Professor Balog gave a tour of the Grid Interactions Research Facility (GIRF) to conference attendees as part of the 10th Anniversary Texas Power and Energy Conference on February 8, 2026.
The Grid Interactions Research Facility (GIRF) is a research, development, and testing facility dedicated to power electronics at the grid-edge with an emphasis on the interaction of distributed energy resources (DERs) for power grid modernization. Examples of DERs include smart photovoltaic (PV) inverters, electric vehicles (EV), battery energy storage systems (BESS), smart loads, smart appliances, and other devices. This location provides 1,000 square feet of fully conditioned lab space and an additional 3,000 square feet of high bay workspace. Adjacent to the GIRF is the outdoor Solar Energy Technology Testing Laboratory (SETTL) with permanently installed PV modules and flexibility to suit a variety of PV and balance of systems testing. The SETTL test field is connected to the GIRF through a series of underground conduits to carry power and communications cables for power off-take telemetry. The GIRF is supplied from a dedicated medium voltage transformer and has access to 1.8MVA at 480V for research use.
The IEEE Texas Power and Energy Conference (TPEC) brings together participants from industry and academia to present and discuss the latest technological developments and challenges in the power and energy industry. Electric power engineers, technical managers, educators and students are encouraged to participate and contribute with their knowledge to advance the research and development of the power and energy industry.
