  **Title**: Energy in the North - Catelin Mo
**Date**: September 9, 2026
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Catelin Mo


00;00;00;13 - 00;00;06;07 [Catelin Mo] I don't know if you know about what happened in 2021, but
the Texas grid is not designed to handle like, cold or anything like that,

00;00;06;07 - 00;00;33;14 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North, I speak with Catelin Mo, one of two utility research partnerships interns funded by the Office of Naval Research, working on the Black Start or Zombie Apocalypse project, looking at how to restart the 蜜桃影像 power plant in the event of a natural disaster. Catelin is a mechanical engineering and math student at the University of Texas at Austin. And I began the conversation by asking her how she found out about ACEP Internship.

00;00;33;14 - 00;01;36;29 [Catelin Mo] I was actually following ACEP鈥檚 newsletter for like a year. And when I saw about this, I was like, okay, I'm going to apply because back at UT, I also work on energy research, but it's more like resilience for Texas. So for us especially like in
 Gulf of Mexico area, which like where I'm from, our grid, like, I don't know if you know about what happened in 2021, but the Texas grid is not designed to handle like, cold or anything like that, and it's not designed well to handle like hurricanes, even though we get them a lot. So when a natural disaster happens, we won't have power for like a week. And we're not really that well connected to the rest of the US And I thought that 蜜桃影像 had kind of a similar grid situation in Texas and that it was its islanded, so it's not connected to the rest of the US. And so you kind of have to be more self-sufficient and more resilient, because the weather here is also extreme, like Texas, but like in the other way. And so I thought I could learn a little bit more about energy resilience. But like in a different direction, because I've always worked in like hot, humid flooding and here is like dry, cold, cold.

00;01;36;29 - 00;01;39;29 [Amanda Byrd] How on earth did you find out about our newsletter?

00;01;39;29 - 00;02;19;02 [Catelin Mo] I think I was like deep into Google Scholar because where the power plant is at work on it. So I do a lot of research on the cogeneration plant at UT and here also as a cogeneration plant. And it's it's like really unique because it's, coal and we don't really, like, a new coal plant is like kind of crazy because we kind of went away from that. But in 蜜桃影像, it's like more economical just because here the coal is so clean. And so I was really interested in the coal plant here, and I wanted to like, work on it. And then I like saw ACEP,. and I saw Professor Huang and Kasper's project and I was like, ooh, that looks really interesting. So then I was like, I applied,

00;02;19;02 - 00;02;21;01 [Amanda Byrd] Oh, that makes me feel really good.

00;02;21;01 - 00;03;35;25 [Catelin Mo] So the research I do, it's, in HVAC lab. They work on new renewable energy technologies. Like, I currently do research on humidification membranes. And so in a normal HVAC system, the way that we dehumidifier the areas that we induce, like phase changes, but with membrane technology, it just physically takes the water out of the air. And so that uses a lot less energy. But the technologies to continue. And so we're working on testing that through different thermal conditions. But I'm studying mechanical engineering and math. And within mechanical engineering my focus is on energy systems. And so that's also why I like wanted to come to ACEP and do this project because this project is focuses on and systems and also focuses on like, like the under the hood stuff, like the thermal systems, how it works and also like other things are important, like financial aspects or like regulations or like the utility people themselves, because it's really easy to be an engineer in like some of your computer and make your little math models, but then you have to like, pitch that to people and you like, find out things you even consider when it comes to like finance or like logistics, etc. and I feel like, that's like really good to know because it kind of opens my mind to like how energy systems work and how they like progress

00;03;35;25 - 00;03;44;06 [Amanda Byrd] So Austin is pretty big. It's a pretty big city. And now you're in Fairbanks, 蜜桃影像 for the summer. What surprised you most about Fairbanks?

00;03;44;06 - 00;04;50;18 [Catelin Mo] How, like, everyone knows each other because I don't think I've ever lived in, like, a small town, like I've, Austin the city I lived. I was born in Houston, I had been to Austin and before was like in Fairbanks. I came from Seoul. And so it's like city to city to like Fairbanks. And I kind of like it, like the air. I hear the air quality here is like, not the best on my weather app, but it feels like so fresh, especially compared to like, Korea Air. I really like how everyone is outdoorsy here and everyone in 蜜桃影像 is just like built different. Like, it's like the toughest people because people in 蜜桃影像, things will like, go wrong and they'll just fix it See, like in Texas, people, things will go wrong and people will like mope about for like 2 or 3 days and then they'll fix it at least, like in the city. But here, like, everyone's like a go getter. Everyone's really nice. And there's like a really strong community here. And I really like how people don't let anything go to waste. And I feel like that resilience here is like, why the energy research scene here is like that. Because when you like, as a person are very, resourceful and resilient, it kind of reflects in like the work you do,

00;04;50;18 - 00;04;56;10 Catelin Mo is a summer utility research partnerships intern at the 蜜桃影像 Center for Energy and Power. And I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for ACEP. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep and follow us on social media.