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- 2 weeks ago33 min
Chaos, Meet the DER Playbook
The Pew Charitable Trusts has released a long-awaited policy playbook for scaling distributed energy resources (DERs) across the United States. In this episode, host Elisa Wood sits down with the two co-chairs of the Pew DER Advisory Council — Audrey Zibelman and Pat Wood III — to unpack what the playbook says, why DER deployment has stalled despite a clear business case, and what policymakers can do right now to change the trajectory.The conversation moves from high-level regulatory philosophy to the practical mechanics of utility incentive design, FERC jurisdiction, virtual power plants, and the pros and cons of America's 50-state laboratory approach to energy regulation. Both guests bring decades of first-hand experience reshaping the grid — Zibelman from New York's REV framework and Australia's national DER strategy, Wood from opening the Texas and wholesale power markets.
- 4 weeks ago24 min
Microgrids Are a Goldmine for Grid Operators — They Just Don't Know It Yet
The US grid is under pressure — surging demand from data centers, EVs, and industrial expansion is forcing expensive infrastructure upgrades. But what if a significant share of that relief could come for free? In this bonus episode, Elisa Wood sits down with Vincent Petit, SVP of Climate and Energy Transition Research at the Schneider Electric Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), to explore a provocative finding from the institute's latest research: when building owners invest in microgrids to optimize their own financial returns, the grid benefits as a byproduct — at zero marginal cost to grid operators.The research, spanning five commercial building types and 13 geographies worldwide, finds that microgrids can deliver 20–40% power headroom recovery on average, with some configurations reaching 60%. And in 80% of modeled scenarios, the building owner achieves payback in under ten years — meaning the grid gets relief without spending a dollar.This conversation reframes microgrids not as niche resilience tools, but as a scalable, privately financed mechanism for managing the coming demand surge — if the price signals are right.
- Apr 15, 202640 min
Inside America’s Most Forward-Thinking Energy County
Montgomery County, Maryland — located just outside Washington, D.C. — has emerged as one of the most ambitious local governments in the United States when it comes to distributed energy, microgrids, and clean power resilience. Since its first microgrid went online in 2018, the county has built out a portfolio of advanced installations at public safety facilities, a correctional facility, electric bus depots, and smaller community sites. Now, with 23 “resilient hub” microgrids under development and plans to produce on-site green hydrogen for its transit fleet, Montgomery County is redefining what local energy leadership looks like.In this conversation, host Elisa Wood sits down with two key architects of this vision: Michael Yambrach, Chief of Montgomery County’s Office of Energy and Sustainability, who has overseen the county’s energy evolution since 2014; and Khaled Fakhuri, Senior Vice President of Schneider Electric’s Microgrid Business, the county’s long-term development partner. Together, they unpack how the county got here, how the public-private partnership model works, and what the future of microgrids looks like at local, national, and even data-center scale
- Apr 1, 202632 min
Utilities Are Warming to DERs. Thank Data Centers.
For years, utilities and the distributed energy industry fought bitter battles over net metering, revenue erosion, and who controls the grid. Now, something has shifted. In this episode of the Energy Changemakers Podcast, host Elisa Wood sits down with Marco Krapels, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Enphase Energy, to explore a striking reversal: utilities that once viewed rooftop solar as a threat are now actively seeking out DER companies as partners.The catalyst? Data centers. The explosive growth of AI and digital infrastructure is driving electricity demand at a scale that centralized generation simply cannot meet fast enough — and utilities are starting to realize that 80 million untapped American rooftops may be part of the answer.Krapels brings both battle scars and optimism to this conversation. A former investment banker turned clean energy executive, he helped build SolarCity into the country's largest solar company and fought landmark net-metering wars in Nevada. Now, from Enphase — which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year — he describes a world where bundled, flexible distributed energy resources (solar + battery + bidirectional EV charger + smart home management) form dispatchable virtual power plants that utilities can actually rely on. And he argues it's not a future scenario. It's already happening.
- Mar 18, 202632 min
Distributed Wind’s Second Act?
Distributed wind has long played third wheel to solar and storage — but new market conditions may be opening the door to a comeback.In this bonus episode, Elisa Wood speaks with analyst Peter Asmus about whether distributed wind can find new life in microgrids, virtual power plants (VPPs), and rural energy systems. They explore wind’s surprising early dominance in microgrids, why it lost ground to solar, and how rural co-ops, farm policy, and complementary generation profiles could bring it back into the mix.While unlikely to compete head-to-head with solar, distributed wind may play a valuable supporting role in hybrid, distributed energy systems.
- Mar 18, 202641 min
What Makes A Community Microgrid Actually Work For The Community?
