Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Kevin Schneider harnesses new technologies and regulatory requirements to add reliability and flexibility to the national power grid.
Growing up in Bellingham, Wash. in the early 1980s, Kevin Schneider never considered himself an “overly motivated student.” In fact, he was the only member of his middle school science class whose simple electric motor (made from a battery, a permanent magnet and an electromagnet created by wrapping wire around a nail) never worked.
“I rebuilt that motor a dozen times,” he recalls, “but never got it to spin the nail (electromagnet). My teacher couldn’t figure out why either. I guess electronics were never a natural fit for me.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Exploiting Change
Today, as a Laboratory Fellow and the Manager of the Office of Electricity Subsector for the Department of Energy’s (DoE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Schneider leads and coordinates PNNL’s research in the design, planning, and operations of power systems that make up the nation’s electrical infrastructure.
Technically, this infrastructure comprises three (mostly) independent power grids: the Western Interconnection, the Eastern Interconnection and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
Each grid is a complex network of power plants, transmission lines, and distribution lines that deliver electricity to homes and businesses. Consumers typically refer to these grids collectively, however, as the “U.S. power grid.”
“If I could boil my job down to one thing, it would be studying the power grid’s rate of change,” says Schneider. “Since the grid began operating in about 1886, it has continually changed to meet our evolving needs. But over the past 20 years, we’ve seen an acceleration of that change due to the introduction of new technologies, new regulatory requirements and new expectations of the grid.”
To wit, his research today focuses on improving grid reliability and flexibility by harnessing evolving grid elements such as microgrids, energy storage, electric vehicles, distributed energy resources and smart home appliances.
Setting Sail on Life
Schneider was born in London, U.K., the son of a U.S. Navy petty officer and an Irish housewife. After the Navy transferred the family back to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, however, his parents split up, leading Schneider and his mom to move two hours north to Bellingham.
“In high school, I wasn’t exactly tearing up the books,” he recalls. “I made it through school but realistically, going straight to college would not have been a good plan for me.”
Instead, Schneider joined the Navy.
“The military gave me time to figure out what I wanted to do with my life," he explains. Schneider's military service––he served for six years–– also allowed him to take college more seriously than his 18-year-old self might have otherwise.
Going Nuclear, Diving Deep
When Schneider joined the Navy, he wanted to become a submariner. Before granting his wish, however, the Navy (ironically) made him an electrician and sent him to boot camp in Orlando, Fla. Then they enrolled him in Nuclear Power School, a rigorous, 24-week course to train Navy personnel how to operate and maintain nuclear power plants on submarines and surface ships.
Schneider’s nuclear training also included working at the Naval Reactors Facility and two stints on the nuclear submarine USS Los Angeles (SSN-688), first while it was undergoing refueling at Mare Island in Vallejo, Calif and later when it deployed to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Landing on Electrical Engineering
Schneider left the Navy in 1998 and returned to the Pacific Northwest where he enrolled in the physics program at the University of Washington in Seattle. But after earning his bachelor’s degree in 2001, he decided that physics was not his higher calling.
“I was okay in physics but didn’t have a natural aptitude for it,” he says. “And trying to explain the work to people was kind of challenging.”
Instead, Schneider thought back to his work in the Navy maintaining pumps, motors and other types of power systems, inspiring him to select electrical engineering as a career path. In 2002, he completed his master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering at the University of Washington followed by a PhD in the same discipline in 2005.
Schneider was introduced to PNNL while working on doctorate when several of its employees visited his lab in Seattle. After completing his PhD, he joined the Laboratory as a research engineer in 2006, relocating to its main campus in Richland, Wash. Eventually, however, he returned to Seattle where he has lived ever since.
Understanding the US Power Grid
The nation’s electrical infrastructure (U.S. power grid) comprises thousands of power plants (fueled by natural gas, coal, hydro, solar, wind and nuclear power), hundreds of thousands of miles of transmission lines that move power in bulk from power plants to local communities, and millions of miles of local distribution lines that deliver power from substations in a radial fashion to consumer homes.
While the grid is considered reliable, its aging infrastructure, extreme weather events, and potential cyber threats are making it more difficult to withstand and recover quickly from power disruptions.
Against this backdrop, Schneider and his PNNL colleagues are working to define and develop power infrastructure that will make the grid more adaptable to new technologies such as renewable energy, microgrids and electric vehicles.
Increasingly, the grid is a patchwork of capabilities owned and operated by different organizations with a variety of attitudes and priorities as to what should be updated …. and what should be left alone.
