External Advisory Board - ALPHEUS H2020

To support the work of the consortium and the Steering Committee, an External Advisory Board is established. The task of the External Advisory Board 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. A focus is the project-related legal advice especially with regard to the engineering, construction and erection respectively the rehabilitation, operation & maintenance or the acquisition of power plants (in particular nowadays hydro power plants). Bettina Geisseler advises German and international clients, manufacturers as well as owners/ operators of power plants. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Société Hydrotechnique de France (SHF) as well as a member of the HYDROPOWER EUROPE Consultation Expert Panel (HPE CEP).

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.

Peter Hoffmann, Director for System Integration, TenneT (DE)

TenneT is a leading European electricity transmission system operator (TSO) with its main activities in the Netherlands and Germany. With over 23,000 kilometres of high-voltage connections TenneT ensures a secure supply of electricity to 41 million end-users. TenneT employs approximately 4,500 people and has a turnover of EUR 4.2 billion. TenneT is one of Europe’s major investors in national and cross-border grid connections on land and at sea, bringing together the Northwest European energy markets and driving the energy transition. The energy transition is one of the most impactful challenges facing society and energy supply. After a period of strong growth and as a key player in the energy market, TenneT is also restructuring to be prepared for its pivotal role in the energy transition. Dr. Peter Hoffmann is Senior Manager of TenneT TSO GmbH for System Operations. From beginning of 2020 he will lead as Director a new unit “Energy System Planning”, which will develop perspectives for the energy transition and design the TenneT grid of the future.

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.