Factor This

How autonomous BVLOS drones and physical AI are transforming grid reliability with Trevor Perrott

Tell us what you think of the show! Modern grid management is about much more than routine efficiency. Utility teams are under pressure to enable proactive wildfire mitigation, rapid storm response, and continuous oversight across thousands of miles of aging infrastructure, but maintaining and scaling these tasks can be a major challenge when teams are constrained by traditional field inspection methods that are slow, expensive, and visually limited. How are autonomous, long-range drone platforms and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations transforming grid monitoring across massive service territories? And what does it actually take to deploy and scale these capabilities? Trevor Perrott, CEO and Co-Founder of Censys Technologies, sat down with us to answer those questions and more. He breaks down the operational realities of moving from reactive maintenance to predictive asset management, explores how utilities can achieve "asset omniscience" to protect critical infrastructure, and outlines strategies for turning massive aerial datasets into actionable intelligence. Perrott also outlines how to navigate ever-evolving FAA regulations, what approaches are being used to scale pilot programs into high-ROI enterprise deployments, and more. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

• Transcript

This Week in Cleantech (08/28/2026) - Rooftop solar takes a huge hit

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. This week's episode features special guest Dan Gearino from Inside Climate News, who lays out how new tariffs and the phaseout of federal tax credits have dealt a heavy blow to the rooftop solar industry. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Richard Wang, CEO and co-founder of Voya Energy, which just raised $35 million to turn scrap aluminum into backup power for data centers. Instead of diesel generators, Voya's system runs an electrochemical reaction that pulls energy out of aluminum with zero carbon pollution, aiming to be quieter, smaller, and cleaner than the diesel backup that's become a flashpoint in local data center opposition. The company plans to have generators ready for on-site testing by the end of 2027, with nearly a dozen companies already lined up for pilot demonstrations. This Week in Cleantech — August 28, 2026 Exclusive: 75% of Americans Now Oppose Local Data Center Development — Heatmap The Clean Energy Transition Has A Grid Problem. Here’s How To Fix It. — Atmos US building twice as much gas-fired capacity as China in AI boom, analysis finds | Fossil fuels — The Guardian Hyperscalers’ Off-Grid Power Push Comes With Risks — The Wall Street Journal Rooftop Solar Is Having a Rough One — Inside Climate News Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

• Transcript

Supporting the grid with managed EV charging and V2G technology | Factor This Policycast

Tell us what you think of the show! While some students enjoy summer break, their school buses are still hard at work. Rather than transporting pupils, they're hauling electrons and supporting the grid during critical periods of peak electricity demand. Such is one of the tantalizing promises of vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, technology, and it's far from fantasy. More than 30 utilities across 21 U.S. states currently have V2G school bus projects, from California to Connecticut, North Carolina up to Massachusetts. Since they can charge their beefy batteries of 200 kilowatt-hours or more when power prices are low, the peak-shavers-on-wheels are proving to be a valuable tool for utilities, especially as demand surges and affordability discussions grow louder. And applications go beyond buses. More broadly, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology enables batteries to communicate with and be discharged to external systems, whether that's an electric vehicle (EV) or something else. Such virtual power plant (VPP) programs are still in their infancy, and regulatory frameworks and standards to support them are far from established, but early studies are beginning to tease out the enticing possibilities for managing EV charging and smart battery dispatch. On this episode of the Factor This Policycast, the latest in a series presented in partnership with national business association Advanced Energy United, we dive into a world where smart charging plays a critical role in grid reliability and keeping electricity prices manageable. Host Paul Gerke leads a discussion between electrifying transportation policy principal Elizabeth Stears of Advanced Energy United and Leah Brams, market development manager at Highland Fleets, an electrification-as-a-service provider helping school districts, local governments, and commercial fleet owners affordably convert their traditional diesel vehicle fleets to EVs. They outline the policy reforms needed to unlock V2X's potential and identify the roadblocks to wider adoption. Brams and Stears identify how utilities can best leverage such technologies and share learnings from pilots- what works, what doesn't, and how we can refine policy to roll idling electric buses into peak-demand squashers. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

