The Changing Shape of the Grid with Hala Ballouz

I speak to energy experts from all facets of the energy industry and the one thing that keeps coming through in these conversations these days is the need for better planning to deal with rising load growth, extreme weather, higher costs and emissions. As I think about these problems, I try to think of people who I can learn from and that will help my audience understand these issues as well.

My guest on the podcast this week, Hala Ballouz, has as much experience with these challenges as anyone I know. She's the president and CEO of Electric Power Engineers (EPE), and she's built a rapidly growing team of over 200 power system engineers and energy professionals with a singular focus, holistically forming the electric grid to enable a resilient, affordable, and carbon-free energy future. 

Hala envisions a future grid that is decentralized, incorporating microgrids, distributed generation, demand response, grid edge technologies, all enabling consumers to participate in energy markets and contribute to system reliability and resiliency. It's a very compelling and exciting vision and few describe it better than Hala. 

In our conversation, we talked about the need for better planning to integrate large loads and new supply and demand resources on the grid including AI data centers, but also distributed energy resources and electric vehicles, and other grid edge technologies on the demand side. We explore the challenges and opportunities in building a clean and resilient energy grid, highlighting necessary technology and regulatory innovation needed to address congestion and curtailment issues. Hala also underscores something that isn't often talked about in these kinds of conversations. It's not all technology and technocratic fixes. There's also an increasing importance and significance for stakeholder engagement and the need to redefine reliability and resiliency requirements in ways that are meaningful and understandable to the general public. 

I really enjoyed this conversation and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to check the show notes where we have links to Hala’s writing!

Timestamps

3:48 - Hala’s background, about Electric Power Engineers (EPE), and women in engineering

6:20 - Changes to the ERCOT grid in the past 20 years

9:40 - Expected loads and opportunities for load shifting 

16:11 - What is the grid edge and decentralization of the grid

20:04 - Reimagining the grid, bi-directional power flow, and distributed energy sources (DERs)

23:35 - What are the barriers for tapping into DERs and increasing reliability and the importance of better grid planning

29:27 - Importance of and trends in distribution resource planning, including “8760” analyses

34:46 - Optimizing current transmission and planning for the future

40:25 - Utilities turning down new loads outside the ERCOT market, how to avoid this in Texas, and challenges to central planning

46:47 - Grid enhancing technologies (GETs)

48:23 - Storage as a transmission and distribution asset 

54:09 - Solving transmission congestion

59:01 - Hydrogen

1:00:13 - Existing government policies and regulatory structures that need to change for a reliable, clean grid and the importance of stakeholder engagement

1:03:26 - Hala’s vision for the grid in 5 to 10 years

1:08:13 - The need for strategy to reduce costs and engage ratepayers 

Show Notes

Hala’s Engineering Transition Newsletter

A Thousand Points of Light by Hala Ballouz

Electric Power Engineers (EPE)

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