Grid Resilience to Extreme Events

Electric power and extreme weather events have always been an interest of mine. I was raised in the energy industry- My grandfather was a coal miner and my father was a thermoelectric power producer. I’ve experienced long-term droughts in the Intermountain West and the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been evacuated from my home during wildfires. My career has focused on developing capabilities that help characterize these extreme events, understand the impacts to infrastructure systems (like electric power), and enhance community resilience.

I’m excited to be co-leading an effort to share PNNL’s foremost expertise in grid resilience to extreme events. For those of you who don’t see or use that term on a regular basis, the best way I know how to describe grid resilience is the grid’s ability to withstand, adapt to, and quickly recover from some sort of disruptive event – fires, hurricanes, extreme heat – just to name a few. To get this started I’m co-hosting several webinars every other Tuesday beginning on August 30. The Grid Resilience @ PNNL webinar series will explore how current research efforts at PNNL are addressing grid resilience considering both climate change and clean energy transitions. PNNL’s capabilities in advanced earth and energy system modeling, paired with extensive experience in power grid planning and operations, provide critical insights to complex multiscale interactions in a landscape that is increasingly affected by climate change.?

I encourage you to register for one – or several – sessions on our registration page. You’ll be hearing from some top-notch leaders in the field.

To learn more about what it’s like to work at PNNL, visit:?www.pnnl.gov/careers