Our nation is transitioning to a decarbonized, electrified energy future.
November 17, 2023
minute read time
Gilbert Bindewald III
Gil Bindewald currently serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). He leads activities to help transform the system that powers our homes and businesses, and increasingly, even fuels our cars. His responsibilities include oversight of the Department's long-term strategic and foundational R&D efforts related to the resilience and reliability of our Nation’s electricity delivery system. He is co-chair of the Grid Modernization Initiative, and has been involved in several broader Departmental efforts, including the Quadrennial Technology Review and the “Grid Tech Team,” working to improve coordination and communication on the grid topic across DOE's programs.
Immediately prior to this assignment, Gil was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grid Communications and Controls. This division manages applied research advancements in mathematics, computational science, and modeling to enhance operations and planning capabilities across the transmission and distribution system, including development of sensors, data analytics, and software tools. He previously led activities in Power Electronics, Renewables Integration, and Workforce Development.
In support of resilience, he initiated a multi-domain, model-based analytical platform to assess risks to the energy sector from climate change, extreme weather, and other emerging threats. He has supported the Department's response/recovery efforts for multiple reliability events, including Hurricane Katrina/Rita where he provided daily briefing materials to the White House and Departmental leadership on electricity restoration progress, field deployment, and coordination.
Gil has served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Permitting, Siting, and Analysis, providing on a national-level, unbiased technical assistance and analysis to facilitate electricity infrastructure investment needed to deliver clean, affordable, and reliable electricity to customers. He has also served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Electricity R&D, which included oversight of research on grid systems and components such as energy storage, transformers, and cables/conductors.
Gil has worked for DOE for over 20 years. Before coming to DOE, he worked as an engineer at General Electric Company and Westinghouse Electric Corporation, was on the technical staff of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory and spent time in the Czech Republic and Bangladesh. He is a registered Professional Engineer (New York); he received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Union College (Schenectady, NY), and an M.P.A. in International Development (Economics) from Harvard University.
Alejandro Moreno
Alejandro Moreno is the Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). He provides advice and leadership in the strategic planning, execution, and oversight of the EERE portfolio.
Previously, he served as the Office's Renewable Energy Deputy Assistant Secretary and as the Director of the Water Power Technologies Office. In addition to his roles at DOE, he has served in the energy groups of the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, where he designed and led regulatory reform programs to spur investment in clean energy and rural electrification. Moreno holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Our nation is transitioning to a decarbonized, electrified energy future. The transition will occur in multiple, overlapping transformations across our electricity system, including both on the bulk power system and at the grid edge, where buildings, industry, transportation, renewables, storage, and the grid come together. Decarbonization of buildings and industry, electrification of the transportation sector, and the proliferation of renewable energy and affordable energy storage may seem like separate evolutions, but the good news is that the challenges they present have many similar solutions.
As an example, transportation electrification is a nexus for the opportunities and challenges posed by that change. It demonstrates the need for coordination across the grid and end-use sectors and the ways that decision makers need to think holistically, engage more stakeholders, and accelerate action to achieve a decarbonized, cost-effective future.
Electric vehicles link two of the nation’s largest sectors, transportation and electricity. The two have operated largely independently until recently, but new technologies and a changing grid are forging new connections and causing a paradigm shift in how we think about planning and deploying the electricity grid. Impacts on the grid are becoming more behaviorally driven, expanding customers’ relationship with energy.
On the surface, thousands of new vehicles all plugging in to charge so drivers can get where they need to be might seem like an overwhelming strain on the grid – and it can be if unmanaged – but, in fact, EVs can enhance both grid resiliency and power system efficiency. Vehicle-grid integration (VGI) takes the act of connecting a vehicle to the grid for charging to new levels. It is a key to serving new, decarbonized electrical loads by unlocking a cost-effective, efficient, decentralized system powered by renewable, inverter-based resources. To realize these benefits, VGI must be considered together with other emerging technologies that will drive greater electricity demand and increasing amounts of on-side electricity production.
It’s unclear precisely when and where infrastructure will be required to meet future customer needs, but it’s clear that waiting until it is required will result in higher costs, lengthy delays, and potential reliability impacts. The vision of VGI complementing and reinforcing the electrical needs of Americans has a nationwide scope that will depend on everyone being on the same page. Some states have been preparing for the electrification of transportation for years, while others are just beginning their journeys, and while there are unique elements to each community’s challenges, there are also strong linkages and potentially common solutions.
These goals demand foresight from governments, private companies, utilities, and regulators, though they are shrouded in uncertainty. An integrated, comprehensive program is needed to make the shift from incremental progress to exponential change. The Department of Energy (DOE) and the national labs can help guide the way by demonstrating technologies and approaches to reduce uncertainty and increase confidence for investment. DOE is developing an accelerator to provide data, tools, analysis, and other activities that support decision makers and illustrate the technical and institutional steps needed to manage the changing grid and new loads.
In addition, DOE has the convening power to coalesce stakeholders along the value chain, to gather them for enhanced learning on priority topics, to provide actionable steps, to accelerate the drive to common solutions, and to share data and best practices learned from targeted, real-world experiential programs.
DOE’s Office of Electricity and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy understand the challenges stakeholders face at all phases of this transition and, in cooperation other offices, are positioned to help them navigate the coming changes and hasten progress by significantly expanding assistance to and engagement with regulators, utilities, grid operators, state and local policymakers, end use manufacturers, and other stakeholders. This supercharged cross-office collaboration reflects the coordinated approach stakeholders must take to solve these problems and is born of an understanding of the urgency to prepare stakeholders for the transformation.