[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE ELECTRIC GRID
OF THE FUTURE
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JUNE 7, 2018
__________
Serial No. 115-63
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
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Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov
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COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY
HON. LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas, Chair
FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas
DANA ROHRABACHER, California ZOE LOFGREN, California
MO BROOKS, Alabama DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois
RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon
BILL POSEY, Florida AMI BERA, California
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky ELIZABETH H. ESTY, Connecticut
RANDY K. WEBER, Texas MARC A. VEASEY, Texas
STEPHEN KNIGHT, California DONALD S. BEYER, JR., Virginia
BRIAN BABIN, Texas JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia CONOR LAMB, Pennsylvania
BARRY LOUDERMILK, Georgia JERRY McNERNEY, California
RALPH LEE ABRAHAM, Louisiana ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado
GARY PALMER, Alabama PAUL TONKO, New York
DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida BILL FOSTER, Illinois
JIM BANKS, Indiana MARK TAKANO, California
ANDY BIGGS, Arizona COLLEEN HANABUSA, Hawaii
ROGER W. MARSHALL, Kansas CHARLIE CRIST, Florida
NEAL P. DUNN, Florida
CLAY HIGGINS, Louisiana
RALPH NORMAN, South Carolina
DEBBIE LESKO, Arizona
------
Subcommittee on Energy
HON. RANDY K. WEBER, Texas, Chair
DANA ROHRABACHER, California MARC A. VEASEY, Texas, Ranking
FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma Member
MO BROOKS, Alabama ZOE LOFGREN, California
RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
STEPHEN KNIGHT, California JERRY McNERNEY, California
GARY PALMER, Alabama PAUL TONKO, New York
DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida BILL FOSTER, Illinois
NEAL P. DUNN, Florida MARK TAKANO, California
RALPH NORMAN, South Carolina EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas
LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas
C O N T E N T S
June 7, 2018
Page
Witness List..................................................... 2
Hearing Charter.................................................. 3
Opening Statements
Statement by Representative Randy K. Weber, Chairman,
Subcommittee on Energy, Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology, U.S. House of Representatives...................... 4
Written Statement............................................ 6
Statement by Representative Marc A. Veasey, Ranking Member,
Subcommittee on Energy, Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology, U.S. House of Representatives...................... 8
Written Statement............................................ 10
Statement by Representative Lamar Smith, Chairman, Committee on
Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives.. 12
Written Statement............................................ 14
Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ranking
Member, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House
of Representatives............................................. 16
Written Statement............................................ 17
Witnesses:
The Honorable Bruce J. Walker, Assistant Secretary, Office of
Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Department of
Energy; Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Cybersecurity,
Energy Security, and Emergency Response, Department of Energy
Oral Statement............................................... 19
Written Statement............................................ 22
Dr. John Sarrao, Principal Associate Director, Science,
Technology, and Engineering Directorate, Los Alamos National
Laboratory
Oral Statement............................................... 28
Written Statement............................................ 30
Mr. Robert Gramlich, President, Grid Strategies, LLC.
Oral Statement............................................... 37
Written Statement............................................ 39
Dr. Joseph A. Heppert, Vice President for Research, Texas Tech
University
Oral Statement............................................... 55
Written Statement............................................ 57
Discussion....................................................... 61
Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
The Honorable Bruce J. Walker, Assistant Secretary, Office of
Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Department of
Energy; Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Cybersecurity,
Energy Security, and Emergency Response, Department of Energy.. 74
Dr. John Sarrao, Principal Associate Director, Science,
Technology, and Engineering Directorate, Los Alamos National
Laboratory..................................................... 80
Mr. Robert Gramlich, President, Grid Strategies, LLC............. 82
Dr. Joseph A. Heppert, Vice President for Research, Texas Tech
University..................................................... 89
Appendix II: Additional Material for the Record
Document submitted by Representative Donald S. Beyer, Jr.,
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of
Representatives................................................ 94
THE ELECTRIC GRID OF THE FUTURE
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THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2018
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Energy,
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
Washington, D.C.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 1:07 p.m., in
Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Randy
Weber [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Weber. The Subcommittee on Energy will come to
order. Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare
recesses of the Subcommittee at any time.
Welcome to today's hearing titled ``The Electric Grid of
the Future.'' I now recognize myself for five minutes for an
opening statement.
And by the way, we may have votes called just in short
order, so we're going to probably be a little quicker than
normal here, not that anything we do here is very normal.
Today, we will hear from the Department of Energy (DOE),
Los Alamos National Laboratory, the private sector, and Texas
Tech University on research for creating the electric grid of
the future. The goal of this research is to ensure energy
delivery systems are reliable, resilient, and secure. A
reliable grid delivers energy to consumers and businesses on
demand regardless of the energy sources. A resilient grid keeps
the energy flowing during an adverse event, such as a
hurricane, and ensures a restoration of energy once an outage
has occurred. A secure grid protects our energy infrastructure
from hostile disruptions due to physical or cyberattacks, which
are a growing risk as more industrial control systems are
connected online.
The DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy
Reliability (OE) is leading the early-stage research and
development programs that promise to deliver advancements in
grid technology. Small but mighty, OE has the least amount of
funding for applied energy programs at DOE but carries out a
vital mission through partnerships with industry and research
conducted by the national labs.
Los Alamos applies science expertise in physics, network
science, algorithms, and applied mathematics to develop
computational modeling and data analytics to help optimize
modern electrical grids. Los Alamos developed these
capabilities through its nuclear weapons mission. This kind of
basic science expertise--with multi-disciplinary applications--
is part of what makes the national lab system an incubator for
new technologies and continues to advance research beyond its
originally intended goals.
Academia and industry are also partners on grid
modernization research. Texas Tech University hosts the Global
Laboratory for Energy Asset Management and Manufacturing, or
GLEAMM, facility that works to develop innovative power
technologies and advance next-generation energy delivery
technology. GLEAMM focuses on wind, solar, battery storage,
cybersecurity, and microgrid technologies that will all
encompass the electrical grid of the future.
Advanced grid technologies can have a significant impact
when the grid is faced with weather-related events that can
threaten reliability. This month brings the official start of
the 2018 hurricane season, and last year, communities in my
home State of Texas, as well as Florida and Puerto Rico, lost
power. Modern grid technology in Texas, such as the use of
smart meters, were able to identify power outages and quickly
help restore power after Hurricane Harvey.
Unfortunately, while they have made significant progress
rebuilding capabilities, there are still communities in Puerto
Rico without power. That's why DOE, OE, and five national labs
led by Argonne National Laboratory are working daily to provide
grid modeling tools to Puerto Rico. The national labs are
combining their current skills and capabilities in order to
help Puerto Rico to plan, to operate, and to rebuild a more
resilient grid. These models help grid operators better predict
where the highest risk of power disruption could be and
determine the potential impacts on critical power loads that
support Puerto Rico's public health and its safety
infrastructure.
The national labs hope by improving existing grid models
the island will be able to make key investments in resilient
energy infrastructure before the current hurricane season.
Additional analysis will inform Puerto Rico on long-term
investment priorities for electrical transmission,
distribution, renewable energy, battery storage, microgrids,
and strategic power reserves.
The partnership between the federal government, the
national labs, academia, and industry has the potential to
transform energy delivery systems. As we continue supporting
advanced grid research, I would like to learn more about how
DOE can improve the development of new technology and our
understanding of electrical systems.
I want to thank our panel of witnesses for their testimony
today, and I look forward to a positive discussion about grid
modernization research.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Weber follows:]
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Chairman Weber. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the
Subcommittee, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Veasey, for an
opening statement.
Mr. Veasey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and my fellow Texan,
and everyone else that is here today, our distinguished panel.
Just last week, I want to remind everybody that a White
House memo was leaked that raised several questions. It
detailed a plan to direct the Energy Secretary, also from
Texas, to use authorities vested in him from the Federal Power
Act and the Defense Production Act to save coal and nuclear
power plants. Section 202 of the Federal Power Act has
historically been used to address energy supply concerns
related to natural disasters, other major energy shortages.
