DER Task Force

We are finally back after a long hiatus to tackle a newly released net metering update from the California PUC, NEM 3.0. The time is now for comments and feedback on this significant update to support the solar and broad DER market in California before this ruling is set in stone. As always, please make sure you are subscribed to our newsletter on our website, dertaskforce.com and keep a lookout for our monthly meetups and other exciting things happening in the DERTF community like an ever growing job board, our famous swag and plenty more coming in 2022.  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

For July’s virtual meetup, we had Chris Rauscher of Sunrun join us. Chris is an expert in a number of key areas including grid services, markets, resilience as a value proposition, etc. In his currently role as the Senior Director of Market Development & Policy he leads the company’s work at the intersection of new business and policy. Previously Chris was the Director of Storage Market Strategy and Policy, where he lead FERC and wholesale market strategy and engagement, lead policy & regulatory scoping and strategy for new business, developed Virtual Power Plant frameworks, and advanced electrification and other forward-looking policy and regulatory strategy. 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 really excited for this episode of the live meetup event with Cisco DeVries (CEO) and Matt Deusterberg (President and Co-Founder) of OhmConnect. If you’re not familiar, OhmConnect is helping California’s grid integrate renewables by unlocking the promise of residential flexible load. They do this via energy markets, their app, smart plugs, and great design.OhmConnect also recently raised $80M from Google-owned Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners to fund aggregation of a 550MW virtual power plant (VPP) made of hundreds of thousands of California households, plus an additional $20M in corporate equity. Extremely exciting news for our space.If you’re looking for some background on the company, we recommend checking out the Watt It Takes podcast episode that they recorded with Matt. 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

In this episode, we start with laying the foundation for the massive energy consumption requirements for Bitcoin -  it then turns to the fundamentals of the technology, then to the unique use case of bitcoin mining, which is connected to the future of, you guessed it, capacity markets. We finish up with a nice historical throwback to the connection of US dollars and oil. All this to say, this is not your typical blockchain in energy episode. It will leave you with a solid and nuanced take on why the entrance quote of the episode, from one of the world thought leaders on technology and energy, is not up to the DER task force standards for thoughtful distributed energy debates. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter at www.dertaskforce.com and be a contributing task force member at our meetups and slack channel.  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

This episode is all about the Texas energy crisis in early 2021. Here are the takes on the episode from our three hosts:James - This is not a market design problem, but a system design problem. CA does IRP, NE does capacity markets, ERCOT does energy only. All of them saw major failures (CA—both supply and distribution, NE—distribution, ERCOT—Supply) in a 6 month time period. We must value resilience instead of efficiency.Colleen - This ended up being a supply crisis, but could have easily been a demand crisis. We have now realized you can't just look to more supply. We need to think more on demand and how to build for future holistically.Duncan - The future’s going to be full of problems like this. Engineering for future operating conditions that haven’t been seen before is tough, and today’s markets and regulations don’t contemplate this.Visit http://www.dertaskforce.com for more information on upcoming meetups, podcast episodes and we still have some swag! #microgrdsaredope 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

FERC Order 2222 is being lauded as landmark for how it will change the role of DERs in electricity markets. But the Order itself is vague in how this will be achieved and leaves ample room for interpretation and exceptions. So will Order 2222 fundamentally change the system, or just be a footnote in electricity history? In the final episode of Season 1, Colleen, Duncan and James attempt to answer this question by giving their predictions for electricity markets and infrastructure in the next decade and seeing how Order 2222 could help us get there. Visit http://www.dertaskforce.com for more information on upcoming meetups, podcast episodes and newly added SWAG #microgrdsaredope. 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

In this episode, Colleen, Duncan and James explore the nuances of beneficial electrification; can we electrify everything and what does it mean to grid management if we do? This episode was inspired by our meetup with Fei Wang, Grid Edge Research Manager at Wood Mackenzie. Visit http://www.dertaskforce.com for more information on upcoming meetups, podcast episodes and newly added SWAG #microgrdsaredope. 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

The Task Force has covered plenty of topics in the commercial and industrial customer segments, but what’s up with residential DERs? Inspired by our meetup with Kiran Bhatraju (founder and CEO of Arcadia) that you can check out on our youtube channel, we discuss everything from flat billing to the future of EV leases and how Mark Zuckerberg may use our smart meter data one day. Visit http://www.dertaskforce.com for more information on upcoming meetups, podcast episodes and newly added SWAG you can purchase to help fund the force #microgrdsaredope. 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

California doesn't have enough power, yet again is facing its largest wildfires on record, and the transmission and distribution grid continues to be a liability. What's happening, what do solutions look like, and how will this impact the national climate conversation?This is DER Task Force’s first attempt at producing a highly relevant episode, so please let us know how it went!Visit http://www.dertaskforce.com for more information on upcoming meetups and podcast episodes. 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

Over the DER Task Force's short history we've had two meetup presentations focused on NY’s Value of Distributed Energy (VDER). First was Russell Wilcox's, this show's producer and CEO of Urban Energy, and second was Justin Gundlach's of the Institute for Policy Integrity. Both can be found in our Content Library.In this episode, Colleen, Duncan, and James explore what NY's application of the VDER framework is and how it is going. We discuss each component of the VDER value stack, consider the original motivations of VDER and the Reforming the Energy Vision processes, come up with some ways to improve it, and ultimately each host decides whether VDER has been a success thus far.Visit http://www.dertaskforce.com for more information on upcoming meetups and podcast episodes. 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