This month, I traveled to the Pacific Northwest to attend GridFWD Seattle and visit the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). On both conference days I presented to audiences on grid-relevant programs in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. On the second day, it was a pleasure to present jointly with Bo Poats from Black & Veatch over a working lunch session. It was a great event and wonderful to reconnect with so many GridWise members.

I was delighted to travel to PNNL and visit the home of one of the founding members of the GridWise Alliance. In 2003, PNNL was a key organization supporting the formation of GridWise. It was at this time that representatives from PNNL, the Department of Energy, and industry created the term GridWise to represent the concept of an advanced energy system for the 21^st century. PNNL has been a steadfast member ever since.

I met and spoke with many of the PNNL experts working on cutting edge grid research. From grid optimization to distribution and transactive control to a tour of the Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center, the team at PNNL is clearly thinking about future grid infrastructure needs and operational paradigms. I also spoke with PNNL members who are providing active technical assistance to states regulators and policymakers on important areas across a broad spectrum, including integrated grid planning, energy storage and equity, resilience and microgrids, load forecasting, and more.

My visit coincided with the groundbreaking ceremony for the Grid Storage Launchpad. Having focused my graduate research on long duration energy storage, the event was a great opportunity to talk about the importance of grid storage, while reconnecting with some former DOE colleagues who were also in attendance.

Thank you to the PNNL team who organized a great day: GridWise board member Carl Imhoff, Angela Becker-Dippman, and Abhishek Somani. Thank you also to those who shared details of their work: Steve Elbert, Jesse Holtzer, Shriang Abyankar, Juliet Homer, Jeremy Twitchell, Kevin Schneider, Hayden Reeve, Jason Fuller, and Jeff Dagle.

See below for updates on the ongoing GridWise working groups:

• We are updating the cadence of our Resilience Working Group meetings to be weekly, such that we can discuss and prepare a response to the recently released Request for Informationon the a $2.3 billion formula grant program (40101[d]) to strengthen and modernize America’s power grid against wildfires, extreme weather, and other natural disasters that are exacerbated by the climate crisis. Members should bring any initial comments or questions to our meeting next week, during which we will provide an overview of the RFI, the formula grant program Notice of Intent, draft application and award requirements, and draft award formula allocation.

• The EV Working Group wrapped our recurring biweekly meeting this month following an active several months. Since our initial convening in January, the group responded to the FHWA EV Charging Infrastructure Deployment RFI, developed and published an issue paper outlining Near-Term Grid Investments for Integrating EV Charging Infrastructure, hosted a workshop with NASEO, NARUC, and AASHTO on the grid integration of EV charging infrastructure (summary, recording, and slides available), and shared ideas for the in-the-works Technology Portfolio website. Several members were also interviewed by George Washington University graduate students on their fleet electrification experiences. If that’s of interest, be sure to register for the members-only webinar on May 10^th from 1-2 PM EST, to hear about their findings and ask any follow up questions. In the event of an important EV-related project, another RFI for example, we’ll be back in touch with the list-serve and will reconvene as needed.