Likewise, the Defense Production Act is a Cold-War-era statute
that allows the President to nationalize elements of U.S.
industry in the interest of national security.
This proposal has been roundly criticized by a wide range
of trusted independent experts, including Wall Street Journal
editorial page, as poorly justified and legally dubious. Our
utilities, States, and researchers do the hard work of
hardening our energy infrastructure to cybersecurity threats
and national disasters, and meanwhile, the Trump Administration
is inventing emergencies to bail out coal and nuclear plants
while ignoring the real problems.
I'm sure the White House views this legal loophole that
surfaced in the leaked memo as an easy way to try to fulfill
campaign promises, which is very bad and very unsound when it
comes to energy policy. However, the real impact has not been
thought through by the Administration.
It would wreak havoc on our energy markets and create a
number of misaligned incentives. As severe weather, driven by
climate change, becomes more intense and damaging to the
electric grid, this Administration wants to address the problem
by offering financial bailouts and picking winners and losers
as it relates to coal, and any reasonable person would agree
that this seems backward. Moreover, it wouldn't do anything to
make the electric grid more resilient.
The grid experts that have examined the issue would
characterize our nation's priorities far differently than this
politically motivated Administration does. That is why FERC
unanimously--they unanimously rejected Secretary Perry's last
proposal to bail out coal and nuclear power plants. And while
the Trump Administration works with coal CEOs to craft a plan
to benefit the industry's bottom dollar, the American people
are being left behind.
And I look forward to hearing today from Mr. Gramlich today
on his recent report titled ``A Customer-Focused Framework for
Electric System Resilience.'' I can't think of a better way to
approach this issue. The purpose of the electric grid is to
provide reliable, affordable power to customers. Any
conversation that does not first consider the customer is not
worth having.
And while I am critical of these actions by Secretary Perry
on grid resilience, I want to be clear that I strongly support
developing advanced technologies to enable carbon capture on
coal-fired power plants and the next generation of nuclear
reactors. In fact, I just introduced a bipartisan bill, H.R.
5745, the Fossil Energy Research and Development Act of 2018,
that would authorize activities to support the development of
technologies and methods for carbon capture, storage,
utilization, and removal. It is the most comprehensive
legislative proposal for fossil energy research in Congress
today. So I certainly have no issues with federal support for
these energy options. I just think that we need to be a lot
smarter about how we approach these issues.
We're very fortunate to have Assistant Secretary Bruce
Walker with us today. I look forward to hearing justifications
for the actions proposed by Secretary Perry in the White House
memo, as it was proposed to FERC. I also look forward to
hearing your priorities for the Office of Electricity.
In the fiscal year 2019 budget proposal, the Administration
requested a severe 37 percent cut to the Office of Electricity
and reorganization of these investments. I'm sure we'll discuss
that here shortly. And again, while I'm not opposed to the
reorganization in concept, I'm curious how splitting DOE's
smallest energy technology offices into two offices will ensure
that these activities continue to be a priority in years to
come.
And before I close, I also would like to take some personal
privilege to note that, unfortunately, this will be the last
time that Joe Flarida will be staffing us here on the Committee
at least in this Congress. That's because he recently won the
Bosch Foundation Fellowship and will be heading to Germany in a
few weeks. I know that staff on both sides of the aisle
recognize that Joe has done a tremendous job for the
Subcommittee in his time here.
Sehr gut, Herr Flarida. Auf wiedersehen. And we look
forward to seeing you when you come back.
He played a very key role in negotiating a bipartisan,
bicameral legislative package, the Department of Energy
Research and Innovation Act, that has since passed the House
and is now advancing in the Senate. And he was the lead staffer
in developing and vetting language for the fossil energy
research bill that I previously mentioned. That bill has now
been endorsed by a broad and impressive coalition of
stakeholders, and I know that would not have happened without
all the hard work that Joe put into this effort.
We wish you luck, and I hope that we can find a way to work
together again. And I know you're going to have a great
opportunity overseas. Congratulations, Joe.
And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Veasey follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Weber. Thank you. I'm not sure what you said in
German, but I did speak with Joe a few weeks back about them
going over there and told him he needs to learn to speak
German, but, more importantly, since they're thinking about
starting a family, he better learn to speak wife. I'm just
saying. So thank you, Mr. Veasey.
I now recognize the Chairman of the full committee, Mr.
Smith.
Chairman Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Subcommittee today is going to examine the Department
of Energy's effort to modernize the electrical grid, and I very
much look forward to hearing what our witnesses have to say on
that subject.
DOE, our national laboratories, and universities across the
country are working to develop next-generation technologies
that will make up our future electric grid. This critical
research and development will help address vulnerabilities that
range from cyberattacks to natural disasters.
Another challenge is developing grid-scale battery storage
and incorporating that into our electric grid. Renewable energy
and distributed energy resources are changing the way
electricity is produced and delivered throughout the nation.
These energy sources are intermittent and depend on the sun to
shine and the wind to blow. Without the capacity to efficiently
store the energy produced from renewable energy, these
resources can only make a minimal contribution to America's
electricity needs. Energy storage is the key to modernizing the
grid without sacrificing reliability.
My home State of Texas offers a ready example of the impact
battery storage could have on harnessing renewable power. Texas
is the top wind-producing State in the country, so it's no
surprise that Sandia National Laboratory chose to partner with
Texas Tech University on a wind-energy field testing site in
Lubbock, Texas. The Scaled Wind Farm Technology Facility, or
SWiFT, brings together academia, industry, and the expertise
found only at the national laboratories to test and develop
wind energy technology. While SWiFT's primary objectives are to
improve wind turbine performance and the efficiency of wind
energy production, SWiFT also provides a testbed for supporting
wind power with battery technology.
Researchers at SWiFT are testing different battery
chemistries and designs to harness the power of wind energy on
demand. Breakthroughs in grid-scale battery storage technology
will help incorporate renewable energy resources into the
nation's energy mix. But scaling up batteries will necessitate
addressing cost, efficiency, and size limitation problems. DOE
research and development can provide these solutions and build
the foundation for the next fundamental breakthrough in modern
grid technology.
And DOE continues to prioritize the Grid Modernization
Initiative, a crosscutting research program that harnesses the
skillsets of individual labs to develop new grid technologies.
At Los Alamos National Laboratory, home to one of today's
witnesses, researchers are developing new power system designs
that will improve the reliability and resiliency of the grid.
With the technical expertise developed through its nuclear
weapons program, Los Alamos uses applied mathematics and
advanced modeling capabilities to research multiple energy
resource delivery systems.
The national laboratories are also home to the Joint Center
for Energy Storage Research Energy Innovation Hub. The DOE hub
brings scientists, engineers, and manufacturers together in
order to develop transformative energy storage technologies.
H.R. 589, the DOE Research and Innovation Act, has passed the
House and authorizes the Department of Energy Energy Innovation
Hub program to continue this important collaborative research
effort. By developing a better battery, national labs and
universities can help the private sector lead the way and bring
battery storage technology to the energy marketplace. This
early-stage research will help create a modern, reliable,
resilient grid, and that's what we all need in this country.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I'll yield back.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Smith follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Weber. I thank the gentleman for yielding back.
It is now my distinct privilege to yield to the Ranking
Member of the full committee, Ms. Johnson.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me get
my breath.
Let me thank all the witnesses for being here today. DOE's
Office of Electricity support programs that are critical to
improving the flexibility and reliability to our electric grid
while also enabling a broad range of clean energy resources to
play a far larger role in our nation's power and transportation
sectors. This is another reason that I'm so concerned about the
Administration's budget proposal for the Department, which
would cut funding for this office by 37 percent, and that
overall cuts includes 62 percent cut to clean energy
transmission and reliability, a 74 percent cut to smart grid
research, and an 81 percent energy storage R&D.
