Transcripts For CSPAN3 House Science Subcommittee Hearing On

Order. Without objection the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time. Good afternoon, welcome to todays hearing, the future of electricity delivery, monetizing and securing our nations electricity grid. I want to thank all of our witnesses for joining us today. This is such an important topic. Im a young guy as i can tell but ive read some history about what it was like when we first started building the electric brig grade over a century from now. I dont think we could have imagined the tech elegies that we would use to power homes businesses and hospitals and i think the challenge is different. The real challenge was just extending power itself to every corner of our society. There was a challenge that those providing powers knew that they could make money in cities and well Populated Areas and places with businesses and commercial opportunities, but it was not as profitable to take it into the countryside into the hill country of texas for example. The government made a basic deal which was they would provide them essential monopoly over these areas. Firms would make money, utilities what, and in exchange they would carry their product everywhere they needed to be. In the 21st century we have a similar dilemma on our hands but theres a similar deal to be made. The challenge is not just provide power, provide power in a way that is clean and efficient and allows us to state economically competitive even as we become a society much less dependent on carbon. Electricity demand has been flat. We should see an increase as we electrify more segments in order to accomplish those goals. To get there it is clear we have to change the energy sector. There will be much more serious threats to the electric grid from Cyber Attacks and otherwise. We know the economics are changing and resources have come online. Thats good for constituents like mine that are saving money but as this changes we are going to have to invest to a grade the system meant to integrate new sources of energy and to strike a balance between them in real time which has become one of the Biggest Challenges of Battery Storage especially. Thats a technological challenge, a challenge when it comes to making basic Infrastructure Investment which is what we are talking about today. I was alarmed to hear about the first serious cyber attack on our nations electric grid back in march. At least it was reported in march. As far as we know no customers lost power in that attack but its obviously a warning sign of the incredibly serious damage that can happen if we dont take action on this issue. As is what happens when someone loses power it will be too late. The choice facing all of us is whether we can get the legislative machinery to work in such a way we can make a serious investment and try to protect folks from Cyber Attacks that we know are going to come we know that russia china and other adversaries would love to have in their back pocket the ability to shut down parts of the grade when its continued. The decision facing us is whether we allow that to happen and i speak to every member when i say that we will not. Thats why im looking forward to talking about these subjects. We have Grid Modernization Research and development which will allow us to set forth a wide array of Research Opportunities like grid modernization, Emergency Response modeling, which we know will be necessary to manage the new grid, and better integration of buildings vehicles and renewable resources. Several members of the committee including mr. Foster have already introduced legislation and we are happy to incorporate elements of those into the draft and will continue to work on making sure we do that. We are also looking at research and Development Act which updates a bill previously introduced which would provide a cross Agency Research and Development Program to do what ive discussed which is harden and mitigate the electric grid from cyber attack carried out with the department of Homeland Security, the National Institute for standards and technologies, and the National Science Foundation Education and workforce. One of the aspects that i think is often underappreciated is the fact that it is also a workforce issue. We dont have enough people trained and working in Cyber Security as we need and there will be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands more openings many of which in my home area is great work at Carnegie Mellon and the Cyber Law Institute among others, really training people for this and thats what these kinds of programs are going to authorize. With that i recognize the Ranking Member mr. Weber for an opening statement. Thank you for hosting this hearing. I was asking about the population of pittsburgh is. The match metro areas 1. 5 million. Is that right . Thats a lot of act the. We appreciate you hosting this. We will hear from expert witnesses on strengths and weaknesses of the electric grid and the impact, the potential impact that it could have on grid reliability and National Security, witnesses will also discuss advances in research and development of new grid tools and technologies and hopefully provide in fight and to have the federal government can work alongside American Industries to strengthen the energy sector. The reliability of the power grid is one of the greatest economic strengths. I like to say that one of the things that makes America Great are the things that america makes. How do we do that . We have a strong Reliable Energy supply which is how we do it. In my home state of texas reliable and increasing by more than 1000 a day, which is why i was asking you we get 30,000 people a month in texas. Multiply by 12 and you forget what you do in a year. 1000 People Per Day and supports the industries that drive the United States consumption of energy. Texas is by far the natives biggest consumer of electricity and keeping its reliable is key to maintaining the economic growth. Even in texas it is Common Knowledge that our electric grid faces significant and diverse threats to reliability and resiliency. Simply we cannot predict when a cyber attack would threatens threaten what you referenced and we do not know when the next Natural Disaster might occur. In 2017 we were reminded of this by the impact approaching harvey, a devastating category four hurricane that hit the gulf coast and caused significant generator in transmitter line outages for many on the interconnection. Due to proper planning and management by the electric reliability council, they were able to recover quickly from this devastating storm. Its not a question of if but a question of when the same power grid will face significant cyber at tax. It must be our priority. According to the apart department of energy the us electric grid must be updated within the next decade to address challenges including aging us Energy Infrastructure, changes in demand for energy, emerging threats and fun dementing shifts in the supply portfolio as Energy Sources, rightfully so, likely nuclear and increase. We can see changes taking place in my omaha own home state where