External Advisory Board
To support the work of the consortium and the Steering Committee, an External Advisory Board (EAB) is established. The task of the EAB is to monitor adherence of project deliverables to the needs of the sector and to facilitate a quick market uptake. The EAB is comprised of internationally recognized experts within the hydro power industry, research, policy making and regulation, representing the entire value chain.
The EAB will support the project through knowledge exchange of best practices and experiences with implementing and utilizing the technological developments. The EAB will advise the consortium regarding project progress and scientific direction, advice on the relevance of project results to policy, and facilitate industry and end-user participation for identifying and pursuing exploitation strategies.
The EAB will be invited to join the regular project meetings, in particular the kick-off (M1), follow-up (M13), mid-term (M33) and final (M43) review meetings and to stakeholder workshops (WP7). The board will include 5 members and will meet in-person in conjunction with the GA meetings.
The EAB consists of the following members from hydro power energy industry, technology development and academia.
| Bettina Geisseler, Lawyer, GEISSELER LAW (DE) – Chairman of the External Advisory Board |
| Bettina Geisseler is a lawyer and founder of GEISSELER LAW, a law firm specialised in contract law regarding the construction and erection of major infrastructure projects worldwide, such as (hydro and other ) power plants, dams or tunnels. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Société Hydrotechnique de France (SHF) as well as of the Technical Committee on „Public Safety around dams“ of ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams) and a member of the European Working Group of ICOLD on „Penstocks and Pressure Shafts“. Recently she has been elected as member of the Governing Board of the ETIP Hydropower Project. She is active in the Task Group B (Optioneering – Framework for an Early Decision Making) of ITA’s (International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association) Sustainability Initiative. |
| Ann Overmeire, The Blue Cluster (BE) |
| The Blue Cluster is a partnership between the maritime industries and the Flemish government aimed at promoting innovation and development of economic activities at sea. Participating companies are Colruyt, DEME, Econopolis, INVE, Jan De Nul, Sioen Industries, Tractebel Engineering, Vanbreda Risk & Benefits, Vyncke and ZERI. Ann Overmeire is the Blue Cluster’s community manager. |
| Antoine Libaux, Senior Engineer in Hydraulics & Marine Energy, Centre d’Ingénierie Hydraulique – EDF Hydro (FR) |
| EDF is the main French electric utility company, partly owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in 2016, EDF operates a diverse portfolio of 120+ gigawatts of generation capacity in Europe, South America, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. EDF aims to develop 10 GW of new storage facilities in the world by 2035 in addition to the 5 GW already operated by the Group. This acceleration represents an investment of 8 billion euros over the period 2018-2035. EDF’s ambitions cover all electricity storage markets in order to ensure the proper functioning of the balance of the electricity system, private and corporate customers and territories. |
| François Lempérière, Expert in Hydropower, Hydrocoop (FR) |
| Mr. Lempérière functioned as an Entrepreneur in one of the largest civil engineering companies, GTM (Grands Travaux de Marseille) for forty years, François Lempérière built fifteen dams and participated in the construction of nuclear power plants, highways and canals. He was President of GTM International and in 1982 Deputy General Manager of GTM Entrepose. François Lempérière has been a member of several Technical Committees of the International Commission on Large Dams and has written 8 ICOLD bulletins. He was president of the French Committee of Large Dams for 5 years, before co-founding Hydrocoop. |
| Dr. Peter Hoffmann, Managing Director, HoPe Energy Consulting (DE) |
| Peter Hoffmann has worked in various positions for more than 30 years in the energy business. Till 2023 he was the Director for Energy System Planning at TenneT, one of the leading TSOs in Europe. In that position he was involved in the development of the Northsea PowerHubs, analysing artificial islands as the basis for sector coupling purposes. With his long-lasting experience particularly in System Operations, he advises ALPHEUS in potential ancillary services to be offered by the developed hydraulic plants. Today Peter Hoffmann is Managing Director of HoPe Energy Consulting GmbH and supports NEOM in KSA to build up System Operations on green field (or better sand). |
| Henning Lysaker, VP Technology, and Jan Tore Billdal, Engineering Department Manager, Rainpower (NO) |
| Rainpower AS is a Norwegian company which develops, designs, manufactures and sells equipment for hydropower electricity generation. The company provides Pelton, Francis, Kaplan turbines, as well as pump turbines, small hydropower plants, turbine governor, oil pressure systems, valve controllers, exciters, valves, gates, pipes, and other products and services related to the hydropower equipment industry. Henning Lysaker is based at the laboratory in Trondheim, and Jan Tore Billdal is based at the headquarters in Kjeller. |
| Anton Schleiss, Expert Consultant, Coordinator of Hydropower Europe (CH) |
| Anton Schleiss graduated in Civil Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland and obtained a PhD on the topic of pressure tunnel design in 1986. After that he worked for 11 years for Electrowatt Engineering Ltd. (now Pöyry-AFRY) in Zurich and was involved in the design of many hydropower projects around the world. In 1997, he was nominated full professor and Director of the Laboratory of Hydraulic Constructions (LCH) at the Ecole Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and became honorary professor in May 2018. After having served as vice-president between 2012 and 2015 he was president of the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) from 2015 to 2018. With more than 40 years of experience he is regularly involved as a consultant and expert in large water infrastructures projects including hydropower and dams all over the world. On behalf of ICOLD he is coordinating the Hydropower Europe Forum funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. |
| Pierre Agresti, Director of the Technical Department of Artelia Water |
| International, independent, and multidisciplinary, Artelia is a leading consulting, engineering and project management group operating in the fields of mobility, water, energy, building and industry. Pierre Agresti began his career in 1994 developing structural calculation programs for dams. He has been involved in dam and hydraulic infrastructure projects, including several pumped storage hydropower schemes. He is presently the Director of the Technical Department of Artelia Water, Environment and Energy Business Unit which provides geotechnical, structural, hydraulic modelling and BIM services for dams, hydropower and maritime projects. He is also involved in the French Committee for Dams and Reservoirs as Vice President (French national committee of ICOLD). |