Despite the fact that Secretary Perry has now referred to
energy storage as the Holy Grail of energy in several
Congressional hearings, these large proposed cuts to energy
reliability and resilience research are also curious in light
of several recent proposals made by the Secretary to take
unprecedented urgent actions that would prop up uneconomic
power plants under the guise of ensuring the reliability and
resilience of our electric grid.
Independent experts across the political spectrum have
resoundedly rejected these proposals in favor of far more
rigorous, well-justified approach to addressing these issues,
while continuing to make substantial progress toward our
nation's clean energy future. And I believe Mr. Gramlich will
be able to discuss more--in more detail. There's no reason that
we can't have a secure, clean, reliable, and resilient energy
sector that takes advantage of a broad range of our resource
and technology options, including renewables, energy storage,
nuclear power, and fossil fuels with carbon capture without
going to such an extreme of ill-conceived lengths to save one
particular resource at the expense of the others.
Lastly, I'd like to take this opportunity to note sadly
that this will be the Committee's last hearing staffed by Joe
Flarida at least for now. He will--he's worked for us over the
last five years, started out as an intern, and rising to become
one of the top staffers of our Energy Subcommittee team. He's
done an outstanding job. He's the son of a nurse. He's a highly
professional--he's done highly professional work throughout his
time on the Committee, including developing several
substantive, well-vetted, bipartisan legislative proposals that
I'm confident will continue to advance even as he moves to
bigger and better things.
He's leaving because he's won the prestigious Bosch
Foundation Fellowship. In a few weeks, he'll be moving to
Germany for one year. And I'd like to congratulate you, Joe,
and wish you well and hope you'll come back to see us after
you've made our country proud.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Weber. The gentlelady yields back, and I do echo
her comments. Can we all give Joe a hand?
[Applause.]
Chairman Weber. I will introduce the witnesses. Our first
witness today is Hon. Bruce Walker, the Department Of Energy's
Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity and the
Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity,
Energy Security, and Emergency Response. Assistant Secretary
Walker has more than 25 years of electric utility experience,
previously working as the Vice President of Asset Strategy and
Policy at National Grid and Director of Corporate and Emergency
Management at Consolidated Edison of New York. He is the
founder of Modern Energy Insights, Inc., and the cofounder of
Global Smart Grid Federation. Assistant Secretary Walker has
served as a member of DOE's Electricity Advisory Committee, an
advisory committee for the Megawatt-Scale Integration Lab, and
was a member of GridWise Alliance, Incorporated.
He was confirmed as Assistant Secretary by the United
States Senate in October of 2017. He holds a bachelor of
electrical engineering from Manhattan College and a juris
doctorate in law from Pace University where he was the
technical editor on the Environmental Law Review. Welcome, Mr.
Walker.
Our next witness is Dr. John Sarrao--am I saying that
right? Okay--the Principal Director for Science, Technology,
and Engineering at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Previously,
Dr. Sarrao was the Program Director for Los Alamos Office of
Science Programs and Matter-Radiation Interactions in Extremes
facility. From 2013 to 2018, he served as LANL's Associate
Director for Theory, Simulation, and Computation where he
applied science-based predictions to existing and emerging
national security missions.
Dr. Sarrao has held a number of leadership positions within
LANL's materials community, including Division Leader of the
Materials, Physics, and Application Division and Group Leader
of Condensed Matter and Thermal Physics. He has also served on
a number of DOE Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committees
(BESAC) subcommittees, helping to set strategic directions for
materials research.
Dr. Sarrao is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and Los
Alamos National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in physics
from the University of California Los Angeles. Welcome, Doctor.
Mr. Rob Gramlich, our next witness, is President of Grid
Strategies, LLC. Prior to his current position, Mr. Gramlich
oversaw transmission policy at the American Wind Energy
Association as Senior Vice President for Government and Public
Affairs, Interim CEO, and Policy Director. He was Economic
Advisor to FERC Chairman Pat Wood, III, from 2001 to 2005. He
has served on advisory committees for the United States
Department of Energy and the North American Energy Standards
Board as Vice Chair of the Business Council for Sustainable
Energy and as Interim Executive Director of the Wind Energy
Foundation.
Mr. Gramlich has been the recipient of Energy Systems
Integration Group Award, American Wind Energy Association's
Technical Achievement Award, and the FERC's Exemplar of Public
Service Award. He received a bachelor of arts with honors in
economics from Colby College and a master of public policy from
the University of California Berkeley. Welcome, Mr. Gramlich.
I now recognize the Chairman of the full Committee, Mr.
Smith, to introduce our last witness.
Chairman Smith. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate
being able to introduce our last witness today, and that is Dr.
Joseph Heppert, who is Vice President for Research at Texas
Tech University. It so happens that my district includes
Fredericksburg, Texas, which has a satellite campus of Texas
Tech with about 200 students, and believe me, I leverage that
to the maximum extent possible.
We are glad to welcome Dr. Heppert today to hear about how
Texas Tech is contributing to research that benefits the
electric grid. Previously, Dr. Heppert served as Associate Vice
Chancellor for Research at the University of Kansas. He also
chaired KU's Chemistry Department and was the founding Director
of the University Center for Science Education.
Dr. Heppert has been active in projects to improve science
teaching and science teacher preparation and is the past Chair
of the American Chemical Society's Committee on Education. He
is a fellow of the American Chemical Society and currently
serves as Chair of the American Chemical Society's Committee on
Budget and Finance.
Dr. Heppert received a bachelor of science in chemistry
from San Jose State University and a Ph.D. in inorganic
chemistry, often thought to be the toughest subject, from the
University of Wisconsin Madison.
Dr. Heppert, we welcome you and appreciate what Texas Tech
is doing.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Weber. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to
all the witnesses for being here today.
I now recognize Assistant Secretary Walker for five minutes
to present his testimony.
TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE BRUCE J. WALKER,
ASSISTANT SECRETARY, OFFICE OF ELECTRICITY DELIVERY
AND ENERGY RELIABILITY, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY;
ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY, OFFICE OF CYBERSECURITY,
ENERGY SECURITY, AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE,
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Mr. Walker. Thank you, Chairman. Chairman Weber, Chairman
Smith, Ranking Member Veasey, and Ranking Member Johnson, and
distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, I appreciate the
opportunity today to discuss the priorities and research
programs within the Department of Energy's Office of
Electricity and Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and
Emergency Restoration.
The Department of Energy is focused on ensuring that the
energy infrastructure is capable of securing our national
security. Therefore, the resilience and reliability of the
nation's electric grid is of the utmost importance. OE and
CESER collaborate with industry, academia, state and local
governments, and other energy sector stakeholders on numerous
research and development programs to achieve these objectives.
Using the definitions set forth in the Presidential Policy
Directive 21, resilience is defined as, ``the ability to
prepare for and adapt to changing conditions and withstand and
recover rapidly from disruption. Resilience includes the
ability to withstand and recover from deliberate attacks,
accidents, or naturally occurring threats or incidents.''
DOE, which is a national security agency with a
comprehensive intelligence community-informed view of
resilience, recognizes that the energy sector has been the main
focus of cyber and physical threat attacks. I will seek to
highlight the actions we at DOE are taking to address the very
real risks we face.
First, the former Office of Electricity Delivery and
Reliability has been divided into two separate departments in
order to significantly increase the focus commensurate with the
known risk of cyber and physical threats, thereby creating the
Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency
Response, as well as the Office of Electricity.
My office's first priority is the creation of a North
American Energy System Resiliency model. This model capitalizes
on previous national lab work and is being leveraged to fully
understand the resiliency risks associated with operating a
highly diversified, regionally isolated grid that supplies
electric energy for North America. Most importantly, the model
will include analysis regarding the significant
interdependencies that have evolved over the last couple
decades between the various energy infrastructures.
Significantly, the model will highlight where there are
strategic opportunities for specific capabilities offered by
certain types of infrastructure, for example, energy storage
for frequency control. Most importantly, from DOE's vantage
point, the model will inform national security investments that
will improve our overall resiliency capability.