• Transcript

This Week in Cleantech (08/21/2026) - Data center backlash is cross-partisan

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. Jeremiah Karpowicz, Content Director at Clarion Events, is filling in for Paul this week. This week's episode features special guest Molly Taft from WIRED, who discusses the growing, cross-partisan backlash against AI data centers. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Drew Baglino, founder and CEO of Heron Power. His company builds solid-state transformers that don't rely on the steel causing shortages, and Heron just closed a $140 million round to build a U.S. factory capable of producing 40 gigawatts of the gear a year. Congratulations, Drew! This Week in Cleantech — August 21, 2026 OpenAI Locks In Lease for Huge Data Center in Ohio With Backing From Nvidia — The Wall Street Journal The Blackout That Could Devastate America — The New York Times Big Batteries to Bolster the Grid Are Stuck Waiting to Plug In — Bloomberg DOE says we need more transmission, decides building less is fine — Factor This How Data Centers Broke American Politics — WIRED Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

• Transcript

Solar, storage, and staying ahead: OCI Energy’s growth story

Tell us what you think of the show! U.S. solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage developers are well positioned to serve unprecedented electric load growth spurred by data centers, putting the people and companies who spearhead power projects in the driver's seat- or so you'd think. The reality is a little more complicated than that. On this episode of the Factor This podcast, Sabah Bayatli, president and CEO of San Antonio-based OCI Energy, lends insights into what it's like to develop utility-scale solar and battery energy storage projects in Texas and beyond. In a conversation with host Paul Gerke of Factor This, Bayatli shares OCI Energy's growth story and what makes it different from other independent power producers, leaning on what he has learned through collaboration with utilities, financial institutions, technology providers, and infrastructure investors. Bayatli outlines OCI Energy's development strategy and argues that interconnection remains the biggest bottleneck to getting projects online. He weighs in on how grid operators are managing their queues and opines on how developers can continue to advance projects amid policy, permitting, and market uncertainty. Plus: Bayatli's perspective on the future of energy storage, grid reliability, and energy growth over the next five years. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

This Week in Cleantech (08/14/2026) - Can Trump's new solar tariffs help the domestic supply problem?

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. This week's episode features special guest Mark Chediak from Bloomberg, who breaks down Trump's new 15% tariffs and price floors on imported polysilicon and its derivatives, including wafers, cells and modules. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Kumo Sharma, founder of Arkaya Energy. His company's milk-source heat pump pulls heat straight out of fresh milk as it's chilled for cheesemaking, then uses that heat to make near-boiling water for washdown — cutting England’s Barber's Farmhouse Cheesemakers' electricity use in half and saving them about $94,000 a year. Congratulations, Kumo! This Week in Cleantech — August 14, 2026 Zach Dell Is Raising Money to Put a Battery in Your Backyard — WSJ Trump waged war on EVs. Now he’s helping them out. — E&E News Some Nebraska communities are cashing in on renewables. Others are being left behind. — Grist Federal Judge Orders Pentagon to Lift Freeze on Wind Power — The New York Times How the US Is Trying to End Solar Tariff Whack-a-Mole — Bloomberg Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

