), Tim Mount (Cornell), and Lang Tong (Cornell).
04/22/2026: Prof. Lang Tong and I have published a monograph on Distributed Energy Resources under Net Metering: Optimal Decisions, Incentives, and Aggregations,” in Emerald’s Foundations and Trends in Electric Energy Systems [Link].
04/11/2026: A paper accepted at PowerUp Conference2026 to be held in Boulder, CO [arXiv].
02/10/2026: Gave a talk at Saudi Aramco’s EXPEC Advanced Research Center on “Optimal Autonomous Operation of Renewable-Colocated Water Treatment Plants.” Many thanks to Saleh Komies, and Abdulkareem Alsofi for hosting me.
01/06/26: ArXiv preprint on the optimal dispatch of renewable-colocated water desalination plants [arXiv].
12/17/25: A paper accepted at the IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid [Early Access],[arXiv].
12/13/25: Launched the Saudi Postdoctoral Association (SPDA) together with Rabab Alomairy, and Wedyan Babtain. Feel free to browse SPDA’s website and join if you are eligible!
12/11/25: Gave a talk at MIT’s Energy & Infrastructure Systems: Modeling, Computing, and Control (EIMC2) seminar series on the optimal dispatch of load-generator plants [announcement],[slides].
11/15/25: Our IEEE PES General Meeting panel proposal on “Connected Flows: Coordinating Energy, Water, and Data Systems” got selected! I will be co-chairing this panel with Audun Botterud (MIT) and Johanna Mathieu (UMich).
11/06/25: Gave a talk at KAUST 2025 Workshop on Statistics on “Electricity Pricing under Stochastic Distributed Energy Resources”
10/27/25: Gave a talk at INFORMS 2025 on “Renewable-Aware Co-Optimization of Power and Water in Desalination Plants.”
10/09/25: Presented my research on NEM X tariff design to Prof. Holly Samuelson and the Livable Spaces Lab at MIT.
08/04/25: Paper accepted at IEEE Allerton 2025.
07/31/25: Together with NREL’s Ben Kroposki, I co-chaired a panel at the IEEE PES General Meeting on “Future Energy Communities: Optimization, Control, and Markets with Human Factors.” I also had 3 accepted posters at the conference.
06/30/25: Received MIT Research Mentoring Certificate (link).
05/01/25: Gulai Shen (Harvard) presented our work on DER co-optimization under demand charges at the 2nd Northeastern Systems and Control Workshop, which was held at Columbia University. 04/09/25: Published a manuscript on operating-envelopes-aware mechanism design for energy communities at IEEE TCNS.
03/02/25: Gave a talk at KAPSARC on active prosumerism in distribution networks.
28/02/25: Paper accepted at IEEE PESGM 2025.
01/31/25: Gave a talk at Jones Seminar, Dartmouth College. Thank you Cong Chen and Geoff Parker for hosting me.
01/12/25: Attended & presented at LANL’s Grid Science Winter School. Amazing energy!
12/26/24: Gave a talk at Tsinghua University. Thank you Hongye Guo for hosting me.
12/20/24: Joined the MiSK Saudi Leadership Society (SLS) delegation to China!
12/15/24: Concluded a successful year of organizing the 2024 ACM SIGEnergy seminar. Many thanks to my team: Sanam and Gargya.
10/22/24: Gave a talk at INFORMS 2024 as part of a panel on “Data-Enabled Decision-Making in Energy Systems and Markets.”
10/10/24: Gave a talk at Caltech. Thank you RSRG and FALCON groups for hosting me.
09/19/24: Gave a talk at LIDS MIT, as part of the LIDS Postdoc Nexus meetings.
09/16/24: Presented at NREL’s 7th Autonomous Energy Systems (AES) workshop.
08/01/24: Started my postdoc at LIDS MIT!
07/25/24: Defended my dissertation! Grateful to the incredible guidance and support from my advisor, Lang Tong, and my committee members Eilyan Bitar and Timothy Mount.
06/19/24: Manuscript accepted at IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.
05/30/24: Attended ARPA-E’s Energy Innovation Summit.
05/10/24: Best paper at IEEE PESGM 2024.
04/19/24: Presented at the Northeast Systems and Control Workshop, which was held at UPenn. 01/11/24: Manuscript accepted at IEEE TEMPR.
Our Paper "Resource Sharing in Energy Communities: A Cooperative Game Approach" (arXiv) has been selected for the Best Paper Award at PESGM 24.
“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary”
