Smart Grid Today Podcast

Amply CEO Vic Shao, a former battery storage lead at energy technology giant Engie, started Amply in 2018 to solve major problems that he saw holding back the electrification of big fleets of vehicles such as city buses when he realized managers of these fleets were unsure how to buy power, how to choose charging equipment, or what to do when the power goes out. This is a massive shift into unknown territory and Shao realized Amply could help smooth the transition with service model that answers these problems and many others. He told us all about how it works.

Colin Gibbs joined us to discuss how Bidgely is not only helping its clients manage the sudden changes brought on by the pandemic, which he described in detail, but also how the firm is developing fast answers for utility firms around the globe to help their customers through these tumultuous times. He has an inspiring view of the industry, where it is headed in normal times, and how to help manage the current crisis.

Stem is a leader in energy storage using batteries and VP Ted Ko spoke to us about the state of storage in the electric industry including which states around the US have policies and budgets that are driving growth including California where funding for battery deployments in low-income facilities fell far short of demand. New York set what Ko called the gold standard with its storage roadmap and opportunities are flourishing in other states. Untapped value streams in distribution-grid support and for microgrids using battery storage are quite exciting and Ko told us what is working and what needs to change in regulatory efforts.

Shuli Goodman in her second time on the program shared insights about how the pandemic offers urgent lessons for the electric industry that need to be heard to make sure the accelerating changes in the energy world do not take the industry by surprise. The LF in LF Energy stands for Linux Foundation and her organization is working with many big-name utilities and technology providers in the industry to develop software to help weather the upheaval that is already unfolding. She described how this work is meant to help.

Jess Melanson is COO and president of Utilidata, a software firm that offers a grid-edge operating system that adds value to smart grid deployments. The firm started by delivering voltage optimization using AMI (smart-meter) data a decade ago and now offers that and much more for electric utilities to bring great value to their smart grid deployments by maximizing the returns on their technology investments with top notch software the firm created itself and also acquired. This is a real heart-of-the-smart-grid technology value conversation that touches on regulatory issues and what the industry can accomplish with smart grid.

Patty Durand, CEO of the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative in a return visit to the program, this time spoke about her organization’s in-depth research on “beneficial electrification” – a phrase meant to encompass the massive shift in society toward electricity as the main energy for industry, homes, and transportation, and making sure the electricity used is generated with the least carbon emissions possible, preferably no carbon at all. This carbon-free energy goal is being set by nations, states, industry leaders among major corporations, and the SECC looked at multiple reports and interviewed a dozen industry experts to see where this process is, where its going and how the consumer fits into this electric industry mass evolution.

Paul Dailey is director of product and market strategy for Outback Power, a subsidiary of storage giant EnerSys that is focused on pairing battery storage with distributed renewables generation. As one might guess from the name, the firm has roots in the off-the-grid sector of solar that has been growing for decades but his firm is seeing great opportunities in the solar boom and the need for distributed generation to store the product it generates onsite.

Zinc8 Energy Solutions CEO Ron MacDonald and Chief Technology Officer Simon Fan shared with us various compelling stories about the firm’s breakthrough, long-term, arguably almost infinite power storage technology, including how they won out against over 100 applicants for a New York Power Authority long-term storage demonstration where the utility, America’s largest publicly owned power producer, took some convincing that the firm’s eight-hour-and-above storage capacity was even real...

Brian van Buskirk is chief product officer for Arbnco, a company with a history of building optimization that is fast developing its relationships with electric utilities and large commercial and industrial clients to use advanced digital tools to maximize the benefits in energy management and hit carbon reduction targets. The name of the company refers to taking the carbon out of buildings and van Buskirk gave us lots of details about the value his firm delivers, his role in expanding the firm into the utility world, and what products are in the pipeline for release soon such as software to let its customers sell their energy management into energy markets.

Kore Power developed the lithium ion power cells it uses in rack mounted energy storage systems for onsite storage deployments up to grid scale storage. The firm sees its software controls as critically important to the value of its products and sees the market for supporting solar and other distributed generation as a wide open field. Gorrill explained why his firm is well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities to serve electric utilities and their customers.