DER Task Force

Buckle up, this is a long one. But when we’re talking about a revolution of this magnitude, how could it not be? We couldn’t help ourselves once we sat down with Daan Walter, principal of Ember , to unpack how solar and batteries are fueling the electrotech revolution, why it’s happening faster than anyone expected, and what this looks like far beyond the U.S. This disruption is all about cheaper,...

We’re back! This time with a solo pod. We continue our tradition of talking about New Year’s resolutions, unpacking DERVOS ‘25, and looking ahead to DERVOS ‘26 and beyond. We feel we’re at the start of a new epoch—rather, DERcade—so we try to tee up the key themes and what we’re interested in exploring for the next 10 years. We get into what’s up at Scale and David Energy, permissionless DERs, sca...

Our final discussion of DERVOS 2025 was a panel on the ramifications of electricity becoming the primary lever of economic and geopolitical might. If you’re listening to this as a podcast, keep in mind that the full video is available on our website www.dertaskforce.com and Youtube channel. This year James solidified the newfound tradition of saving the arguably wonkiest discussion for the end of...

Our third discussion of DERVOS 2025 was a panel on how the hell we’re going to deploy and orchestrate a massive new fleet of distributed energy systems to fill a rapidly growing electricity demand gap. If you’re listening to this as a podcast, keep in mind that the full video is available on our website www.dertaskforce.com and Youtube channel. DERs are kind of having a moment. Whether you call th...

Our second discussion of DERVOS 2025 was a panel on a revolutionary new class of distributed energy systems that require little to no permission to install. If you’re listening to this as a podcast, keep in mind that the full video is available on our website www.dertaskforce.com and Youtube channel. We’ve been talking about permissionless DERs on the pod for a long time, so it seemed only right t...

We kicked off the first discussion of DEROVS 2025 with a panel titled “Big DERs Energy”. If you’re listening to this as a podcast, keep in mind that the full video is available on our website www.dertaskforce.com and Youtube channel. The AI-power nexus isn’t just the domain of energy nerds these days, but we brought some together anyway to go deep about what role DERs play as data centers prolifer...

Note: This presentation has been distributed in video and audio-only versions. We reccomend watching the video version on our website or Youtube to see the visuals. We’ll be releasing all the DERVOS content soon, and what better teaser than Jesse’s incredible keynote. Jesse’s presentation makes the case that solar energy isn’t just growwing and abundant — in the long run, everything other than sol...

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 frame...

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. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this w...

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...

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 pr...

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,...

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 Cam...

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 wh...

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 i...

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 transmi...

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 Gillet...

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 - Westin...

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...

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...

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'...

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 rec...

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 mor...

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...

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 ever...