Vera Silva is a Portuguese engineer and the chief strategy and technology officer (CSO/CTO) at

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

(GE) GE Vernova Electrification Systems division. She is one of the few women to hold a chief technology officer position in one of the top three players in the electricity transmission and distribution space. She works on electricity grids technology and

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

integration.

Early life and education

As a child Silva visited a large hydro power plant and this sparked her interest for electricity systems. Silva studied electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Porto. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1999 and a master's degree in 2003 both in electrical engineering. She moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

for her doctoral studies, earning a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in the electrical and electronics engineering in 2010. Her PhD investigated the value of flexibility in systems that use

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...

and was supervised by .

Research and career

She worked as a lecturer and data scientist at the

Polytechnic Institute of Porto The Instituto Politécnico do Porto (Polytechnic University of Porto), also referred to as Politécnico do Porto (Porto Polytechnic) and P.PORTO (since 2016, for naming and branding purposes), is a composition of multiple polytechnic schools base ...

. After completing her doctorate, Silva joined

EDF EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Education for Development Foundation, a Thai charity * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, ...

R&D in France, where she directed their program on Energy Systems and Markets. Silva is the chief technology officer at

(GE) grid solutions, where she leads 3,400 engineers around the world. She is one of the few women to be made technology leader. At

, Silva works on new electricity grid technology She believes the future will involve more sustainable and flexible technologies, integrating microgrids and

high voltage High voltage electricity refers to electrical potential large enough to cause injury or damage. In certain industries, ''high voltage'' refers to voltage above a certain threshold. Equipment and conductors that carry high voltage warrant spec ...

direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or even ...

(DC) transmission lines. She is pushing for utilities operators to find it easier to integrate renewables in homes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silva, Vera General Electric people Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Portuguese engineers University of Porto alumni