DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYC Demand growth has returned to the US electricity sector for the first time in two decades and the cracks are showing in the system. Reindustrialization, electrification, and the AI juggernaut have catapulted us into a new era. New loads are suddenly having trouble getting grid connections, interconnection times for new generation keep growing with no end in sight, and transmission and distribution costs are escalating faster than ever. And yet, technology costs continue...

DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYC New energy technologies can thrive or die due to regulatory policy. This unbelievable policy panel will feature regulators who have actually supported new technologies and advocates who have successfully fought for paradigm-shifting policies. We know we have great technologies--this panel will explore how we get them to scale.Speakers: Allison Clements (FERC), Marissa Gillett (CT PURA), Arushi Sharma Frank (Luminary Strategies, former Tesla) Moderator: Allison Bates...

Where else can you witness a pot of water boil in just a few seconds, learn about a micro nuclear reactor that skips boiling water altogether, insane AI-powered electro-cartography, and SpaceX-caliber EV charging infrastructure? Tons of companies applied to showcase their products at DERVOS and DER Task Force selected these four because, well, they are badass. * 0:00 - Impulse Labs * 6:10 - Westinghouse eVinci * 15:50 - Paces AI * 27:20 - Electric Era If you’re listening to this as a podcast,...

DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYC David Roberts (Volts podcast) and Mary Powell (CEO of Sunrun and DER legend) will sit down in a “fireside chat” style session to review the past year and chart a course for the future of DERs as two giants in our space. Speakers: David Roberts (Volts) and Mary Powell (Sunrun) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.dertaskforce.com/subscribe

DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYC Renewables have been breaking many of the mechanisms in our power markets, irrespective of structure. Across energy only, IRP, and capacity markets, we have been seeing "weirdness" in price action and regulatory responses as solar and wind continue to dominate new installs. It’ll be an acronym stew: from PCM and RUC buying in ERCOT, adjusting ELCCs in PJM leading to capacity prices 10x'ing, to NEM 3.0 in CAISO. We want to contend with what this means today and then try...

DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYC Tim Hade is the co-founder of Scale Microgrids and the godfather of DER Task Force. He’s been an inspiration to so many in our community, so we couldn’t think of a better person to kick us off at DERVOS this year. After this keynote we heard someone say “I’m ready to run through a wall for Tim” and we can’t claim to have felt any differently. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...

A truly wild story is unfolding in Pakistan. Over the past few years the country has become the globe’s third largest importer of Chinese solar panels, and yet none of the resulting projects are operated by, or even visible to, the national utility. Simultaneously, demand from the grid has dropped 9.1% over the past 12 months, which has many scared of a potential utility death spiral. Here’s a recent story in the Financial Times on what’s been going on that’s good background. To unpack this,...

We’re back! This time with Nic Freschi, Senior Associate at Gable Associates and all around PJM wizard. Nic is a friend and OG member of the DERTF. Almost a year ago, Nic’s models began predicting the ~10x increase in PJM capacity prices we saw in the recent auction. How did he know? In this ep, we go deep on every acronym you could ever imagine: ELCC, ORDC, PCM, LSERO, UCAP, ICAP, and so much more. Tune in to learn how ELCCs work, how prices clear in the PJM auction, if renewables can ever...

Last week we were lucky enough to sit down with Arushi Sharma Frank, the policy wizard who while at Tesla Energy helped turn Texas into one of the DER capitals of the world. She gives us the in depth history of of how ERCOT’s VPP program was forged — a story our co-host James was also a part of. We also talk about the rest of her time at Tesla, case studies in Australia and the UK, how regulators still don’t understand organic consumer adoption patterns, the Obamacare of power markets, where...

We’re back! This time with Charlotta Holmquist, President and Co-Founder of Blixt. Blixt is based in Sweden and just closed a fundraise led by Union Square Ventures. Their solid state circuit breaker and x-verter technology have the potential to fundamentally change how we approach building the grid. We’ve never left a conversation so excited about what the future could look like. We discuss everything from transformers for data centers, what the benefits of solid state power electronics are,...

We’re back for our first solo pod in months! We talk about what everyone is talking about these days… VPPs and load growth from AI. Is all this hype and talk about our space a good thing? Tune in to hear the Task Force unpack and set the narrative straight. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.dertaskforce.com/subscribe

We’re back, this time with Allison Bates Wannop, DERTF’s policy lead! We cover an absolute ton of stuff in this one: * Allison's background and introduction, Mother's Day acknowledgments * Mary Powell's influence, DER advocacy, the significance of FERC v. EPSA in shaping energy policy * Favorite DER categories, Vermont initiatives, impact of extreme weather on policy, details about the Green Mountain Power programs * Differences between RTOs and ISOs, complexities in regulatory work,...