According to Markus Virta, Co-Founder of Cascadia Renewables, the answer has almost nothing to do with solar panels and batteries—and everything to do with listening.In this episode, Markus—who has spent 16 years at the intersection of clean energy and Pacific Northwest policy—explains why microgrids fail when engineers lead and communities follow, and how inverting that paradigm leads to faster projects, fewer change orders, and infrastructure that communities actually use.Markus offers a template for community microgrid development and provides examples of how it has worked in real-world projects. He tells the story of the Orcas Center Microgrid (Solar Builder Magazine’s Microgrid Project of the Year): a solar-plus-storage system built for a performing arts center on Orcas Island that turned out to be the community’s real resilience hub—not the fire station, not the school, but the place where people actually gather when things go wrong.You’ll also hear about: a tribal nation moving to higher ground ahead of a looming earthquake, a rural fire district running almost entirely on diesel for 30 years, and a national museum doubling as an emergency medical equipment hub. Each project started with a community conversation, not a technical spec.Markus also breaks down Washington State’s unique policy and funding ecosystem, including its cap-and-invest program, Commerce technical assistance grants, and the emerging day-ahead market that could finally make community microgrids economically self-sustaining. And he makes the case for FERC Order 2222 as the regulatory lever that could unlock real revenue for community-owned energy assets.Subscribe to the free Energy Changemakers Newsletter and join the community at EnergyChangemakers.com
- Mar 4, 202630 min
How Your Home May Save the Grid
In Episode 40, host Elisa Wood sits down with Ben Brown, CEO of Renew Home, to explore how millions of ordinary homes are being quietly transformed into virtual power plants (VPPs) — aggregated, AI-coordinated, and capable of delivering what a gas-fired peaker plant once did, at a fraction of the cost and with zero emissions.From Jimmy Carter's thermostat appeals to today's invisible, personalized energy shifting, Ben and Elisa talk about why the future of grid stability runs directly through your living room.What you'll learn:What a virtual power plant actually is, and why it's different from old-school demand responseHow Renew Home manages nearly 6 gigawatts of flexible load across 7.5 million householdsWhy being distributed makes a VPP more valuable than a centralized power plantThe policy gap holding back the next wave of VPP growth (and which markets are leading)How Ben's team achieves an 80% opt-in rate — without customers feeling a thingWhat role EVs, heat pumps, and home batteries will play in the grid of 2035Ben Brown built the Nest Learning Thermostat and Google Home devices before spinning out Renew Home — now North America's largest residential VPP platform — from Google in 2023. In November 2024, Renew Home announced a partnership with NRG Energy to build a 1-gigawatt AI-powered VPP in Texas.This episode is for anyone who pays an electric bill, cares about the clean energy transition, or wants to understand how the grid is actually going to keep up with exploding demand from data centers, EVs, and electrification.Subscribe to the Energy Changemakers newsletter and join the community at energychangemakers.com.
- Feb 18, 202628 min
Jigar Shah’s Surprising Stand on This Utility Program
Jigar Shah is one of clean energy's most influential — and outspoken — figures. In this episode, he takes a surprising stand on a utility battery program that has the distributed energy world divided, makes the case that the solar industry is now the battery industry, and lays out a policy blueprint for new governors that starts with one bold number: cut electricity bills 20% by 2030.In this episode:Why Shah is defending Xcel Energy's controversial utility-owned battery program in Minnesota — and why he thinks the critics are fighting the wrong battleThe $50 billion math: how strategically placed batteries could meet all U.S. load growth through 2030 at a fraction of the cost of new utility infrastructureHis blunt advice for half the clean energy industry: adapt your cost structure or shut your doorsThe "controlled experiment" between Xcel Minnesota and Xcel Colorado that could settle the utility ownership debateA three-point energy platform for governors, anchored in grid-enhancing technologies and massive battery deploymentShah's personal journey from a village in India with barely any electricity to overseeing the largest clean energy lending program in U.S. historyKey quote: "This solution is 90% cheaper than upgrading all the wires in Minnesota. Now we're arguing about whether this could have been 10% cheaper than the private sector solution."People and organizations discussed: Sparkfund, Xcel Energy, Generate Capital, SunEdison, Common Charge, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Tesla, Atmos Financial, DOE Loan Programs OfficeResources: DOE VPP Liftoff Report (January 2025) · DOE Grid-Enhancing Technologies Liftoff Report · IEA World Energy Outlook · commoncharge.org · energychangemakers.com
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About Energy Changemakers Podcast
As the energy grid faces unprecedented changes, local energy solutions are increasingly needed. Hosted by Elisa Wood, an experienced energy journalist, The Energy Changemakers Podcast brings you into the heart of these transformations. Each episode features in-depth discussions with industry leaders pioneering the move toward a decentralized grid. From technological innovations to policy changes — discover actionable insights to help your company leverage emerging opportunities. Join us at The Energy Changemakers Podcast and be part of the conversation that shapes our energy future.
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