• Transcript

Surviving summer with demand-side solutions | Factor This Policycast

Tell us what you think of the show! It's been a rough summer for soft serve ice cream cone enthusiasts. In most parts of the United States, hot and humid weather has visited and overstayed its welcome, which is no treat for the power grid, either. Elevated temperatures mean increased electricity consumption and accompanying higher prices, the cherry on top amidst a nationwide surge in demand fueled by data centers, manufacturing, and mass electrification. So far, we've seen grid operators issue a few alerts and calls for conservation, particularly in constrained PJM Interconnection territory, where emergency conservation measures kept electricity demand ​from eclipsing an all-time high set in 2006. Down in Texas, the record book is being rewritten this summer. ERCOT has shattered its all-time demand mark more than once, but has also thus far kept power prices reasonable by leveraging an influx of renewables and battery energy storage to break generation records, too. In general, serving peak demand is extremely expensive, and the peakier the system, the pricier it is for the average ratepayer. As most of the country copes with higher electricity bills, finding ways to curb costs is paramount. Thankfully, utilities have a variety of tools at their disposal to improve grid utilization and peak load management, including flexible home electrical equipment, smart electric vehicle charging, and managing distributed energy resources through virtual power plants. And since transmission and distribution system infrastructure is designed to accommodate the few hours of the year when the system is taken to its limits, there is almost always spare capacity on power lines, which can be leveraged via advanced transmission technologies, as we discussed in the previous episode of the Factor This Policycast. This edition of the podcast, presented in partnership with Advanced Energy United, explores demand-side solutions for surviving summer peaks. Host Paul Gerke leads a discussion highlighting the tools available to keep the lights on and bills manageable, and how utilities can use them to get more out of our existing grid without investing in costly, time-consuming infrastructure upgrades. Richard Caperton, vice president for public policy at SPAN, and Sarah Steinberg, managing director at Advanced Energy United, outline the metrics that matter, share how early legislation is leaning, and explain why demand-side solutions work for utilities. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

This Week in Cleantech (08/07/2026) - With speed to power in mind, data centers are eyeing fuel cells

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. This week's episode features special guest Heather Clancy from Trellis, who discusses why some data center companies see fuel cells as an attractive option for onsite power. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is is Aytaç Yilmaz, Co-founder & CEO of Ore Energy. The Amsterdam-based startup just closed a $43 million Series A for its iron-air batteries, which store renewable power for up to 100 hours by rusting and unrusting iron electrodes, no lithium or cobalt required. Ore's also just signed the largest long-duration storage deal in continental Europe, a 1 gigawatt-hour agreement with Dutch utility Budget Thuis. Congratulations, Aytaç! This Week in Cleantech — August 7, 2026 Solar to Soon Pass Coal as China’s Top Power Capacity Source — Bloomberg How Solar Donors Helped Take Down a Trump-Backed Republican –– Politico The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed –– Bloomberg This Is What the New Rush to Mine America Looks Like –– TIME Magazine Why data center companies Equinix and Oracle are buying fuel cells – Trellis Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Redefining the utility playbook with PG&E’s Sumeet Singh

Tell us what you think of the show! In an era defined by compounding wildfire risks, rapid digitalization, and unprecedented demand growth, utilities need to redefine their playbook. Sumeet Singh, CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and EVP for Energy Delivery, is doing exactly that for one of the country’s largest energy enterprises while both improving local communities and setting an operational benchmark for the wider industry. In this episode of the Factor This podcast, Singh details how utility leaders can balance cultural shifts with the economic imperative to maximize underutilized grid capacity and lower customer rates. He breaks down how PG&E processes billions of pieces of data to help predict wildfire risks in advance, and how AI-enabled camera networks can shave critical minutes off emergency response times. From deploying machine learning to accelerating customer interconnections, Singh details how data amplifies frontline expertise rather than replacing it. Grounded in a philosophy of selfless service and value-based safety ownership, this conversation provides a blueprint for combining innovative technology with engineering discipline to cultivate a community trust that is foundational to the grid of the future. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

This Week in Cleantech (07/31/2026) - Is beer brewing getting greener?

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. This week's episode features special guest Clara Hudson from the Wall Street Journal, who breaks down Heineken's plan to use a renewable-powered heat battery to release steam for its beer brewing in Portugal. This week’s “Cleantechers of the Week” are Tim Shepherd and Sylvain Marseille from Pelton Shepherd Industries, which makes Nutri Ice – ice packs that you can use to feed plants. It is the only truly compostable gel pack and offers the same performance as a regular gel pack. Congratulations Tim and Sylvain! This Week in Cleantech — July 31, 2026 Cracks appear in the vision of off-grid AI data centers — Axios Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics – The Associated Press BP nears deal to sell solar business Lightsource to Kuwait-backed group – Financial Times Trump admin bans ‘new’ foreign-made inverters. What does that mean? — Canary Media Heineken Is Trying a Heat Battery to Generate Steam for Its Brewing — The Wall Street Journal Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Relieving grid congestion with advanced transmission technologies | Factor This Policycast