Another priority for OE is to revolutionize sensing
technology utilization. The goal is to use high-fidelity,
reasonable cost-sensing technology to integrate near real-time
data into the North American grid model. We will also be able
to use signature recognition and correlation modeling informed
by artificial intelligence and machine-to-machine learning to
significantly improve the performance of the grid. Furthermore,
these efforts will enable strategic investments by highlighting
system vulnerabilities and enhance the integration of
distributed energy resources in the use of microgrids and
energy storage.
Storage, the Holy Grail of energy, has a huge role to play
in national security. There are various initiatives within DOE
focused on storage from pump storage to flow batteries. There
has never been a time where the availability of megawatt-scale
storage has been more important. OE is pursuing storage
technology capable of providing reactive and real-power control
for bulk and distribution power systems, as well as frequency
control.
Working with the national laboratories, OE is pursuing
three high-probability capabilities: flow batteries using
aqueous soluble organics, sodium-based batteries, and
rechargeables--zinc manganese dioxide batteries.
The potential contributions of storage to enhance national
security across North America are astounding. OE and CESER are
members of the Grid Modernization Initiative. The GMI focuses
on the development of new architectural concepts, tools, and
technologies that will better measure and analyze, predict, and
protect the grid. Originally consisting of OE and the Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the GMI has been
expanded to include CESER, the Office of Fossil Energy, and the
Office of Nuclear Energy to ensure a coordinated and
comprehensive DOE approach to R&D.
The Grid Modernization Lab Consortium is part of the GMI,
and it established a strategic partnership between DOE and the
national labs. We are presently defining the next multiyear
plan to continue our efforts for our R&D projects within--with
our labs.
In conclusion, the energy sector continues to face
challenges and threats every day. The Department continues to
pursue diverse yet targeted R&D projects to further enhance the
resilience and reliability of our nation's grid and energy
infrastructure necessary to ensure national security. The
cutting-edge technologies developed at our national labs and
the ongoing research and development conducted in collaboration
with our public- and private-sector partners will continue to
strengthen the resilience and reliability of the grid for years
to come.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Walker follows:]
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Chairman Weber. Thank you, sir.
Dr. Sarrao, you're recognized for five minutes.
TESTIMONY OF DR. JOHN SARRAO,
PRINCIPAL ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR,
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY,
AND ENGINEERING DIRECTORATE,
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Mr. Sarrao. Chairman Weber, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member
Veasey, Ranking Member Johnson, members of the subcommittee,
thank you for the opportunity to address future research
opportunities for the United States' electric grid and to
describe the many benefits and reduced risks that would result
from a more integrated, resilient, and modernized grid
infrastructure.
My name is John Sarrao, and I'm the Principal Associate
Director for Science, Technology, and Engineering at Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico. My personal research and
technical leadership career has emphasized national security
science from plutonium physics research to advanced materials
design and discovery to stewarding Los Alamos' high-performance
computing resources and simulation capabilities.
Energy security is a national security priority, and Los
Alamos National Laboratory has contributed meaningfully to
energy security in general and grid resilience research in
specific for many years. The challenges that today's domestic
electricity grid face include the need for enhanced resilience
against both natural events and external actors, robust
optimization and control capability for integrating renewables,
and expanded tools for grid operators to detect anomalies,
including the effective utilization of machine-learning
methods.
In responding to these challenges, Los Alamos brings
expertise in physics and engineering, applied math and
statistics, and simulation and computation. We further have a
proven track record of providing mission-centric reach-back
expertise in weapons physics and design, including weapons
effects, high-fidelity and multiscale earth systems modeling,
and space science and space weather capabilities.
Finally, Los Alamos is deeply committed to workforce
development and idea dissemination, hosting a regular Grid
Science Winter School and Conference to help educate and expand
the grid research community.
To further support these efforts, Los Alamos has launched
the Advanced Network Science Initiative, ANSI. ANSI is designed
to facilitate cross-project basic and applied research that is
focused on modeling and understanding the nation's critical
infrastructures such as electric power, water, petroleum, and
natural gas.
Given our demonstrated history in infrastructure analysis
and grid research, Los Alamos was excited to participate in the
Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, the GMLC, beginning
in fiscal year 2016. The initiative has allowed a number of
national laboratories to work together, bringing their
complementary capabilities to bear on key challenges and
delivering positive impacts for our electricity grid.
As we look to the future of grid research both under the
auspices of GMLC and more broadly, Los Alamos sees several
important challenges that need to be addressed: first, complex
threats to U.S. power systems. U.S. power systems are
potentially vulnerable to large-scale impacts from complex
threats, including geomagnetic disturbances and electromagnetic
pulses from a high-altitude nuclear detonation.
Second, cyber physical threats. Cyber or combined cyber and
physical attacks on infrastructure can have widespread and
lasting impacts on critical infrastructure. Developing a cyber-
physical impact and consequences modeling and simulation
capability will enable stakeholders to assess the possible
consequences of different types of cyber attacks on critical
infrastructure and prioritize additional investments.
Third, gas-grid coupled systems. Natural gas pipelines are
a key energy infrastructure for the United States, and they are
only becoming more so with the addition of supply from
unconventional natural gas resources. The expansion of central-
plant natural gas-fired electric generation in the electric
transmission system and the expected expansion of gas-fire
distributed generation in the electric distribution system
would further expand that.
And fourth, grid-water network coupling and control.
Potable and wastewater systems are major electrical loads that
can be controlled to the benefit of both the water and
electrical systems. With storage naturally built in, potable
water networks are an infrastructure that could play a key role
in advanced control and optimization of the electrical system.
However, these water resources must also maintain their own
reliability and resilience.
I appreciate the opportunity in these brief remarks to
describe some of the future challenges and research
opportunities for the United States' electric grid that we see
at Los Alamos. Success in these endeavors would result in a
more integrated, resilient, and modernized grid infrastructure.
The Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium has been a
positive step forward in addressing these issues, and Los
Alamos has been proud to play a role in GMLC with our peer
national laboratories. As we look to the future, we see
additional challenges in responding to complex threats,
including cyber-physical challenges, to our grid
infrastructure, and in considering the integrated systems of
systems represented by our coupled gas and electrical
infrastructure at both the transmission and distribution
scales.
In closing, I would like to thank you again for the
opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee. I look forward
to answering any questions that you might have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Sarrao follows:]
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Chairman Weber. Thank you, Doctor.
Mr. Gramlich, you are recognized for five minutes.
TESTIMONY OF MR. ROBERT GRAMLICH,
PRESIDENT, GRID STRATEGIES, LLC.
Mr. Gramlich. Thank you, Chairman Weber, Ranking Member
Veasey, and Members of the Subcommittee, for inviting me to
testify on the electric grid of the future.
Since modern society requires affordable, clean, and
reliable electricity for most commercial and personal pursuits,
there is no infrastructure more important than the interstate
electric network. While reliability is very high and growing,
as reported by NERC just today over at FERC across town, the
grid is evolving rapidly and threats are changing. We need to
expand grid capacity, implement protections against severe
weather and cyber and physical attack, and make more efficient
use of the existing grid.
DOE's Office of Electricity (OE) can play a key role in
each of these areas. OE can contribute by continuing research
development and demonstration of new technologies for the grid,
promoting grid expansion through permitting and studies,
developing and bringing grid operations technologies to market,
developing customer and reliability and resilience options for
critical uses such as military facilities and hospitals, and
supporting studies of bulk power system reliability to address
the evolving resource mix and evolving threats.
The National Academies of Sciences recently had a
resilience report that had 12 recommendations. Eight of those
were for DOE. OE could play a lead role in implementing those
recommendations.
Given the importance of a reliable electric grid to modern
society and the critical role it plays in integrating new both
centralized and distributed resources and managing various
threats, OE should have far greater resources than it has. At
the same time, OE resources and attention should not be
diverted to support the recently announced presidential
directive to extend the lives of old coal and nuclear plants.
