- This event has passed.
July Solar Austin Happy Hour: ERCOT Electric Grid System Planning
July 23, 2019 @ 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Hosted by Solar Austin –
Getting more large-scale solar and wind energy built in Texas requires a well-functioning electric grid. For our July happy hour, Warren Lasher will explore emerging grid challenges and opportunities associated with balancing power generation and consumption within the Texas Interconnection, one of four frequency-independent power grids in North America.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is unique among these interconnections in so far as the balancing authority, the interconnection and the regional transmission organization are all the same entity and physical system. In a recent feature on KUT, Lasher likened ERCOT’s role as a reliability coordinator and balancing authority to John Bohnham’s role in Led Leppelin. Just as a drummer might need to maintain a tempo of 60 beats per minute, ERCOT needs to maintain the heartbeat of the grid at 60 cycles per second.
About Warren Lasher:
As Senior Director of System Planning for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT), Warren Lasher is responsible for transmission planning, load forecasting and resource adequacy analyses for the ERCOT interconnection. Lasher has been at ERCOT for over fourteen years; before this he was employed by the Southern Company in Birmingham, Alabama, where he worked in the Engineering and the Planning organizations. Lasher has a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, and graduate degrees in Environmental Management and Computer Science.
You can RSVP here.
___________________________________________________
Getting to the event:
Please consider taking the bus to the happy hour. There are many buses within easy walking distance of Scholz Garten. Plan your trip here. If you drive, State Parking Garages can be found next to, behind, and across from Scholz Garten. San Jacinto Blvd., 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and Trinity have parking garage entrances.
For regular updates on our Happy Hours and more information about Solar Austin, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook, and sign up for our email list via solaraustin.org.