Tell us what you think of the show! The U.S. transmission grid needs a facelift and a little reconstructive surgery. Efforts are underway to construct new long-distance high-voltage lines, but construction takes time, prompting states to explore additional ways to quickly meet growing electricity demand. The low-hanging fruit? Getting more out of the system we've already got. Readily available, affordable, and quick-to-deploy advanced transmission technologies (ATTs), including grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) and advanced conductors, are proven tools for quickly increasing the capabilities and capacities of transmission lines and could complement transmission build-out while saving consumers money and bolstering grid reliability. By one estimate, GETs could have saved consumers $8.3 billion in 2022 alone, had they been more widely used. Yet these technologies remain largely untapped in America today, in part due to outdated electricity business models and state public policy. But modern problems (like the aforementioned load growth) require modern solutions, and there's been a recent uptick in support for ATTs across the country, with bipartisan interest in policies that ensure ATTs are being considered, including at the federal level. On this edition of the Factor This Policycast, presented in partnership with Advanced Energy United, host Paul Gerke is joined by Theodore Paradise, chief policy & grid strategy officer at CTC Global, Brian Berry, chief product officer at Heimdall Power, and Leah Rubin Shen, managing director at Advanced Energy United, to explore everything ATTs, including: Real-life use cases and problems ATTs can solve How lawmakers are crafting legislation to ensure utilities consider ATTs Updates on efforts in states considering bills encouraging their adoption Policy and implementation barriers to deployment What FERC can do to help Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

This Week in Cleantech (07/24/2026) - As EV sales flatten, automakers make the case for backup power

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. This week's episode features special guest Alexa St. John from The Associated Press, who discusses how automakers are increasingly turning their EVs and hybrids into home backup power sources as EV sales growth slows. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver. The nonprofit just started selling zero-markup, plug-in balcony solar kits, starting at about $300, with shipping to 47 states kicking off in August. Cora said that nonprofits are often willing to stomach financial losses in the near term, because its mission is to get solar into the hands of more people, so they can lower their energy bills and carbon pollution. Congratulations, Cora! This Week in Cleantech — July 24, 2026 Data Center Troubles Stoke Industry’s Fear of Coming Distress — Bloomberg Why States Are Making It Harder to Save Money With Solar Panels — The New York Times The Key to Solar and Wind Power Is Battery Storage, and China Is Dominating — The Wall Street Journal State legislatures are getting better at clean-energy permitting policy — Canary Media Need backup power? Automakers want you to look no further than their vehicles in your driveway — Associated Press Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

This Week in Cleantech (07/17/2026) - In Texas, solar and sheep go hand in hand

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. This week's episode features special guest Lana Ferguson from the Dallas Morning News, who discusses the booming agrivoltaics industry in Texas. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Joey Fiore, CEO of PowerLabs. His company builds the Roav, a portable solar generator that unfolds into a tracking solar array that looks like a metal trailer you’d pull behind a car. It is cleaner, cheaper and easier to use than a standard diesel generator. Congratulations Joey! This Week in Cleantech — July 17, 2026 New York becomes first US state to impose data center moratorium — Data Center Dynamics The American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry With It? — The New York Times US power companies scramble to secure equipment as surging data center demand strains supplies — Reuters Global Investment in Fusion Companies Surges 69% to $4.5 Billion — Bloomberg Solar sheep: Texas ranchers, farmers' new opportunity on solar sites – Dallas Morning News Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Beyond the Big Beautiful Bill: Building and financing clean energy after a critical tax credit deadline | Factor This Policycast

