In high school, Peter Balash developed a lifelong interest in rugby, and the valuable lessons learned in those hard-hitting matches have guided him throughout his NETL career, helping him recently earn national recognition as an expert and leader in energy economics.

Although strength and speed are needed to excel in the full-contact sport, “the best squads are tight-knit units that work well together and execute strategies that emphasize teamwork,” said Balash, associate director for the Strategic Systems Analysis & Engineering (SSAE) directorate.

“In that regard, there are similarities between rugby and what I do at NETL, which is mainly focused on organizing cohesive, interdisciplinary teams of engineers, scientists and economists to work as one unit on national energy priorities,” he said.

It is a formula that ensures reliable energy for the nation and has earned Balash a prestigious award from the United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE), an organization of business, government, academic and other professionals that advances the understanding and application of economics across all facets of energy development and use. 

In November, Balash was named a USAEE senior fellow for his contributions to the field of energy economics and his leadership and longtime support of the association. He received the award at the USAEE’s 41st North American Conference at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Balash was nominated for the honor by Helen Currie, chief economist at ConocoPhillips, who noted that Balash has been a longtime supporter of USAEE, served as its president and in other leadership positions and worked to establish the organization’s Three Rivers Chapter based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Balash’s leadership was crucial in “helping to guide the organization through challenging post-pandemic times,” Currie said. She also noted that Balash’s research at NETL for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) “has provided objective, relevant economic analyses of energy production and market dynamics.”

“I am both honored and humbled by this honor,” Balash said.

Since joining NETL in 2002 as its first federal economist, Balash has followed energy markets, energy security and technology issues for DOE/NETL, analyzing market and technology interactions across the entire energy value chain. These analyses help determine the reliability and affordability of new technologies and energy systems. By identifying energy market needs and conditions, researchers can design technologies that will be needed by the marketplace and be deployable at an acceptable cost.

In his current role leading the SSAE directorate, an enterprise of 140 professionals, Balash manages interdisciplinary teams that produce economic, systems, optimization, regulatory, environmental life cycle and infrastructure reliability analyses for strategic planning.

Balash’s work has made national headlines. For instance, Balash served on the DOE/NETL Bomb Cyclone Analysis Team that collected and analyzed data regarding trends that developed during a severe weather event known as a “bomb cyclone.” The analysis showed that coal was the most resilient form of power generation during the bomb cyclone and that removing coal from the energy mix would worsen threats to the electrical grid’s dependability in future severe weather events.

Other accomplishments include expanding the number of research economists at NETL. Balash noted the one of those economists, Amanda Harker Steele, currently serves as president of the USAEE Three Rivers Chapter that he worked to start.

Before joining NETL, Balash worked for the Internal Revenue Service in Houston, Texas, conducting multinational corporate audits. He earned his doctorate in economics in 1992 from the University of Texas at Austin and his bachelor’s degree in economics from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1987.

This past spring, Balash played in a rugby match organized for Xavier alumni. He has also played for club teams in the Pittsburgh area.

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers solutions for a clean and secure energy future. By leveraging its highly skilled innovators and state-of-the-art research facilities, NETL is advancing carbon management and resource sustainability technologies to enable environmental sustainability for all Americans.