Subsidizing such resources will ultimately harm rather than
help customers, and OE's work on it will detract from its
otherwise important mission.
There is no basis for this directive or for DOE action
under the Federal Power Act, section 202(c); or the Defense
Production Act. The directive ignores some basic facts about
electricity. It ignores that coal and nuclear plants are just
as susceptible to cyber attack as any other facility. It
ignores the fact that coal plants have fuel delivery
interruptions and often have mechanical failures during cold
weather. It ignores the fact that both coal and nuclear plants
are particularly vulnerable to droughts, and there is some
evidence to suggest EMP attacks as well. And it ignores that
coal and nuclear plants shut down in response to voltage
infrequency deviations and a narrower band of tolerance than,
for example, wind plants. This is actually what happened in the
2003 blackout affecting 50 million people when a large
FirstEnergy coal plant automatically shut itself down.
The point here is not to--oh, I should also say the
directive ignores that 50-year-old plants have outage rates
that are typically three times as high as new plants. So the
point here is not to criticize any one technology or couple of
technologies. All technology, all generating resources have
their strengths and weaknesses and contribute to reliability
and resilience in different ways, but none of them are
essential.
Reliability comes from having reserves. All generators fail
to operate at some point. In fact, each region already has a
strategic electric generation reserve. It's called a reserve
margin, and they are in a significant surplus condition right
now in most regions. So whether or not there are national
security interests at stake, the proposed solution will not
help.
Due to the futility of this directive, OE should steer
clear of it and focus on what matters for electricity
customers. OE's modeling to support the bailout plan should be
scrutinized carefully so that resources are not diverted from
valuable work on reliability, resilience, efficiency, and the
grid's evolution, given changes in the resource mix and
evolving threats. It will be important for Congress to
rigorously oversee the Department of Energy and OE specifically
to ensure that important work gets done and taxpayer dollars
are not wasted on ill-conceived programs.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gramlich follows:]
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Chairman Weber. Dr. Heppert, you're recognized for five
minutes.
TESTIMONY OF DR. JOSEPH A. HEPPERT,
VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH,
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
Dr. Heppert. Good morning, Chairman Weber, Chairman Smith,
and Members of the Subcommittee. I'm Vice President for
Research and Professor of Chemistry at Texas Tech University,
and I'm pleased to address you today on behalf of Texas Tech
University.
Texas Tech University's original mandate was to serve the
educational needs of the citizens of West Texas, but its
ambitions, as framed by its first President, have always been
to make a mark in education, scholarship, and innovation for
the nation and the world.
Today, Texas Tech University--or ``Tech'' as it's often
referred to--ranks among the major public research universities
in the United States. As many of you know from working with
research universities in your states and districts, these
institutions play a critical innovative role in defining the
future of energy grid research.
Both natural hazards and actions by our adversaries can
pose significant threats to our grid. In--the 2017 hurricane
season was a harrowing reminder of the intense suffering and
economic loss that natural events can inflict on regional
scales. Communities in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico were--
and in some cases continue to be--devastated in the aftermath
of these storms. Based on modern scientific models of future
weather events, the world can expect more frequent and more
intense disruptions of this nature.
At the same time, there's a growing consensus that future
conflicts among major military and economic adversaries may
involve preliminary skirmishes in cyberspace with grid
infrastructure as a prime target. Indeed, some recent cases
provide indications that both state and nonstate actors have
already targeted and demonstrated an ability to threaten our
grid. On top of this, any grid of tomorrow must be developed
with the assumption that the market for renewable energy
generation will only continue to grow and, in turn, provide a
more decentralized and therefore resilient system.
In light of these challenges and with generous support of
the State of Texas, Department of Energy, and partners in
industry and at the national laboratories, Texas Tech has been
working hard to address a central question: How can we make the
U.S. energy grid more secure, reliant, robust, and, perhaps
most importantly, resilient when under threat?
Through the pioneering work of faculty at Texas Tech, we're
providing answers. Dr. BeiBei Ren in Texas Tech University's
Whitaker College of Engineering has developed a novel
architecture for smart grids that allows an array of diverse
power sources to interface with the grid. Her research has
overcome a major hurdle to enabling reliable, resilient, and
affordable grid integration of renewables with the real-world
applicability of helping to rebuild Puerto Rico's communication
infrastructure post-Hurricane Maria.
Dr. Stephen Bayne, a senior faculty member in the Whitaker
College of Engineering's Department of Electrical Engineering,
is a distinguished power grid researcher. Dr. Bayne's group
continues to develop techniques that enable grid integration
when incorporating renewable energy sources and have placed a
number of instruments across Texas to monitor grids in near
real time. This research, when coupled with innovative models
to determine and predict the performance of systems relying on
distributed generation such as wind, is critical to a more
resilient and reliable grid.
In 2015, the State of Texas provided $13 million for Texas
Tech University and several partners to construct GLEAMM. When
fully operational later this year, the Global Laboratory for
Energy Asset Management and Manufacturing will provide a world-
class distributed generation microgrid and unique platform for
field-testing certification and optimization of renewables and
grid systems, new hardware and software solutions for managing
grid function, and cybersecurity of grid systems. This work
would not be possible without the support of Secretary Rick
Perry. His vision as Governor of the State of Texas was
critical to making this facility possible.
The innovative team of researchers across Texas Tech
University is committed to a research vision that enables the
electric grid of the future. Over the next four years, we
intend to invest a minimum of $8 million in research into
cybersecurity and energy grid resiliency to enable the creation
of a sustainable and diverse energy economy. We're confident
this investment will help the nation attain its goals in energy
security, traditional and alternative energy utilization, and a
21st-century energy grid.
I'm proud to have the opportunity to share Texas Tech's
capabilities, our expansive vision for the future, and serve as
a resource for this subcommittee. I look forward to answering
your questions. Thank you for this invitation, and, go Tech.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Heppert follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Weber. I'll leave that alone.
So they've called votes, so we're going to recess, and we
will reconvene immediately following the last vote.
[Recess.]
Chairman Weber. This hearing is now reconvened. I thank the
witnesses for their testimony. The Chair recognizes himself for
five minutes of questioning.
Mr. Walker, in your testimony, you stress that OE's
priorities are the development of grid modeling capabilities,
megawatt-scale grid storage, and the Grid Modernization
Initiative. As the smallest of the applied energy offices at
DOE, how are you able to accomplish your research and
development goals with a tight budget, number one? I guess,
essentially, how does the OE do more with less? What do you
say?
Mr. Walker. Thank you, Congressman, for the question. The
focus with OE is definitely on those three things, as well as
sensing technology. And how we accomplish our mission is
through the hard work of the people within OE and CESER working
in concert with the other applied sciences at DOE, so among
fossil energy, nuclear energy, and the energy efficiency,
primarily relying on the platform of the GMI, the GMLC, and
that's in fact why we expanded the charter to include those
other applied sciences to be able to leverage and ensure that
the investments we make are the best across the entire
department and to leverage the resources, you know, equally
from a national security perspective.
Chairman Weber. So prioritize. The programs within OE are
squarely within the applied energy mission of the Department,
and OE research goals are closely tied to the needs of the
energy industry. The Department's fiscal year 2019 budget
request places an importance on federal funding only toward
early-stage research programs--only towards early-stage
research programs. What steps have you taken to ensure
responsible stewardship of those taxpayer dollars by funding
only the R&D that cannot be performed by the energy industry?
Mr. Walker. So at OE we focus very much on early-stage
research, utilizing our capabilities both on the CESER side, as
well as OE, to identify where are the cutting-edge technologies
that will not be, by virtue of the cost and, more importantly,
the intellectual capability that is realized through our
national labs. So we identify, using a risk-based approach, how
to best invest that money.
Chairman Weber. I thank you. Dr. Heppert, this question is
for you. In your testimony, you explain how Texas Tech
University partners with both Sandia National Lab and the
private industry to conduct research. What is the difference
between research conducted at the GLEAMM facility and the
research conducted at the Sandia SWiFT site? And should there
be more coordination between the national labs and academia on
grid challenges like those identified in the GMI?
