Senior Research Fellow
Tel +64 3 470 3577
Email jen.purdie@otago.ac.nz
Background
Dr Jen Purdie is a climate and energy researcher with 30 years’ experience looking at climate change impacts on natural and built environments, and on climate change risk to businesses. Jen’s PhD was in climate forecasting, and she subsequently worked in the energy industry for 10 years, forecasting wind and water on a range of time scales, and planning generation from days to years. She was also involved in electricity systems modelling out to mid-century, and complex modelling of climate impacts on the New Zealand energy system, and climate change risk reporting.
She has been a researcher at the University of Otago since 2020, and has been involved in various research projects, including modelling projected changes to wind and water in coming decades (funded by the Deep South Science Challenge), and the electricity system implications of these changes. She has studied light and heavy vehicle decarbonisation projections, the implications of different EV charging patterns on the grid, and modelling the ability of residential and industrial demand response to provide firming. Another project looks at energy implications of avoiding carbon lock-in in the built environment (funded by MBIE Smart Ideas fund).
Jen’s consulting clients have ranged from industry to government, including provision of climate change impacts data to the NZ Battery project, reports on climate change impacts on rivers for energy and irrigation companies and councils, and on wind for proposed wind farms, and the projected impact of climate change on probable maximum flood, for resource consenting purposes. She has been an expert witness in environment court cases around access to water, lectured at University on this and other topics, and supervised post-graduate students in these topics.
Current and recent research projects
- Climate change impacts on the NZ energy system – Deep South Science Challenge Domain funded project 2020–2023
- Avoiding carbon lock-in: Understanding the long-term consequences of low-carbon pathways for buildings 2022–2026
- Seasonal forecasting of hydro lake inflows using machine learning 2026–2029
Supervision
Current postgraduate students
- Maoxing Liu (PhD)
Lifecycle Carbon Assessment of the future NZ electricity system - Ghadir Zamani (PhD)
Seasonal forecasting of hydro lake inflows using machine learning
Recent postgraduate students
- Francesca Bryant-Brown (Hons)
Climate Change impacts of Wind Energy in New Zealand - Aleida Powell (Masters 2023)
Long term modelling of the NZ power system: the impacts of rapid electric vehicle uptake - Aleida Powell (Hons)
Residential demand response modelling in New Zealand (PDF) - May Robertson (Hons)
Dissertation in Energy Management
Publications
Liu, M., Purdie, J., & Jack, M. W. (2026). The evolving structure of emissions in the transition to renewable electricity systems. Journal of Cleaner Production, 538, 147314. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.147314 Journal - Research Article
Bryant Brown, F., & Purdie, J. (2025, November). The impacts of climate change on wind energy generation in New Zealand. Verbal presentation at the 19th Otago Energy Research Centre (OERC) Symposium: Security and Resilience, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Stephenson, J., Jack, M., & Purdie, J. (2025, November). Risk and resilience in NZ's future electricity system. Verbal presentation at the 19th Otago Energy Research Centre (OERC) Symposium: Security and Resilience, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Purdie, J. (2023, November). Industrial demand response to firm up a 100% renewable electricity system. Verbal presentation at the 17th Otago Energy Research Centre (OERC) Symposium: An Energy Research Agenda for 2050, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Purdie, J. (2022). Modelling climate change impacts on inflows, lake storage and spill in snow-fed hydroelectric power catchments, Southern Alps, New Zealand. Journal of Hydrology (New Zealand), 61(2), 151-178. Journal - Research Article