We’re back (minus Colleen who was on vacation), this time with Seth Frader-Thompson, the CEO and co-founder of EnergyHub. Many don’t realize that EnergyHub has built what may be the largest VPP platform in North America, nearly entirely with vertically integrated utilities.

In addition to getting the inside scoop on how they pulled this off, we discuss EnergyHub’s intriguing VPP capabilities framework called the Huels Test, how VPPs can at times be better than a traditional power plant, why they focused on vertically integrated markets, and a whole lot more.We also spent a ton of time getting into the weeds of starting companies in our industry, finding PMF, pivoting, leadership styles, etc. Anyone building in this space should take notes.

Btw, if you’re enjoying this episode you should definitely check out DERVOS 2025, our annual event that’s all about distributed energy and the energy industry broadly. Rumor has it Seth with be making a special appearance.

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Strap in for an episode where DERs go almost entirely unmentioned. Instead, we talked about nuclear, degrowth, climate change, communication over the internet, AI, and the future broadly with Isabelle Boemeke.Isabelle is the creator of Isodope and founder of Save Clean Energy, and new book Rad Future is about to be released on August 12th.

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We’re back! This time with Cole Ashman, Founder and CEO of Pila Energy. Permissionless DERs are one of most exciting new categories for us. With all the focus on permitting challenges, high soft costs, and long interconnection cues, what if we could just install DERs without all of that nonsense?

In the ep, we talk about Cole’s journey from experiencing Hurricane Katrina awakening him to the need for resilience to working at Tesla, Span, and now Pila, Ben Franklin shocking people at parties, whether permissionless batteries have actual physical advantages over grid-tied batteries, how backfeeding into circuits works and what permitting reform could look like, balcony solar, storage manufacturing and supply chains, and so much more!

Note: we had a bad connection between our recording device and computer, leading to a bunch of skips. Our fearless editor did his best to clean these up, but some may remain. This also means we can’t post the video because it messed with the timecodes. Sorry! We’ll do better next time.

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We’re still laughing that we actually did this pod. Why it seemed like a good idea to book two of our favorite (outspoken) people, Jigar Shah (most recently led the DOE LPO) and Tim Hade (co-founder Scale Microgrids), at the same time continues to confound us.

With two legends on the couch that each have a wealth of knowledge, it was basically impossible to ask them everything we wanted. It was probably one of the most fun recordings we’ve ever done, so we’re psyched to share it with everyone.

We usually list everything we talked about, but its was way too wide ranging to even begin summarizing. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

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We’re back with our longest pod ever! And deservedly so. When you get Lisan al Gaib on the couch, you use all the time you have to pick his brain.

Jesse Peltan is one of our favorite thinkers in the entire space, and his brilliant insights are endless. We probably need another 3 hours with him to get even more out!

In it, we discuss: the fundamental resource availability of various energy sources, what 24/7 solar + storage at $3/w means, China’s explosive solar installation and manufacturing growth, the real rate limiters on nuclear and solar, opportunities for DC (versus AC) power use, and much much more.

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

After a brief haitus to focus on 2025 planning, we’re back! Last week we sat down with Astrid Atkinson, CEO and co-founder of Camus Energy. We talked about all kinds of fun stuff: how this moment of grid expansion is like the expansion of cloud services, how it isn’t, how we can connect large loads faster via flexibility, where Astrid sees the grid going, how Camus started, what cool new stuff Camus is working on today, the nuance between distributed systems versus decentralized systems, and more.

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

Last week we sat down with Dana Guernsey, co-founder and CEO of Voltus. There was A LOT to talk about in this one. As you’d expect we went deep on Dana’s backstory, the history of DR, new DER participation models, and where we think the future is headed. But also, Voltus just went through a settlement with FERC and this was Dana’s first podcast appearance since, so we did our best to understand what happened and what the Voltus position on it all is.

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We’re back! And this time, we’re starting a holy war. Duncan launched an amazing paper on solar (wow, total sleight of hand! Don’t you mean GAS BACKUP?) microgrids for data centers with Stripe’s climate team and other DERTF OGs like Kyle Baranko, and some big names on Twitter lost their s**t.

Tune in to hear about the churches of Matt Yglesias, Mark Z Jacobson, and Alex Epstein, who our maud’dib is, how heat DERvos was, what ‘25 is all about, and so much more!

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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 to plummet. Will the demand growth story of the 2020s look radically different than that of the 1950s?

Speakers: Ari Matusiak (Rewiring America), Astrid Atkinson (Camus), Jesse Pelton (Type 1 & Abundance Institute), Andy Lubershane (EIP)

Moderator: Duncan Campbell (DER Task Force & Scale Microgirds)

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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 Wannop (DER Task Force)

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