Dr Xu received his B.E. and M.E. degrees from South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, and PhD degree from The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, all in electrical engineering.

He conducted postdoctoral research with the University of Sydney Postdoctoral Fellowship in Australia and then joined Nanyang Technological University with Nanyang Assistant Professorship. He was promoted to Associate Professor in early 2021, and since early 2024 has been appointed as the Cham Tao Soon Professor in Engineering (an endowed professorship named after NTU’s founding president). He serves as the Director of Center for Power Engineering (CPE) and Co-Director of SP Group-NTU Joint Lab at School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and the Cluster Director (Smart Grids & Microgrids) at Energy Research Institute (ERI@N) at NTU.

Dr Xu and his SODA (Stability, Optimization, and Data-Analytics) group are focusing on:
1) stability and control of renewable-energy power systems
2) control, operation, and planning for microgrids and distributed energy resource (DER)
3) data-analytics for smart grid applications

As the first/corresponding author, Dr Xu has published 3 books, and 130 IEEE Transactions and 35 IET journal papers. He has 20 "Web-of-Science Highly Cited Papers”, and received 10 IEEE/IET paper contest and conference best paper awards, the 2022 IET Premium Award (Best Paper), the 2021 IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid Outstanding Paper Award, the 2020 IET Energy Conversion & Economics Premium Paper Award, and the 2018 Applied Energy Highly Cited Paper Award. His research outcomes have been practically applied/licensed to industry partners in Australia, the USA, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, China Mainland, and Singapore.
His research in Singapore is funded by a range of agencies and industry partners, including National Research Foundation (NRF), Ministry of Education (MOE), Energy Market Authority (EMA), AStar, Housing & Development Board (HDB), DSO National Laboratories, Rolls-Royce, Singtel, Infineon, JTC (Jurong Town Corporation), SingaporePower (SP) Group, Lite-On, and technology start-up companies, etc.
Besides, he has also been actively collaborating with many universities in Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, UK, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Germany, India, and the USA through joint research projects and research student exchanges.

Dr Xu's professional service roles include Associate Editor for IEEE Trans. Smart Grid and IEEE Trans. Power Systems, Chairman of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Singapore Chapter (2021 and 2022), and the General Co-Chair of the 11th IEEE ISGT-Asia Conference, Nov. 2022, as well as Chair and Vice-Chair for several IEEE Task-Forces.