Dr. Heppert. Sure. I think there's a degree of commonality
in terms of some of the research. The SWiFT site really has
been a testbed for understanding windfarms and the fundamental
impact of atmospherics and of fluid flow through windfarms.
We've got highly instrumented systems there with radar that can
help us model that and help us understand the impact of
environmental circumstances on the performance of those
systems. So it's really in part about predictive modeling and
understanding how to optimize the configuration and structure
of future windfarms, okay?
The GLEAMM system is really going to be a testbed that will
allow us to actually connect to some of these existing
resources in addition to some resources that are held in the
private sector nearby of both wind power, solar power, and
battery capabilities. The focus there is really going to be on
being able to testbed new technologies, both software and
hardware technologies, to allow us to understand how to better
integrate those and more seamlessly integrate those systems;
model in real time, be able to model conditions that are going
to lead to grid--potentially to grid failure; and understand,
using artificial intelligence strategies, how we can more
effectively integrate these; and also how we can improve and
enhance the economics of utilizing energy from these systems as
well.
So I would say on the one side we're talking about looking
more at the fundamentals of wind, and we're very pleased on
that side that we'll be helping to cohost the wind blade design
conference that Sandia has held for many years at Sandia this
year in Lubbock. But on the other side, we're looking more at
how we truly integrate these other technologies effectively.
And it'll be a great testbed for being able to take, as I said,
both AI technology and new power grid technologies hardware and
integrate them into a system.
Chairman Weber. Thank you for that. Can you get the dates
of that conference to our staff here?
Dr. Heppert. I'll be happy to do that.
Chairman Weber. Yes, okay. Thank you.
At this time the Chair recognizes Mr. Takano for five
minutes.
Mr. Takano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Heppert and Dr. Sarrao, the Trump Administration has
proposed a 37 percent cut in fiscal year 2019 for the Office of
Electricity, or OE, which stewards the largest portion of our
federal investments in grid research. Within OE, the budget
proposes a number of steep cuts to important research,
including a 74 percent cut to smart grid research, a 67 percent
cut to clean energy transmission and reliability, and an 81
percent cut to energy storage research and development.
I just want to know from all of you, what role do you think
energy storage and the development of battery storage can play
when it comes to distributing wind and solar, as well as grid
resilience?
Dr. Heppert. Well, I would say that the magnitude of the
cuts you're referring to are quite concerning. We're dealing
with technologies here that are in--really in development. The
challenges we're facing in terms of the scale of renewables
that have to be integrated into the grid has changed
dramatically over the last five years. The challenges
associated with both creating a resilient system, understanding
how to use battery technology effectively in order to create a
stable microgrid system, a regional grid system, and doing the
kind of effective modeling on how to optimize those systems,
those are all landscapes that are changing. And in addition to
that you'll recognize what we--a number of us talked about with
regard to the security issues, which is a constantly changing
landscape as well.
So I think federal funding is critically important,
sustained federal funding is critically important for us to be
able to take advantage and leverage some of the model systems
that we developed across the country, including what's going on
within the SWiFT and GLEAMM programs at my institution but also
other institutions.
So as far as impact is concerned on our programs, I would
see, you know, in any one year we're in the vicinity of $2.5
million worth of funding that could potentially be impacted by
some of those cuts, and that--again, that would make it very
difficult for us to leverage the investment that the federal
government, the national labs, and the State of Texas have
already made in some of the unique model systems we have on our
campus.
Mr. Sarrao. Yes, thank you for the question. As you know,
certainly a decrease in budget would create challenges. I think
from a Los Alamos perspective, one of our goals is to use
capabilities that derive from our broader national security
mission focused on challenges of grid modeling so that we can
diversify our efforts in that regard. Certainly, our focus on
early-stage research, as well as partnerships like the GMLC
enable--cause us to be as effective as we can be.
And then to your question about energy storage, I think
thinking both about fundamental, for example, materials and
chemistry research and energy storage and how you think about
that in the broader context of the electricity grid is
something that our grid modeling efforts help enable so that we
find the right challenges to focus on to address the problems
in an environment that's potentially fiscally constrained.
Mr. Takano. Yes. So, Mr. Gramlich, in your testimony you
note that the recent DOE grid reliability staff report found
that, quote, ``Increased deployment of solar and wind does and
will not negatively impact the operation of the grid.'' Mr.
Gramlich, what role do you think energy storage and development
of battery storage can play when it comes to distributing wind
and solar, as well as grid resilience?
Mr. Gramlich. Thank you for the question. I think energy
storage can provide many services to the grid, to customers,
specifically to distribution systems, transmission systems, and
it provides services that are typically considered generation
services, so it's really the only technology that sort of
provides almost some of everything. It will be, I think,
important when we get to very high renewable energy futures.
You can integrate a whole lot of wind and solar I think without
a huge amount of storage now currently in most regional grids,
but certainly island systems and other areas require more
balancing. And, over time, as penetrations of renewable
variable resources grow, storage will become more and more
important.
Mr. Takano. Well, great. Thank you. My time is up, Mr.
Chairman. I can yield back, please.
Chairman Weber. Okay. The Chair now recognizes the
gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Palmer, for five minutes.
Mr. Palmer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Walker, can you speak to the concerns that the more
connected the grid becomes, the more vulnerable it becomes to
cyber attacks similar to, you know, what happened in Ireland
last year?
Mr. Walker. The--as Dan Coats, our Director of National
Intelligence, noted, the--we are recognizing more frequent and
more sophisticated cyber threats. There is no question that the
grid is vulnerable to cyber threats, whether they're isolated
or whether they're fully integrated. What is clear, as we
introduce cyber-enabled technologies through the Internet of
Things and the advancements of things like smart grids, we
introduce more and more devices on the system that have the
capability of being penetrated through cyber, so it is
extremely important that, as we develop these newer
technologies and as we integrate additional technology on the
system, that we do it with a cybersecurity focus.
We have just recently issued a funding opportunity for $25
million back into the oil and natural gas as well as electric
sector to look at the architecture and the design of cyber-
enabled devices to--in order to stave off the risk as we move
forward and capitalize on the existing underlying physics of
the system.
Mr. Palmer. Well, I understand we want to protect our
systems from being hacked, but also, I think we've had some
experiences, particularly in the last few years, with
hurricanes and in the last couple of decades with Katrina and
others where we lost whole sections of the power grid, and one
of my concerns is if we had a major cyber attack or an EMP
attack is whether or not you have redundant systems. And I
don't mean just having equipment to replace equipment that's
been fried basically or whether or not you're--how quickly
you're able to shift from a technology-controlled system to a
manual system, whether or not you have trained employees that--
I see you're nodding your head there.
Those are the concerns that I have is in terms of
preparation is how long would it take and, depending on the
time of year, how serious restoring power would become. And so
that--Mr. Chairman, I think that's part of what we've got to
figure out here is in the event that we have an attack like
that, that, you know, in cases with the storms, it takes
anywhere from a day to a week. You--that's tolerable. But if
you get into a situation where you have a massive loss of
equipment and you can't shift to a manual system, then you
really got a problem. Our--is that some of the things that----
Mr. Walker. That's absolutely----
Mr. Palmer. --I'm sure you're thinking through that.
Mr. Walker. That's absolutely what we are 100 percent
focused on. So under the FAST Act, there was a requirement for
the Secretary to identify defense-critical electric
infrastructure, and we continue to evolve that list of critical
infrastructure with an understanding of what the impact is
across the 16 critical infrastructure sectors throughout the
United States. And we are developing within OE operational
strategies that are--we're executing on some of those now to
better ensure that when we do have those widespread events,
whether it be cyber or hurricane, that we have capability to
restore the system, whether that be--and that's one of the
focuses of having a fuel-secure generation source. When we have
that, we don't have to rely on the supply chains and the risks
associated with supply chains that might get realized during
something like a cyber event or a hurricane where there's
destruction from, you know, the port all the way to any
facility.
