Nikolaos Sapountzoglou

Energy Engineer | Deputy Energy Coordinator

Switzerland

About

Electrical and Computer engineer (and space enthusiast) with 9+ years of experience in power systems engineering. My key areas of expertise encompass energy management, fault diagnosis, smart girds, electric vehicles, AI, and contract and project management. A natural strategist and problem-solver, excelling in conceptualizing and deploying solutions that increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Experience

  • CERN (Geneva Metropolitan Area)
    • Energy Engineer
      Jan 2026 - Present · 7 mos

      Staff Member - Energy & Climate Action Section | Environmental Protection Group (HSE-ENV-EC) ---------------------------- A. Contract management ---------------------------- • Technical lead for CERN’s electricity supply contracts, overseeing both primary and backup power procurement. • Technical lead for CERN’s Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) and aggregation contracts. -------------------------------------- B. Energy analysis and forecasting -------------------------------------- • Overseeing energy consumption monitoring and conducting forecast analysis of electricity requirements for the accelerator complex. • Producing financial and electricity demand simulations for CERN’s Medium-Term Plan. • Serving as operational manager of the WebEnergy energy monitoring tool. -------------------------- C. Energy management -------------------------- • Serving as Scientific Secretary of CERN's Energy Management Panel (EMP), providing strategic insight through presentations on forecasting performance and electricity market developments. • Contributing to and coordinating CERN's energy management system activities (ISO 50001) including the follow-up of the energy review, audits and action plans. • Serving as CERN's Deputy Energy Coordinator. --------------------------------- D. Research and Development --------------------------------- • Contributing to the RF2.0 Horizon Europe project (https://rf20.eu/), supporting the integration of 24 PMUs across the LHC grid loop, historical energy data analysis and the creation of a digital twin.

    • Energy Engineer
      Sep 2024 - Dec 2025 · 1 yr 4 mos

      Staff Member - Director’s Office | Accelerators & Technology Sector (ATS-DO) ---------------------------- A. Contract management ---------------------------- • Technical lead for CERN’s electricity supply contracts, overseeing both primary and backup power procurement. • Served as secondary technical lead for CERN’s Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) and aggregation contracts. • Directed the retendering of the main electricity supply contract for 2027-2028 (drafting the market survey and technical specifications) and the renewal of all remaining electricity contracts. ------------------------------------- B. Energy analysis and forecasting ------------------------------------- • Oversaw energy consumption monitoring and conducted forecast analysis of electricity demand for the accelerator complex. • Achieved a record 98% monthly forecasting accuracy for electricity consumption in 2025. • Reduced the number of forecast revisions per year by a factor of three. • Produced financial and electricity demand simulations for CERN’s Medium-Term Plan. -------------------------- C. Energy management -------------------------- • Acted as Scientific Secretary of CERN’s Energy Management Panel (EMP), delivering strategic insight through presentations on forecasting performance and electricity market developments. • Acted as operational manager of the WebEnergy energy monitoring tool. • Supported ISO 50001 energy management activities, contributing to CERN’s successful recertification in 2025. ---------------------------------- D. Research and Development ---------------------------------- • Contributed to the RF2.0 Horizon Europe project, supporting the deployment of 24 PMUs across the LHC grid loop. • Supported analysis of the carbon intensity of electricity generation for the Future Colliders Comparative Evaluation Working Group report.

    • Electrical Project Manager
      Apr 2022 - Aug 2024 · 2 yrs 5 mos

      Senior Fellow - Electrical Project Management Section | Electrical Engineering Group (EN-EL-EPM) • Led multiple grid upgrade and consolidation projects of up to €1 million ensuring their successful and timely delivery. • Led a team of up to 10 electrical engineers and technicians for the MV and LV grid upgrades of the ATLAS and CMS experiments. • Achieved a cost reduction of 20% through technical optimization in the electrification of CMS’ new clean rooms. • Managed the commercial and financial obligations with contractors. • Drafted market surveys and the technical specifications for new projects. • Led the RF2.0 Horizon Europe research project for CERN for the installation of PMUs across the LHC grid loop and the creation of a digital twin.

  • Independent Expert at European Commission
    Feb 2025 - Present · 1 yr 6 mos

    Expert Evaluator of HORIZON proposals for the European Research Executive Agency.

  • Integrated System Specialist at ENTSO-E
    Sep 2021 - Mar 2022 · 7 mos

    Supported the Research, Development and Innovation committee (RDIC) actions. • Supported Working Group's 4 (Future of Energy Systems) activities: coordinated the Power-to-Heat integration work stream and drafted the "Study on Power and Heat Sectors: Interactions and Synergies". •Drafted the 3rd version of the INTERRFACE Horizon 2020 project's Exploitation Plan. •Assisted in the planning and organization of ENTSO-E Workshops.

  • EVERGi (1 yr 6 mos)
    • Senior Researcher
      Sep 2021 - Feb 2022 · 6 mos

      Supervising PhD students and benchmarking of research topics and roadmaps on vehicle-to-grid technologies.

    • Senior Researcher and Technical Project Manager
      Sep 2020 - Aug 2021 · 1 yr

      Post-doc technical project manager on smart microgrids, sustainable energy communities and vehicle-to-grid applications at the EVERGi team of MOBI research group at VUB. •Managed H2020 and Flemish smart microgrids, sustainable energy communities and vehicle–to–grid projects for VUB (eCharge4Drivers, BD4OPEM & OPTIBIDS). •Supervised 2 PhD students.

  • Early-Stage Researcher (Marie Curie Fellow) at G2Elab
    Sep 2016 - Nov 2019 · 3 yrs 3 mos

    Early stage researcher in G2Elab of UGA for the Incite-Itn. http://www.incite-itn.eu/fellows/nikolaos-sapountzoglou/ • Published 3 journal papers and 4 conference papers. • Contributed with 2 web articles to the Incite blog: - Solar Energy: The Once and Future King - The Last Question: Does Space Affect Electrical Power Networks? • Created a Virtual Lab for the Incite website:- Fault Diagnosis in Low Voltage Smart Distribution Grids: The effect of fault resistance on the detection and isolation of faults. • Participated in 5 Summer Schools and in 7 Workshops. • Coordinated various tasks as an ESR representative for 10 months (Sep. 2018 - Jul. 2019) including the ESR input to the Incite video.