James is a final year PhD student at the energy-met group, University of Reading, researching climate-risk to critical infrastructure under the supervision of Prof. David Brayshaw. In his research, he develops methods for using reanalysis weather data, climate projections, and risk preferences to aid reserve power system capacity planning. Differences between predominantly cooling-driven critical infrastructure and the wider electricity demand result in levels of ‘surplus’ reserve power capacity, which depend on seasonal and prevailing weather conditions. The viability of ‘surplus’ for alternative, profitable purposes (including ancillary services) is demonstrated in case studies of British telecommunication infrastructure. He has previously worked as an assistant researcher on the S2S4E project (2020), calculating value of sub-seasonal forecasts applied to energy futures contracts. His background is in physics (MPhys University of Oxford 2019).