Mr. Palmer. Maybe Mr. Gramlich and Mr. Heppert could
address this, but when you're talking about a massive loss of
the grid and you look at it in the context of what--what's the
first thing we do when we have a major storm? We go in with
food and water and medicine, that sort of thing. And a massive
loss of the grid, that will be the number one thing because
most people depend on the grocery store for their food and
sustenance, things like that. So it's going to become
absolutely critical that we either have redundant systems or
the ability to shift to a manual system. And I'll let the
gentlemen respond to that, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gramlich. I think you're absolutely right, Congressman,
that preparing for that situation in advance, low probability
as it may be, is absolutely something that needs to be done.
Personally, I think the National Academies of Sciences' report
recently was strong, had good recommendations in that area, so
I would commend that for more information.
Dr. Heppert. I'd come back again to the concept that having
both diverse grids and grids that have survivability at the
local level where you can go down from a macroscopic grid to a
microgrid, which will still operate and where you can bring up
portions of that grid rapidly as the technology becomes
repaired without risking bringing down the system again as a
result of the initial insult is something that's really
critical. That's--I think that's part of the reason that the
kind of modeling we've been describing and the kind of research
that we're promoting is really important for the future.
Mr. Palmer. Mr. Chairman, if I may, if you'll indulge me
just for a moment here, I worked for a couple of engineering
companies before running a think tank, and unless things have
changed dramatically in the last 30 years, we have a patchwork
grid. It's not a uniform grid. And in some cases that could be
helpful, but in other cases then a massive loss. Again, I want
to emphasize--and to your point, it's a low probability, but we
need to be prepared. A low-probability event could have
absolutely catastrophic and deadly consequences, so I really
think that we need to be prepared for that. We need to
recognize the fact that it is a diverse grid, it's a patchwork,
and that we have some ability to address that in a relatively
short amount of time.
So with that--and you can comment on that as you will, but,
Mr. Chairman, thank you for indulging me, and I yield back.
Chairman Weber. Thank you.
Mr. Tonko, you're now recognized for five minutes.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our
witnesses for being here today. Secretary Walker, it's good to
see you again. Members of this committee may not know it, but
Secretary Walker and I went through energy deregulation in New
York State together. And I think it was a bold move. Our
electric markets--electricity markets may not be perfect, but
they have blind spots. And I think Congress and States and grid
operators and regulators can all work together to address some
of those market failures.
But in 2018 the toothpaste is out of the tube and drastic
and unnecessary market interventions under the false pretense
of an emergency to bail out uncompetitive generators like the
one being discussed by the Administration I think are
unacceptable. Mr. Secretary, I will not ask you to respond to
that, but I hope you will carry that message back to DOE.
However, I do want to ask you about the future of Puerto
Rico's grid. As we enter hurricane season, I'm concerned about
the fragility, the lack of resilience of that system. Can you
give us a sense of some of the recommendations and work that
has been done to strengthen Puerto Rico's grid for the long
term?
Mr. Walker. Sure. We have been working with Puerto Rico to
develop a sophisticated modeling system that enables them to
better operate their grid, and we've been working with the
technical advisory committee that was established by PREPA's
board to accomplish that. That model will also help identify
the relaying setting changes that need to occur in order to
better optimize the grid so that they don't sustain the
blackouts that they've recently seen over the last year or two.
That being said, with the work that had--has been done from
the emergency restoration component, you know, equipment was
put back in place consistent with the north--you know, the
standards--NAS standards, so, you know, the lack of O&M that
was done on the system in one sense has been cured because the
weak poles and the weak guying on the transmission system has
been replaced. They are continuing and still working on one of
the major transmission lines that goes through the north-south
corridor. We are still there. DOE is providing technical
assistance where we can for, you know, any of the technical
components on the system, and we're still continuing to work
with FEMA.
The PREPA is continuing to identify some of the strategies
that they will employ for, you know, any events that will be
realized, and, you know, one of the key components is we still
have a--you know, a significant number of federal resources
down on the island, including the generators, which were
supplied for the critical infrastructure, the ones that were
referred to Congressman Palmer. You know, we recognize that--
and after the--the after-action reports that we've, you know,
started to look at with PREPA and FEMA highlight that, you
know, the 2,000-plus generators that are down there represent
those critical infrastructure that we really need to make sure
that we've got, you know, the microgrid capabilities,
distributed energy resources so that when they do realize an
event, it has less real impact on the safety and health of the
people in Puerto Rico.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you. And, Mr. Gramlich, I would like to
get your thoughts on this. Americans in Puerto Rico are reeling
from the most devastating blackout in our nation's history. And
obviously, Puerto Rico had unique challenges, but it is my
understanding that many of its greatest grid vulnerabilities
were damaged transmission and distribution systems, which is
the cause of most disruptions in our continental United States.
So Puerto Rico could be a testbed and model for grid
innovation. Do you have ideas about how Puerto Rico can rebuild
to have a stronger, more modernized grid?
Mr. Gramlich. Sure, Congressman. I have not spent much time
researching Puerto Rico, but, generally, we do have a lot of
technologies and options that are available to any system that
may be rebuilding its grid. And in fact, our mainland
transmission grid is aging, and so we have opportunities to
improve the technology there as well.
One key area that DOE and OE specifically support is the
development of microgrids or backup generation, so when we're
talking about national security or military bases or others--or
critical uses or hospitals or police stations or other critical
needs, recognizing there are still tremendous efficiencies of
the large grid and large regional markets and all of that, but
there are also thousands of entry points and risks on such a
system. So when you're focusing on the end-use customer and
their critical reliability needs that may exist, those ability
to have backup generation or islanding capability that DOE can
help and help bring down the cost for will be very important.
Mr. Tonko. Yes, it seems as though, in response to their
need as an island, as a people, we can come up with a nice
innovative response that will also serve as a template for what
can be done across the continental United States. So with that,
Dr. Heppert, I don't know if you wanted to say something, but
I'm out of time, so--but if the Chair would allow for you to
comment?
Dr. Heppert. Sure.
Mr. Tonko. With that, I would yield back.
Dr. Heppert. I just wanted to point out that one of our
faculty members, Dr. Ren, is involved in a collaboration with
Puerto Rico telecom, which involves a number of national
laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Lab, Oak Ridge, as
well as NREL, to implement some innovative new technology for
democratizing their telecommunications grid and really bringing
it back. So I think this has been a great example of how that
partnership that the omnibus bill talks about between the
private sector, universities, and national laboratories can
really help to have an impact in real-time on these kinds of
situations.
Mr. Walker. Chairman, if I might address Congressman
Tonko's question?
Chairman Weber. Go ahead. He needs all the help he can get.
Mr. Walker. Congressman, this--there are some very specific
items that we are working with the labs on putting into Puerto
Rico that are cutting-edge that would--we're basically looking
to accelerate the commercialization of them and therefore
utilization on the mainland by putting them in Puerto Rico, so
things like our darknet, which is the use of the black fiber
and the optical ground wire, which is on their transmission
system is one idea. But using correlation through this high-
fidelity sensing capability to enable optimization of their
grid is another. That will be utilized in conjunction with the
development of sophisticated microgrids that have the
capability to expand and contract similar to some work that's
being done at the Electric Power Board in Chattanooga with Oak
Ridge National Lab, so there are a number of very specific
things that we think Puerto Rico is uniquely poised to be able
to integrate.
We've been working--I've been working with Walt Higgins,
who's CEO, and we've been working--I've been working--my team's
been working with HUD to help to find the guidance document
with the supplemental funding that Congress provided all to
ensure that, you know, these type of technologies, the
microgrids, the DERs, really do get in.
And one of the things that, Congressman, is very
interesting and you're very familiar with, the Greenbank, one
of the things we've talked about is actually a critical
infrastructure bank in Puerto Rico and the possibility of that
to enable those 2,000-plus locations that we previously
identified through the installation of generation to come up
with unique ways to basically island themselves and provide the
capabilities for public health and safety that they do.
