In the wake of Entergy astroturfing the citizens of New Orleans, it not only continues to attempt an end-around to influence the New Orleans City Council by pressuring non-profits that receive Entergy support, but it has come out swinging against the better alternative to its $210 million power plant: a virtual power plant. We have the upshot.

Today, Voltus announces the launch of CashDash, the world’s largest database of demand response programs. The purpose of CashDash is to identify every opportunity for large energy consumers to monetize operational flexibility by simply entering zip codes and load reduction capabilities for each site.

Voltus just exceeded 1.21 gigawatts of demand response under management. What can 1.21 gigawatts do for us? Read about the impact here.

See how DR stacks up against solar in the Hawkeye state.

VoltusFest Pittsburgh – a perfect backdrop for our team to learn, grow, and Voltan-teer. We challenged ourselves to not only to make our conference as green as possible, but also to do some service and leave the city cleaner than how we found it.

As if reminding us of our favorite quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, PJM and its Market Monitor argue that seasonal demand response (DR) and renewable resources would suppress capacity prices because they would only have to deliver for part of the year. Yet PJM bills its peak demand charge (which can amount to as much as 30% of an electricity bill) on the highest five hours of demand during the year!

“Can you give me an example of when you’ve ‘spoken truth to power’ either in your professional or personal life and what that experience was like?” That’s the final question Matt and I ask any candidate wanting to be part of the Voltus team.

A little over a year ago, I posted about how cleantech has a pipeline problem with recruiting female candidates – a problem that perpetuates itself because the status quo continues to be a male-dominated industry. At Voltus, we are committed to making targeted efforts to attract women to the industry.

Let’s get to work on our New Year’s resolution: helping you double your dollars in demand response in 2018.

FERC passed a ruling on December 1 allowing Energy Efficiency Resources (EERs – think LED upgrades) to get wholesale capacity market credit without encumbrance from a RERRA. What does this mean?