today Nuclear Generation is the most reliable source of energy. In fact, running at more than 93 of the time over the last three years. We also lead the nation in wind energy. We are number five in solar energy, by the way. As nextgeneration Energy Technologies continue to come online, and as Cyber Security capabilities continue to grow and evolve, we must take action to counter our great vulnerabilities and provide necessary dates to critical and necessary infrastructure. Thankfully, doe fund is broad research to support grid modernization and security to elegies through department collaborations like the Grid Modernization Initiative and grid modernization modernization initiative. It also funds Robust Research in grid technologies and computational modeling efforts through the office of electricity oe and Cyber Security through its office of Cyber Security Energy Security and Emergency Response seizure. We have to witnesses representing efforts, the hon. Karen evans, a sister assistant secretary and laboratory cochair of Grid Modernization Lab consortium. Welcome to all of you. Modernizing the grid will require these important programs. Along with cooperation from any federal Agency States and injure industry. I trust our witnesses could share their expertise and provide valuable insight on how congress can best support collaborative efforts. I want to thank the chairman again for holding this hearing and i look forward to productive and electrifying discussions. Mr. Chairman, i yields back. It would not be the first time that electricity was powered by a lot of hot air from texas. [ laughter ] had to include that for the Ranking Members granddaughter in the audience today. We welcome her. I think its important to note the bipartisan nature of this discussion as it often is on these subjects. Mr. Weber and i are both supporters of Nuclear Energy and all of the above strategies so one thing that doesnt always break through the headlines but is a beacon of hope someday is. At this time i would like to introduce witnesses, the hon. Karen evans is assistant secretary of the office of Cyber Security, Energy Security, and Emergency Response at the Us Department of energy. Miss evans was the National Director of the us cyber challenge, a Program Designed to help address a skills gap in the Cyber Security field. She also worked for the george w. Bush administration where she was an it official at the office of management and budget and served as the department of energy chief information officer. Mr. Juan torres is the director for at an ral and cochair of Good Management Laboratory Consortium which is a partnership of 14 labs to advance modernization of the us power grid. Prior to joining he held a variety of positions over the course of a 27 year long career at Sandia National laboratory where he worked on securing infrastructure among other topics. Miss Kelly Speakesbackman is the chief executive officer of the Energy Storage association and is worked in the public ngo and private sectors including united technologies, son edison and the alliance to save energy. Shes a former commissioner of the Maryland Public Service commission where she also served as chair of the board of directors of the regional Greenhouse Gas initiative, co vice chair of the year naruc committee, and the Energy Efficiency and grid modernization public advisory group. And miss Katherine Hamilton is the chair of 38 n. Solutions, a Public Policy consultancy specializing in innovation and the executive director of the advanced Energy Management alliance. She previously ran the grade Wise Alliance and was directed to the Energy Storage association, and worked at the National Renewable energy laboratory. Catherine worked in Building Research and spent a decade designing Electrical Systems for commercial and residential developments. As a witness, you will each have five minutes for spoken testimony, written testimony will be included in the record and when you have completed spoken testimony we will begin with questions. We will start with the testimony of ms. Evans. Chairman lamp, Ranking Member weber lamb, it is an honor and privilege to serve as the assistant secretary for the office of Cyber Security, Energy Security, and Emergency Response. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the department. One of the most Critical Missions is developing science and technology to successfully encounter the ever evolving increasing threat of cyber and other attacks on our networks, data, facilities, and infrastructure. Doe works closely with federal agencies, state and local tribal and territorial governments, industry, and National Laboratory partners to accomplish this mission. Another Critical Mission is ensuring the resilience of our electric grid and successfully countering the ever evolving increasing threat of physical and Cyber Attacks. Doe recently announced an investment of innovations that will enhance reliability and resiliency of our Nations Energy infrastructure. This will spur the development of the next generation of tools and Tech Knowledge he is that will become widely adopted throughout the energy sector. As we protect infrastructure from Cyber Threats we are working to improve and complete resilience of electricity systems. The office of electricity and Transmission System resilience and generation diversity, and exploring new architecture approaches for the elect grid including the development of the north American Energy resilience model that aims to provide unique and groundbreaking National Scale Energy Planning and realtime Situational Awareness capability to enhance security and resilience. A large component is pursuing cuttingedge innovation and big data, Artificial Intelligence, and grid scale Energy Storage based on new technology. Grid scale storage will be an important enabler for renewable integration and a clean base for power. While todays technologies are providing value to the grid, there are physical limitations to traditional batteries and pumped hydro that will be surpassed by the next generations technologies. Efforts in Energy Storage are producing important advancements. Energy Storage Technologies have been demonstrated using new generations of advanced low batteries for lower cost electrolytes. We are continuing to advance Energy Storage through the advanced initiative which includes the development of a new grid storage launchpad aimed at accelerating materials development, testing independent evaluations of technologies for greater applications. In addition to r d at the National Laboratory supports the development of technology that strengthen and improve infrastructure so that consumers have access to reliable insecure sources of energy. Another program driving enabling technologies is doe Grid Modernization Initiative which focuses on the integration of increasing the amount of variable generation into the grade through R D Investments at the national labs. One noteworthy effort will accelerate the conversion of the National Wind Technology Campus into experimental micro grid capable of testing Grid Integration at a megawatt scale. These are a few of the examples of ho