Notes on Grid and Energy Research

Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership Program

Created under the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Concerns about approved programs under review.
Assurance sought that the review is professional, engineering-based, and not political.
Evaluation includes engineering, science, finance, and project viability.
Focus on business review to ensure grants are given appropriately.
Interest in the largest grid-scale battery project being manufactured in West Virginia and located in Maine.
Timeline for review: approximately 20 projects reviewed per week.
Batteries are part of the solution, but not the whole solution.

Budget proposes a 75% cut.
Viewed as part of a department reorganization.
Office of Electricity and cybersecurity are the core offices.
Resources for strengthening the grid should not be diminished.
Transmission and distribution costs now constitute 50% or more of electric bills in many places.
Need for new technologies, such as grid-enhancing technologies (GETs), to avoid simply rebuilding massive facilities.
Reconductoring and dynamic line rating as practical solutions.
Local regulators need to implement these technologies.

Federal government's role in basic research that does not lead immediately to commercialization.
Market does not factor in all elements, creating a gap that government can fill.
Concern about cutting ARPA-E by more than half.
ARPA-E's importance for basic science, national labs, and nuclear physics.
Fracking development was supported by the Department of Energy.
Assurance that ARPA-E will be maintained at a reasonable level.
Previous Trump administration attempted to zero it out entirely.
Need to address politically motivated projects and focus on technically motivated ones.
Research and new technologies are critical to meeting the demand for energy.
Support level should be maintained to meet demand.