As part of the Energy Department’s commitment to a strong and secure power grid, the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability today announced up to $1.5 million in funding to encourage innovative designs that will promote greater standar...
June 8, 2016
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Editor's note: the application deadline for the “Next Generation Transformers – Flexible Designs" Funding Opportunity Announcement has been extended to July 26, 2016.
As part of the Energy Department’s commitment to a strong and secure power grid, the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability today announced up to $1.5 million in funding to encourage innovative designs that will promote greater standardization of large power transformers (LPTs). The “Next Generation Transformers – Flexible Designs” funding opportunity announcement is intended to stimulate new designs for LPTs that are more flexible and adaptable to facilitate transformer sharing and long-term replacement in the event of catastrophic failures, thereby increasing grid resilience. The due date for submitting an application is July 24, 2016.
LPTs, which are critical to the nation’s power grid and represent one of its most vulnerable components, can weigh hundreds of tons, are expensive, and are typically custom-made with procurement lead times of 1 year or more. Since LPTs are generally tailored to customer specifications, they are not readily interchangeable with each other, and their high costs prohibit extensive spare inventories. This vulnerability is compounded by the fact that many LPTs are approaching or exceeding their design lives. In the event of the loss of multiple LPTs, insufficient spares may exist and those that are available may not be easily installed at other locations.
Being better prepared for extreme weather events, the unpredictability of natural hazards such as geomagnetic disturbances, and the persistent threat of deliberate attacks is vital to our national economy, security, and services that Americans rely on every day. Today’s funding opportunity announcement is another important step in our ongoing work to further strengthen the reliability and resilience of the nation’s power grid by increasing our ability to replace damaged large power transformers that are critical to the electric infrastructure.
As the electric power system evolves to enable a more resilient and clean energy future and the threat landscape continues to evolve, developing a strong, flexible “ecosystem of resilience” of producers, distributors, regulators, vendors and public and private partners will allow us as a nation to continue strengthening our ability to prepare, respond, and recover from energy disruptions. Our partnerships with industry, other Federal agencies, local governments and other stakeholders are vital in quickly identifying threats, developing comprehensive strategies to mitigate those threats, and responding rapidly to any disruptions.
To learn more about ongoing efforts to address security and reliability concerns of large power transformers, visit the LPT page on our website.
Patricia A. Hoffman
Acting Assistant Secretary, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity
Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity (OE) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Ms. Patricia A. Hoffman also served as Acting Under Secretary for Science and Energy from January 2017 until November 2017 when the U.S. Senate confirmed Mark Menezes as Under Secretary of Energy. Ms. Hoffman served as Acting Assistant Secretary for OE from January 2017 until October 2017 when the OE Assistant Secretary was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Ms. Hoffman was named Assistant Secretary for OE from June 2010 to January 2017, after serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary since November 2007. The focus of her responsibility was to provide leadership on a national level to modernize the electric grid, enhance the security and reliability of the energy infrastructure and facilitate recovery from disruptions to the energy supply both domestically and internationally. This is critical to meeting the Nation’s growing demand for reliable electricity by overcoming the challenges of our Nation’s aging electricity transmission and distribution system and addressing the vulnerabilities in our energy supply chain.
Prior to her this position, Ms. Hoffman served in a dual capacity as Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Research and Development (R&D) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) within OE. During her tenure as the DAS for R&D, she developed the long-term research strategy and improved the management portfolio of research programs for modernizing and improving the resiliency of the electric grid. This included developing and implementing sensors and operational tools for wide-area monitoring, energy storage research and demonstration, and the development of advanced conductors to increase the capacity and flexibility of the grid. She also initiated a new research effort focused on integrating and distributing renewable energy through the electric grid, such as promoting plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and implementing smart grid technologies to maintain system reliability. As COO, she managed the OE business operations, including human resources, budget development, financial execution, and performance management.
Prior to joining OE, she was the Program Manager for the Federal Energy Management Program within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at DOE. This program guides the Federal government to “lead by example” promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy, and smart energy management. Complementing her building energy efficiency experience, she also was the Program Manager for the Distributed Energy Program, which conducted research on advanced natural gas power generation and combined heat and power systems. Her accomplishments included the successful completion of the Advanced Turbine System program resulting in a high-efficiency industrial gas turbine power generation product.
Ms. Hoffman holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Ceramic Science and Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.