Top energy official tours A&M lab built to stress-test the power grid

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - A top U.S. Department of Energy official toured Texas A&M’s Smart Grid Center on Friday, highlighting research she says could help protect the power grid as electricity demand surges across the country.

Assistant Secretary Katie Jereza, who leads the department’s Office of Electricity, visited the Center for Infrastructure Renewal on the RELLIS Campus in Bryan. The facility’s control room lab allows researchers to simulate cyberattacks, equipment failures and other disruptions before they can happen on the real electric grid.

“I particularly liked looking at the smart grid control lab,” Jereza said. “Having that ability to simulate it here will give that confidence that they need to deploy new technologies.”

Jereza said the country is entering a period of significant growth in electricity demand, driven largely by data centers, artificial intelligence and manufacturing moving back to the United States. She said Texas has already seen major growth even as demand has leveled off elsewhere.

The visit comes a day after the Department of Energy announced funding for 31 transmission upgrade projects nationwide through its “Spark” initiative, a $1.9 billion effort Jereza said will reach about 100 million people across the country.

“Spark stands for Speed to Power through Advanced Reconductoring and other key transmission technology upgrades,” Jereza said, adding the program will help utilities pull more capacity from existing power lines.

Smart Grid Center Director Tom Overbye said the center combines research, training and hands-on experience to prepare students and working engineers for a rapidly changing grid.

Jereza pointed to Texas’ history of extreme weather-driven grid failures, including the deadly 2021 winter storm, as part of what’s driving the push for better modeling and planning tools.

“Failure is the world’s best teacher,” Jereza said. “We are learning so much from that event, and we’re doing, in partnership with Texas A&M, everything we can do to prevent the next disturbance, the next failure that may come.”