Engineer Dr Henna Bains has been named Chief Technical Officer of Kinewell Energy, a cleantech scale-up providing software solutions to green energy producers.
Dr Bains joined Kinewell in 2022 after obtaining a PhD in engineering from Durham University titled ‘Offshore transmission system planning under severe uncertainty’. Supported by funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the UK’s Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, her research explored how advanced mathematics could be used to help wind farm developers make more risk-informed decisions.
Working with the team at Kinewell, she has seen her effort realised in the form of the Kinewell Designing Offshore Transmission Systems (KDOTS) software, which launched last year.
The software enables developers in the early project design phase to make informed decisions when selecting offshore transmission infrastructure. Despite the uncertainty of project development, it saves engineering time through digitalisation by comparing different electrical and hydrogen export systems.
As CTO, Dr Bains is now responsible for the development of all Kinewell software solutions. The Kinewell software suite also includes KLOC, which economically optimises inter-array cables, and KWOTA, which optimises turbine locations.
