Hala N. Ballouz
President and CEO,
Electric Power Engineers, USA
Biography: As the President and CEO of Electric Power Engineers, LLC, (EPE) Hala N. Ballouz has built a rapidly growing team of 200+ power systems engineers and energy professionals with a singular focus: holistically transforming the electric grid to enable a resilient, affordable, and carbon-free energy future.
Recognizing that a key requirement of the grid and energy transformation is the ability to access, process, and leverage massive amounts of new data and detailed asset models, she also guided development of pioneering software technology to meet this need.
The foundation of Ms. Ballouz’s vision and the success of EPE are delivering energy intelligent solutions to the industry through holistic interdisciplinary teams of engineering and software experts. With their deep understanding of the industry, Hala and her team deliver exceptional insights into the ever-expanding technologies, energy policies, grid innovations, and most of all, meeting clients’ needs. This vision has positioned Electric Power Engineers to support utilities, large energy users, and the majority of renewable and storage resource developers to deliver sustainable and modern grid solutions.
Ms. Ballouz has been an adviser nationally and internationally on the integration of renewables and smart grid development. She is an innovator in the study of the planning and operation of integrated transmission and distribution (T&D) networks, generation, load resources, distributed resources, and new technologies. She also founded GridNEXT, while President of TREIA, now CleanTX Association, and established the first of its kind series of conferences focusing on grid modernization to further the integration of renewables.
Hala N. Ballouz holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) in several states. Over the course of her career, she has received many technical and business awards that acknowledge her contributions to our industry. As an ardent supporter of empowering women, she is particularly proud of being the recipient of the Women in Power Award.
Title of Keynote Speech
Looking Ahead to the End of the Energy Transition: What Is the Future State and How Do We Plan for It?
Abstract: In this keynote, Hala will envision the end state of the energy transition, a place where technology enabled by power electronics and digital communications will be fully (and securely) embedded in our power generation and delivery systems. These systems will be fully integrated with each other and highly flexible. Utilities will have visibility into every aspect of these systems and will seamlessly utilize tools like AI to help maintain and operate integrated grid systems so that they are optimized at every moment. Utilities and their customers are interacting in extremely symbiotic ways to enable grid-edge generation and load flexibility. The utility workforce is highly skilled at deploying and operating technology in this dynamic environment.
Hala will then look at how we can get there from here: with granular modeling and planning and well as setting critical milestones along the way.