Tell us what you think of the show! July 4, 2026, marked one year since the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) was signed into law and a critical safe harbor deadline for clean energy developers in the United States. The legislation, which sunsets federal tax credit eligibility for some technologies such as wind and solar photovoltaics, spurred stakeholders to scramble to maximize legacy incentives before Independence Day. Now that the fireworks have passed, what happens next? This episode of the Factor This Policycast, presented in partnership with Advanced Energy United, discusses how clean energy projects are being constructed and financed in the second half of 2026 and beyond. It will address the challenges of a post-tax-credit world, share the incentives still available, and explore how policy reforms at the state and federal levels could accelerate deployment. Could federal clean energy credits someday return? Featuring guests: Dylan Reed, Managing Director at Advanced Energy United, former GDO at DOE Walter L. McLeod, Partner, Managing Director of Monarch Strategic Ventures at Monarch Private Capital Bryan Didier, Partner, Managing Director, Energy at Monarch Private Capital Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

This Week in Cleantech (07/10/2026) - As IRA subsidies wind down, clean energy PPA prices 'soar'

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. This week's episode features special guest Martha Muir from The Financial Times, who discusses how the cost of clean energy power purchase agreements is set to rise 40 to 120 percent as Inflation Reduction Act subsidies wind down. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Dr. Bill Ho, CEO of GRST, whose company makes a PFAS-free, water-soluble battery binder. Conventional binder relies on "forever chemicals" and toxic solvents to process. GRST's version dissolves in water, making recycling to high-purity black mass simpler and cheaper. Congratulations, Bill! This Week in Cleantech — July 10, 2026 In the woods of Maine, searching for an answer to a ticking climate bomb – The Boston Globe One-third of India's new renewable energy capacity faces curtailment – PV Magazine Why Europe Still Struggles to Scale Its Homegrown Climate Tech – Heatmap News Europe's next climate adaptation boom isn't solar panels — it's asphalt – Reuters US clean power prices set to soar as AI demand coincides with subsidy cuts – Financial Times Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

Fixing generator interconnection | Factor This Policycast

Tell us what you think of the show! Generator interconnection, the process by which power plants like large solar arrays, wind farms, and utility-scale batteries connect to the electrical grid, continues to be one of the biggest barriers to project development. Despite gradual improvement in some parts of the United States since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) passed Order No. 2023 three years ago, messy, complicated, and sometimes outdated policies are still preventing electrons from reaching end customers at a time of skyrocketing electricity demand. Grid operators have made meaningful strides in reducing interconnection queue backlogs and improving planning processes, but significant challenges remain, as detailed in a new progress report from Grid Strategies and The Brattle Group, on behalf of Advanced Energy United, that evaluates how grid operators are progressing since an initial 2024 assessment. On this episode of the Factor This Policycast, presented in partnership with Advanced Energy United and recorded live-to-tape at the 2026 Infocast Transmission & Interconnection Summit, Caitlin Marquis, managing director at Advanced Energy United, and Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies, outline how each major regional transmission organization (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO) is approaching generator interconnection reform, criss-crossing the country and touching on progress in PJM, ERCOT, SPP, MISO, CAISO, ISO-NE, and NYISO. Marquis and Gramlich also share policy suggestions and discuss the recent show-cause orders issued by FERC to each of the six regional grid operators within its jurisdiction, directing them to either justify or reform the rules governing how large energy users, such as data centers, connect to the electric grid. More episodes of Factor This Policycast Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

This Week in Cleantech (06/26/2026) - 16 GW without new build? Inside the plan to unlock huge VPP capacity

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. This week's episode features special guest Emily Pontecorvo from Heatmap News, who discusses a new partnership making more than 16 gigawatts of virtual power plant capacity. This week’s “Cleantechers of the Week” are Luigi Resta and Maile Resta. Their utility-scale developer, Energies out of Utah, featured one of their site crews going to work on a solar project just like earlier generations of his family did in coal mines. We want to congratulations them for showing how to make the case for clean energy to the country. Congratulations Luigi and Maile! This Week in Cleantech — June 26, 2026 US announces $17.5 billion in loans for nuclear power supply chain — Reuters Spanish households save €10 a month thanks to renewables expansion, report finds | Spain — The Guardian If AI data centers are exploding nationwide, why are so few being built in California? – LA Times Why American data centers can't plug in — Works in Progress Sunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home Have 16 Gigawatts Up for Grabs — Heatmap News Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

This Week in Cleantech (06/19/2026) - What does global energy trade look like after US-Iran deal?

