Assistant Secretary
Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability
Biography: Patricia Hoffman was named Assistant Secretary (AS) for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) at the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in June 2010 after serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) for OE since November 2007. Assistant Secretary Hoffman provides leadership on a national level on electric grid modernization, enhancing the security and reliability of the energy infrastructure and facilitating recovery from disruptions to the energy supply. 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.
During her tenure as PDAS, Ms. Hoffman oversaw OE’s $4.5 billion in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to invest in the deployment of smart grid technologies to reduce electricity costs, increase reliability, and give consumers more choice and control over their energy use. Additionally, these Recovery Act funds support the long-term, coordinated transmission planning; the development of interoperability standards that will enable smart grid devices to communicate in an efficient and secure way; and workforce development support to enhance the electric power system workers skills essential to modernize the grid. The funds also provide assistance to state and local governments to improve planning and emergency preparedness to minimize impacts of energy supply disruptions, and provide additional resources to state public utility commissions to help in regulating and overseeing new electricity and energy projects.
Ms. Hoffman has over 14 years of experience at the Energy Department developing and managing technology research programs critical to the electric sector. She developed OE’s long-term research strategy and improved its 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. Additionally, under her leadership, the Department demonstrated the first recuperated, industrial gas turbine for distributed generation applications. She also briefly managed the business operations for OE, including human resources, budget development, financial execution, and performance management.
Ms. Hoffman holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Ceramic Science and Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.