“In the past, we could install a new transformer and it would probably work just fine for the next 50 years,” Schneider observes. “But now, we have to ask ourselves whether the equipment we’re installing today will meet tomorrow’s needs. Increasingly, that answer is ‘no.’ So how can we deploy new infrastructure that’s more adaptable even though we don’t know what that future looks like?”
Debating Could vs Should
Instead, the more common debate among utility operators is how to harden their local grid against severe storms and other natural disasters.
The answer is never simple and varies nationally according to local priorities and the subset of natural disasters (flooding, earthquakes, wildfires, etc.) most likely to affect a given community.
In all cases, Schneider suggests, planners need to weigh tradeoffs between “technically possible” and “financially feasible.” In a city such as Asheville, N.C. which experienced devastating flooding in the wake of Hurricane Helene in Sept. 2024, he says, “We could probably build 10-foot-deep underground, water-tight bunkers for every transmission line, but that would likely be more than 10 times more expensive than how we run those lines today.”
Instead, he offers, it’s probably smarter and more cost-effective to accept that high-impact weather events will knock out grid infra-structure, and then have a plan to repair it as quickly as possible. In other words, go for 99.99% instead of 100% reliability, backed up by cooperative repair agreements with utility companies in other jurisdictions.
Predicting the Future
To help utilities (and by extension, consumers) use the grid more cost-effectively, Schneider and the PNNL team employ a powerful planning tool: simulation software.
“We do computer simulation projects with utilities all over the country to help them visualize the impact and potential benefits of upgrading or integrating their network with utilities in other regions,” he explains.
“We encourage states to work together, but we never tell them how to regulate their utilities. As a national laboratory, our job is to give decision-makers the most accurate technical analysis and information we can. It’s up to them to decide how best to meet the needs of their utility and constituents.”
A typical by-product of PNNL simulations and analysis, he adds, is commercially available software tools that utilities can use to play out other scenarios. These software products help support the broader mission of PNNL and the DoE, which is to be an energy planning and analysis resource for the entire nation, not just individual communities.
“Seeing our research evolve into a standard capability for our customers is exciting because it’s making an impact,” Schneider declares. “That’s why I like working here.”
Living the Good Life
Workdays begin before dawn in the 1912 Craftsman house that Schneider shares with his girlfriend in West Seattle. Two days per week, he makes the 20-minute commute to PNNL’s Seattle office near South Lake Union, usually arriving before 6:30 a.m.
Most other days he works in his home office, video conferencing with colleagues nationwide. By mid-afternoon, Schneider’s workday is often done, giving him time to run along the Puget Sound––he tries to get out four or five times per week––or work on his house. The house was built as part of a real estate boom that included a trolley line connecting his neighborhood to downtown Seattle.
From time to time, Schneider also makes the three-and-a-half-hour drive to PNNL’s headquarters in Richland, Wash., about 200 miles southeast of Seattle. Besides helping him fulfill his PNNL requirements, the commute also supports Schneider's role as a research professor at Washington State University (WSU), which operates its Tri-Cities campus in Richland.
Schneider is also a joint appointee to the Advanced Grid Institute, a joint research institute formed in 2018 by PNNL and WSU to model, simulate and enhance grid resilience against hazards such as natural disasters and malicious threats. In this role, he collaborates with WSU personnel on technical projects and proposals and serves on the committees of several WSU PhD candidates.
Optimizing the Grid
When asked about his key goals for increasing the reliability and flexibility of the grid, Schneider zeroes in on interoperability and regional planning.
“I’d like to see everything work together,” he offers. “For example, how do we get people with EVs working with the utilities so that EVs can potentially become an (energy) resource? I’d also like to see regulatory and business environments evolve so that utilities and other stakeholders can collaborate more easily.”
Keep Pushing
In the end, Schneider observes, the nation’s power grid is a complex, multi-faceted entity with thousands of moving parts, diverse stakeholders and high levels of uncertainty. And even though it provides an essential fabric to our lives, change still occurs at a glacial pace.
“I tell my students to always stay optimistic, especially in this field,” he says. “It can be very challenging and sometimes discouraging because you’re not just trying to define the best technical solution. You also have to deal with regulators and special interest groups. All of the problems are complex with lots of facets, but your effort will pay off if you just keep pushing at it.”
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If you'd like to read more about people at the forefront of modernizing the nation's electrical infrastructure, please check out other profiles on my renewable energy news page. If you'd like to suggest other people for me to profile, please send your ideas to brooks@personsofinfrastructure.com. Many thanks.
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