Mr. Tonko. Well, thank you for that info. I think it also
speaks to the wisdom of not cutting research and innovation
investments like ARPA-E and all. We are on the cutting-edge,
we're an innovation economy, and we don't go backward, we need
to go forward, so I would just say those investments are
critical to be able to have those responses you just outlined.
With that, Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Chairman Weber. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from
Virginia, Mr. Beyer, for five minutes.
Mr. Beyer. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. And thank all
of you for being with us this afternoon.
Secretary Walker, you previously stated on February 20 of
this year, and I quote, ``We would never use a 202 to stave off
an economic issue. That's not what it's for.'' And now,
FirstEnergy Solutions has recently asked the Department to use
202 to stave off an economic issue. Does that imply or do we
understand that you won't use a 202 for them?
Mr. Walker. The 202 application from FirstEnergy is being
reviewed by my department as we speak.
Mr. Beyer. Great. Well, thank you. I'm hoping that your
earlier strong opinion will still prevail.
You know, the draft grid memo was circulated before the
National Security Council last Friday, and it's widely
understood that this draft came from the Department intended to
fulfill the President's June 1 directive to intervene in
planned plant closures, but there's been an awful lot of
pushback from people who are grid operators and grid experts.
Specifically, the CEO of Exelon, the largest nuclear generator
in the United States, said the retirement of coal and nuclear
plants do not constitute a great emergency that warrants urgent
intervention from the federal government.
Secretary Walker, the President of Electric--Electricity
Consumers Resource Council in a study say--the large industrial
electricity users say the latest DOE proposal would, quote,
``devastate U.S. manufacturing.'' Have you calculated the costs
on American businesses, specifically, American manufacturing?
Mr. Walker. I have not.
Mr. Beyer. The previous 403 proposal, which was rejected by
FERC because it was unsubstantiated, they said it was going to
cost--increase consumer costs by $8 billion annually from PJM
alone. Now, the new plan nationalized the 403 proposal, so I
would expect that that $8 billion is going to go up very
significantly. Again, in putting together this draft plan, have
you estimated what this will cost the U.S. taxpayer?
Mr. Walker. I have not.
Mr. Beyer. I have to give you wonderful credit for being
able to answer these things very tightly. I would suggest,
though, as a member of this committee, that moving forward with
this new proposal, if it's going to devastate U.S.
manufacturing, if it's going to add way more than $8 billion to
the electricity cost of our American consumer, this is
something that you and Secretary Perry and others should look
very seriously at and should have numbers available for. I
think it's within purview of--as a member of this committee to
ask you to go back and do the elementary research and report
back to the Committee on those two things, please.
And with that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit for the
record a letter I led with 36 of my colleagues asking that
Secretary Perry and the Trump Administration cease the false
narrative that bailing out uneconomic energy sources in
competitive markets is needed for electrical grid resilience
and to stop the attempts to use emergency authorities to
intervene in planned power plant retirements.
And I'd like to make three official points on the
inappropriate use of emergency authorities that----
Chairman Weber. Let me----
Mr. Beyer. --bail out planned power plant----
Chairman Weber. Let me say without objection.
Mr. Beyer. Oh, thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
[The information appears in Appendix II]
Mr. Beyer. Number one, unlike these plant retirements in
the PJM grid, we have a legitimate grid crisis in Puerto Rico.
Thank you for addressing it, but we still have thousands of
residents without power. The President himself has still not
acknowledged the death toll, which we now understand to be
higher than those lost on 9/11. This is his Katrina.
Number two, this bailout plan does not actually help coal
country. This is a short-term talking point that does nothing
to create good-paying jobs, resilient jobs for the families in
Appalachian. We need to work together with these resilient,
industrious, great families to create good-paying jobs that
will endure.
And number three, the bailout plan ignores all the experts.
Instead of listening to those in the universe of the world of
energy grids and despite knowing what this would cost the
American public, the Trump Administration is still moving ahead
perhaps unfortunately likely because someone contributed to the
campaign, and this is not how our democracy is supposed to
work.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Weber. I thank the gentleman.
And we now recognize Dr. Foster from Illinois for five
minutes.
Mr. Foster. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our
witnesses.
Maybe I'd like to switch over to some sort of high-level
direction that you need from Congress and the American people
to think about your specifications for what you want the grid
to accomplish in terms of reliability because there are--you
know, people can be concerned about outages that are temporary,
outages that--the tail risk of having an outage of six months
or longer that can happen in some disaster scenarios. Insurance
against the tail risk cost money, and there is a trade-off
that, you know, everyone in life and every one in business
faces as to how much we're willing to spend to reduce tail
risk, you know, how much spare inventory of different
components we need to have on hand, things like that. And so do
you feel that you have adequate high-level guidance from
Congress and the American people about what the specs you're
shooting for or do you think we need a wider discussion of that
and related issues?
Mr. Walker. Congressman, I'll answer the question from
DOE's perspective. The DOE is one of three organizations that
fundamentally analyzes the day-to-day operation of the electric
grid. FERC is the other one, NERC is the other one, and each of
us has different lenses by which we look at the system. FERC
looks at it from a market base, NERC from a reliability
perspective, and DOE looks at it from a national security
perspective.
So from a national security perspective, the day-to-day
reliability is not really something that we take a look at.
Obviously, it's important. We contribute to it. We make R&D
investments where it makes sense, but we also look at those
investments from how they can be utilized from a national
security standpoint. We recognize, particularly given the
recent evolution of the grid, particularly its interdependence
mostly on gas pipelines, that we have now reached a point
where--different than 20 or 30 years ago where if I lose the
wrong gas pipeline, I can lose tens of thousands of megawatts
of generation simultaneously, and that simultaneous loss of all
those generators can then have deleterious effects through, you
know, cascading frequency loss, as you well know as a
physicist. And there are real risks in the system as a result
of it.
And, unfortunately, when we built these systems, built the
gas pipelines, oil pipelines, the electric transmission system,
things like cybersecurity didn't even exist, and the word
domestic terrorism was probably not even coined yet. But today,
we deal with very significant risk every day. And why--while
some may say it's a low probability, we deal with tens of
thousands of cyber intrusions on a daily basis. It's just a
matter of time before the sophistication level increases and
those penetrations become real.
We've seen this happen. We all watched the Ukraine event.
So we can pretend that it doesn't exist, but we have hard
evidence through actual realization of things like Ukraine that
these capabilities exist and they're being utilized. And we
spend our time focused on strategies that enable us to survive
those type of events and avoid them.
Mr. Foster. Other comments?
Mr. Gramlich. Sure, Congressman. There is the North
American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) that is in
charge of reliability under the ERO provisions of the Energy
Policy Act of 2005. I think that organization and the
institutions around reliability need to be--remain in place.
They are doing a good job. FERC overseas the markets and
transmission system. Their role needs to be respected. I think
what we're seeing with this presidential directive is, under
the guise of national security, a nationalization of the
electric system, which would be extremely damaging for the
investment--the private investment that the industry currently
relies on for all of the reliability and efficiencies that we
get out of this power system.
Mr. Foster. Yes, there's a tough situation where if, for
example, one State decides that, for their own purposes, they
want to subsidize a class of electrical generation and then if
you're in a multistate interconnected grid, that looks like
dumping that will force, you know, other States' generation
stations to close. And so this is a complex set of problems
because one state's, you know, necessary subsidy for some
purpose is another--it's protectionism viewed from other
states. And in trying to understand how we--as--nationally deal
with those misaligned incentives between the states and not
have the federal government come in with yet a third set of
misaligned incentives for their own political reasons is--will
be an ongoing challenge.
And, let's see, I have now negative 19 seconds, so I'll
yield back.
Chairman Weber. I thank the witnesses for their valuable
testimony and the Members for their questions. The record will
remain open for two weeks for additional comments and written
questions from members. This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:04 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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