DER Task Force

Latest Episodes:

#52 Edging the grid with Quincy Lee, CEO of Electric Era Apr 10, 2024

Show notes

We’re back! This time we sat down with Quincy Lee, CEO and co-founder of Electric Era, an electric vehicle refueling company. Quincy has a super cool background - starting with designing skyscrapers, then moving on to space technology, and now he’s der-pilled.

We talk about all kinds of stuff in this one:

* what SpaceX and Starlink were like

* why EV charging, or whoops, we mean “car refill”

* EV charging reliability

* grid constraints limiting EV infrastructure

* the role of social media in shaping public opinion on energy

* the category isn’t ClimateTech or even EnergyTech - its GridTech

* and Deep GridTech is here!

* solid state power electronics, quantum-level stuff

* where the hell are all the transformers we need?

* Quincy: Gundo is “okay”, but come to Seattle

* innovation at the grid edge

* the grid edge strangler figging the grid?

This is a free episode for all subscribers, but if you want access to everything we do and would like to support our work broadly, be sure to visit www.dertaskforce.com and become a paid subscriber for just $5/month.

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

#51 We're moving to Gundo! Mar 27, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.com

We’re back! This time with a VIDEO POD. We recorded this live at DTECH a few weeks ago and haven’t had time to upload it. But this is a fun one that you don’t want to miss.

Not only did we finally find out what a DERMS is, but we also became fully converted distribution utility maxis after walking the show floor. We’re all quitting our jobs and starting hardware companies with the Gundo boys! Tune in to hear why!

The is a paid episode for the real DERTF heads. If you appreciate our work and want to support it, all while getting access to exclusive paid content, consider subscribing at www.dertaskforce.com.

#50 Jesse "IRA" Jenkins is on the pod Mar 19, 2024

Show notes

We’re back, this time joined by Jesse Jenkins - professor at Princeton and lead of the Zero Lab. We cover a ton of ground in this one, including:

* Jesse’s DERs journey, including skepticism at times and optimism at others.

* A ton of discussion on rate design.

* Jesse’s recent pod on rooftop solar.

* How the hell is rooftop solar so expensive here versus Australia?

* Where DERs are unfairly advantaged and disadvantaged.

* How we’re going to deal with load growth, transmission buildout, interconnection queues, etc.

The is a free episode, but if you appreciate our work and want to support it, and get access to exclusive paid content, consider subscribing at www.dertaskforce.com.

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

#49 The Queen of Power Markets, Lynne Kiesling Feb 27, 2024

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We’re back! This time with Lynne Kiesling, Director of the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics (IRLE) at Northwestern University.

Lynne is an Economist who has been working on power systems issues since the early 2000s, with a focus on power markets, transactive energy, and “quarantining the monopoly” as she says.

Lynne was a panelist at DERVOS, as paying subscribers know from our previously released episode. We felt her Hayekian perspective (distributed, emergent, local) rounded out those from Matt Huber (big, planned, federal) and Pier LaFarge (distributed, planned, local), and she graciously agreed to jump on the pod to dig in.

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

DERVOS: The Evolving Grid Feb 14, 2024

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.com

Back in November we threw DERVOS, our annual distributed energy summit. It turned out awesome. We really couldn’t be happier or more grateful for how it went. The panels and speakers were great, the crowd that turned up was amazing, and the vehicle to rave afterparty was super fun.

Because the talks and panels went so well, we’ve decided to release the r…

#48 Utility-led DERvolution w/ Pier Lafarge Jan 31, 2024

Show notes

We’re back! This time we sat down with Pier LaFarge, co-founder and CEO of Sparkfund. Those who listened to the DERVOS recording released last week may remember Pier pitching a utility-led DER deployment model. It was a pretty interesting idea that we felt deserved its own deep dive on a pod, so we invited Pier on to make the case for what is likely a very counterintuitive DERs approach for many in the space. In the episode he envisions a world where utilities determine the best locations for DERs on the grid, design the systems, provide them via RFP, rate base them, and then use them to make tripling grid throughput cost effective. This of course brought up all sorts of discussion about natural monopolies, emergent outcomes, utility death spirals, price signals, socialization, cost of capital, and more. Hope you enjoy!

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

DERVOS: Central Planning, Public Ownership, and DERs? Jan 10, 2024

Show notes

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.com

Because the talks and panels went so well, we’ve decided to release the r…

#47 IT'S TIME TO DER Jan 02, 2024

Show notes

Tune in for a chat on why ‘24 is TIME TO DER. Duncan and James reflect on the past 5 years before looking ahead at 2024 and beyond—and why the future is so exciting.

We re-hash Dervos, retro our ‘23 new years resolutions, state our ‘24 resolutions, look back on the last 5 years in the space and where it is now, the current tech environment, building energy startups vs. thinking about energy, energy tech vs. climate tech, if CA grid failures are a canary in the coalmine for other regions, and so much more!

PS Sorry for the hiatus… we’ll be recording frequently in the new year.

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

#46: Capacity market funDERmentals with Ben Carron Nov 07, 2023

Show notes

We’re back! This time with a perfect warmup for DERvos in a few days with DERTF OG Ben Carron. Ben has not only worked for FERC, Nat Grid, SunRun, E3, and now Enel X, but also was one of the earliest presenters at our original, pre-pandemic “DG Beers” happy hours.

We wanted to have Ben on to get back to our energy market wonkery roots, so don’t worry—you won’t hear any stuff about twitter culture discourse on this ep. In it, we talk about the early “DG Beers” days, dunkelflaute, James’ take that maybe market structure doesn’t matter all that much for DERs, Ben’s take how maybe geography is more important than market structure, a reminder that ultimately DERs need to stand on their own merits, different schemes of crediting T&D vs. energy/capacity benefits, if renewables can thrive in a capacity market, trusting the deal-making nature of all governance structures, and so much more about what the hell else who knows! We barely even understand ourselves. Tune in to bathe in the wonkery!

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

#45 We're going environmentally ill Oct 31, 2023

Show notes

We’re back! And this time just Duncan and James to talk about weird twitter discourse again! Sorry… we promise we’ll go back to talking about wonky energy stuff in the next episodes.

In this ep, we talk about Duncan’s Dad’s epic utility pole story, James’ other less successful business ventures, announcing the first ever V2R (Vehicle 2 Rave) application at DERvos, Marc Andreesen’s manifesto and Sam Altman on Joe Rogan, their (and the e/acc movement’s) views on energy and environmentalism, comparing that to MMA environmentalism, the religious quality to all of this, our belief in balance, our hopes for new envrionmentalism, the myopic focus of the discourse on carbon, chaos theory, complexity science, and so 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

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