Uplight

I really enjoyed spending extended time with our clients, and my colleagues, at Uplight customer connect. It was a pleasure to co-lead a Product Council session with Sam Hartnett , where we shared our Flex strategic roadmap and engaged in great conversations with our clients about the future of our platform. It was great to hear firsthand what features they are most excited about while also gaining invaluable feedback on gaps, to ensure that our product evolution remains directly aligned with the real-world needs of those we serve. Some things we heard: - customer experience is more important than incentives to scale participation - reliability is important but it cannot be accomplished at the expense of affordability - resource adequacy is the main benefit of load flexibility right now, and utilities want to use for distribution network services, and economic hedging - siloed programs at utilities are the main barrier to realizing the full benefits of the demand stack Eric Gargiulo Lindsey Keefe Meehan Laura Fletcher Keith Grassi

I couldn't have had a more gracious welcome to the Octopus Energy family this week at their #FlexibleFutures event. I had the pleasure of introducing myself to Greg Jackson who enthusiastically replied "I am also with Uplight !" Needless to say, I'm thrilled to have him and his brilliant colleagues working alongside us. The event reinforced my idea that there is much more similarity than difference in the US & European approaches to making flexibility an integral part of the grid - and an integral part of solving our affordability and load growth challenges. Looking forward to using collective learnings to scale our programs even more quickly! Also, special thanks Alex Schoch and Marcia Poletti for both the invitation and the copious amounts of pasta.

In my line of work I've had occasion to write many a concept paper about new energy technologies, programs, and business models. Most made a little splash in a specific project or niche corner of the industry, but eventually ended up on the virtual bookshelf gathering dust. What can I say, it comes with the territory. With that as context, it thrills and delights me that all the thinking and writing I've done on the Demand Stack at Uplight is beginning to yield real impact both internally and with our clients. Turns out the time is right for moving from theory to practice when it comes to designing, integrating, and scaling demand-side management as a system resource. At Uplight Customer Connect I'll be joining Brian File from Evergy , Kari Gehrke from Alliant Energy , and Ryan Hledik from The Brattle Group to explore how utilities are translating this strategy into action, building internal support, and laying the groundwork to make the Demand Stack concept a reality. Hope to see you there! Check out the full UCC agenda (it’s not too late to register!): https://lnkd.in/gH-XQPAT