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. This week's episode features special guest Tim McDonnell from Semafor, who discusses the potential future of the Strait of Hormuz and energy markets if the US-Iran de-escalation deal holds. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Andrew Redd, CEO of Endurance Energy, a Seattle-based seafloor geothermal energy developer, which just raised $54m in Series A funding. Redd is a former SpaceX engineer who is now drilling into spots at the bottom of the ocean where tectonic plates split apart and magma heats the water to over 700 degrees. Congratulations Andrew! This Week in Cleantech — June 19, 2026 Fast-tracked power plants fuel AI boom, with little public scrutiny — Reuters Another day, another illegal billion-dollar bribe to raise your electricity prices — Electrek 🌎 The IPO boom is back, baby! — Climate Tech VC Newsletter Can PJM's new 'fast track' process accelerate interconnection? – Factor This Hormuz will never really be open again — Semafor Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

How we benefit from transmission competition | Factor This Policycast

Tell us what you think of the show! Welcome to the premier edition of the Factor This Policycast, a brand-new podcast partnership with national industry association Advanced Energy United, tackling the legislation, rulemaking, and market design that matter to clean energy leaders. Hosted by Factor This content director and Emmy-Award winning journalist Paul Gerke, this series of discussions will feature voices from across the energy policy landscape and spotlight issues shaping the evolution of our electric grid. The first topic is one that you may have spotted in recent headlines: competitive transmission solicitation. It's no secret that large-scale, critical electrical infrastructure projects like high-voltage transmission lines cost a LOT to build and take some time to come online. About 15 years ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, mandated that utilities competitively bid out such projects, but that mandate isn't being enforced, for reasons we'll get into on the program. New data points to tremendous benefits from competitive transmission, though, including billions of dollars ultimately saved by ratepayers. Detractors argue the bidding process delays timelines and subjects projects to hidden costs, and a group of Midwest utilities has even asked FERC to halt bidding in MISO and SPP. On this episode of the podcast, Factor This's Paul Gerke is joined by Caitlin Marquis, managing director at Advanced Energy United, and Paul Cicio, chair of the Electricity Transmission Competition Coalition (ETCC). Both are advocates for competitive transmission and share findings to support their case. They discuss that utility request to ban competition outright, talk about FERC's role in all of this, and explore the finer points complicating broader transmission build-out- at a time we really need it. New episodes of the Factor This Policycast go live at 6 am ET every other Thursday. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

• Transcript

Unifying awareness, control, and settlements to solve grid instability

Tell us what you think of the show! Talk about systems and solutions is everywhere across the utility sector, but the biggest challenges the grid is facing are more about coordination than hardware. As utilities, retail suppliers, and operators all compete to manage the same DERs like electric vehicles, solar infrastructure, and smart appliances, the biggest challenges are associated with alignment, timing and expectations on every side. Michael Grasso, CEO and founder of GridRails, has a keen awareness of these challenges. His decades of experience in the industry has exposed him to teams and processes that have become paralyzed by fragmented tech silos and sluggish financial settlement cycles that take anywhere from 30 to 120 days to resolve. That's why his company is working to solve these challenges by introducing an agnostic, software-as-a-service (SaaS) orchestration layer that unifies these fragmented endpoints into a single platform, giving energy suppliers direct control over their network operations. We caught up with him to explore why his platform structures its solution around three core pillars, what it means for consumers to receive instant financial gratification in a digital wallet for adjusting their energy usage in the moment, the importance of shifting the utility paradigm from a penalty-based framework to a real-time incentive model, and much more. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast