Get to Know the Team at GDO: Adria Brooks, Ph.D.

Dr. Adria Brooks is a Senior Technical Advisor with the Transmission Planning team at the U.S. Department of Energy's Grid Deployment Office. She previously worked in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy where she completed her AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship. Adria received her B.S. in engineering physics from the University of Arizona and M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering with a certificate in Energy Analysis and Policy from University of Wisconsin-Madison. During her graduate studies, she worked concurrently as a transmission system engineer in the Office of Regional Markets at the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, advising the Commission on the intersection of emerging generation technologies and the power grid. Adria first developed her love for electricity by installing and running experiments on solar generation systems in a test facility associated with the Tucson Electric Power utility.

What’s one word you would use to describe GDO?

Ambitious.

What inspired you to work in the energy and grid realm?

My original plan was to work in space sciences. As an undergraduate, I worked on a few NASA research projects, including the initial stages of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sampling mission, which returned to Earth this year. I really loved that research, but after a stint in wilderness conservation I became increasingly interested in how to apply my knowledge to solving problems here on Earth. At the time, I was living in Arizona, so I switched from space sciences to solar photovoltaics, the obvious choice of renewables in the desert. I helped manage an outdoor test laboratory owned by the local electric utility company. Working alongside utility personnel taught me a lot about the power grid and the challenges of delivering reliable power to customers. After that job, I pursued advanced degrees in electrical engineering, specifically power systems and energy policy.

What most interested you about coming to work at GDO?

Prior to coming to DOE, I worked as a transmission engineer with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, which regulates the power system in that state. I enjoyed my time in policy at the state level and was curious about federal energy policy. GDO provided a great opportunity to enact transmission policy at the national level.

What excites you about your work at GDO?

At GDO, I’ve been able to keep one foot in policy and another in research, melding my two skillsets in this area. I love working with stakeholders to understand their questions and concerns about the transmission system and then turning around and conducting the analysis to answer them. And if we cannot answer a question, we can rely on the national laboratories’ wealth of knowledge and capabilities.

What does a typical day at GDO look like for you?

A workday is always a balancing act of talking to stakeholders about their issues, giving presentations to industry and the public, creating briefing materials for DOE leadership on topics of interest to the Administration, using various modeling tools to analyze data, writing reports, and chatting with colleagues in the Transmission Division around the virtual water cooler.

What’s one thing you wish more people understood about transmission and/or distribution?

Our current transmission system is not big enough to support our future power system needs. Modifying and expanding the system will be necessary to ensure we all have access to high-quality and clean electricity.

Do you have any tips for someone looking to enter your field of work?

My tips might be more for those who teach and mentor youth in the engineering field. Even from an early age, I witnessed so many of my peers, especially those of us representing minority groups, be discouraged from entering the field. I believe my graduate power systems cohort was only 15% women, which was considered high, and I was the only out queer person in the program. Kids attach early to the idea that engineering may not be for them, which is a disservice to the power grid. There aren’t enough power system engineers to tackle all the challenges facing the power grid under this clean energy transition, and we need a diversity of backgrounds in this field to keep the lights on.