Last week we sat down with Dave Riess, the CEO and co-founder of Wunder. They’re working hard to scale mid-sized commercial solar projects, where they believe the real TAM is in this market. Dave is an awesome guy who’s been grinding in the space for years now, so we naturally had a ton to talk about. * (00:02:55) Introduction and Guest Overview: Introduction of the hosts and the guest, David Reese, co-founder, and CEO of Wonder (formerly Wonder Capital). * (00:07:33) Network-Based Energy...

We’re back! This time with Casey Handmer, founder and CEO of Terraform Industries. Terraform is building a system to turn cheap solar electricity into methane. To pull this off they’ll need to commercialize the most performant and lowest-cost electrolysis, carbon capture, and Sabatier reactors ever seen. Casey had a ton of interesting thoughts about how to pull this off from engineering fundamentals in a manner that is tailored to the capacity factor of solar. We also get into the history of...

We’re back! This time we sat down with Quincy Lee, CEO and co-founder of Electric Era, an electric vehicle refueling company. Quincy has a super cool background - starting with designing skyscrapers, then moving on to space technology, and now he’s der-pilled. We talk about all kinds of stuff in this one: * what SpaceX and Starlink were like * why EV charging, or whoops, we mean “car refill” * EV charging reliability * grid constraints limiting EV infrastructure * the role of social media in...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.com We’re back! This time with a VIDEO POD. We recorded this live at DTECH a few weeks ago and haven’t had time to upload it. But this is a fun one that you don’t want to miss. Not only did we finally find out what a DERMS is, but we also became fully converted distribution utility maxis after walking the show floor. We’re all quitting our jobs and starting hardware companies with the Gundo boys! Tune in to hear...

We’re back, this time joined by Jesse Jenkins - professor at Princeton and lead of the Zero Lab. We cover a ton of ground in this one, including: * Jesse’s DERs journey, including skepticism at times and optimism at others. * A ton of discussion on rate design. * Jesse’s recent pod on rooftop solar. * How the hell is rooftop solar so expensive here versus Australia? * Where DERs are unfairly advantaged and disadvantaged. * How we’re going to deal with load growth, transmission buildout,...

We’re back! This time with Lynne Kiesling, Director of the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics (IRLE) at Northwestern University. Lynne is an Economist who has been working on power systems issues since the early 2000s, with a focus on power markets, transactive energy, and “quarantining the monopoly” as she says. Lynne was a panelist at DERVOS, as paying subscribers know from our previously released episode. We felt her Hayekian perspective (distributed, emergent, local) rounded out...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.com Back in November we threw DERVOS, our annual distributed energy summit. It turned out awesome. We really couldn’t be happier or more grateful for how it went. The panels and speakers were great, the crowd that turned up was amazing, and the vehicle to rave afterparty was super fun. Because the talks and panels went so well, we’ve decided to release the r…

We’re back! This time we sat down with Pier LaFarge, co-founder and CEO of Sparkfund. Those who listened to the DERVOS recording released last week may remember Pier pitching a utility-led DER deployment model. It was a pretty interesting idea that we felt deserved its own deep dive on a pod, so we invited Pier on to make the case for what is likely a very counterintuitive DERs approach for many in the space. In the episode he envisions a world where utilities determine the best locations for...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.com Back in November we threw DERVOS, our annual distributed energy summit. It turned out awesome. We really couldn’t be happier or more grateful for how it went. The panels and speakers were great, the crowd that turned up was amazing, and the vehicle to rave afterparty was super fun. Because the talks and panels went so well, we’ve decided to release the r…

Tune in for a chat on why ‘24 is TIME TO DER. Duncan and James reflect on the past 5 years before looking ahead at 2024 and beyond—and why the future is so exciting. We re-hash Dervos, retro our ‘23 new years resolutions, state our ‘24 resolutions, look back on the last 5 years in the space and where it is now, the current tech environment, building energy startups vs. thinking about energy, energy tech vs. climate tech, if CA grid failures are a canary in the coalmine for other regions, and...

We’re back! This time with a perfect warmup for DERvos in a few days with DERTF OG Ben Carron. Ben has not only worked for FERC, Nat Grid, SunRun, E3, and now Enel X, but also was one of the earliest presenters at our original, pre-pandemic “DG Beers” happy hours. We wanted to have Ben on to get back to our energy market wonkery roots, so don’t worry—you won’t hear any stuff about twitter culture discourse on this ep. In it, we talk about the early “DG Beers” days, dunkelflaute, James’ take...

We’re back! And this time just Duncan and James to talk about weird twitter discourse again! Sorry… we promise we’ll go back to talking about wonky energy stuff in the next episodes. In this ep, we talk about Duncan’s Dad’s epic utility pole story, James’ other less successful business ventures, announcing the first ever V2R (Vehicle 2 Rave) application at DERvos, Marc Andreesen’s manifesto and Sam Altman on Joe Rogan, their (and the e/acc movement’s) views on energy and environmentalism,...