Voltus CEO, Gregg Dixon, and Suncast’s Nico Johnson are back to talk about the 4 Horsemen of Distributed Energy Resources
The interview is also available on Suncast’s website: https://mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/325. You can subscribe to Suncast via iTunes.
Interested in becoming a Voltan? View all open positions at https://www.voltus.co/join-us/
Voltus CEO, Gregg Dixon, joined Nico Johnson to talk leadership, building a business, the challenges of growth, the importance of culture, and the future of distributed energy resources.
The interview is also available on Suncast’s website: http://www.mysuncast.com/
Interested in becoming a Voltan? View all open positions at https://www.voltus.co/join-us/
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” -Teddy Roosevelt
Gregg Dixon sat down with Chris Wedding of ENTREPRENEURS for IMPACT to talk DERs, COVID, hiring, and the personal habits that contribute toward success. Read the entire interview here.
Flexible load, responding to real-time price signals: an energy economist’s dream come true. Customers avoid paying electricity prices that drive the costs of production higher than the value of the widgets being made, simultaneously reducing demand on the system and associated costs.
In practice, however, economic curtailment can be
For certain businesses that can provide fast-response load curtailment, Operating Reserves (OR) is a better alternative, resulting in lower net electricity costs without the frequent hassles of economic curtailment.
Tricky to get right
Accurately predicting price spikes, especially with enough notice to drive curtailment decisions, is not straightforward. System operators tend to either under- or over-forecast electricity prices the majority of the time. Forecasts are often biased high, and often by a significant margin when actual prices turn out to be low.1, 2
In addition, earlier price forecasts leading up to a given hour can vary wildly based on shifting expectations of system conditions (imports/exports, renewable generation output, etc.). From one hour to the next, a price spike that very afternoon could go from looking implausible to imminent. Sophisticated modeling services can help improve accuracy, but the reality remains that predicting price spikes is just tricky to get right.
Operationally challenging
Curtailing load to avoid high prices can impose operational challenges. Periods of sustained high prices may merit prolonged shutdowns. Very brief load reductions would be required to avoid isolated price spikes, and are likely not worth the shutdown/startup costs and operational hassle.
A better alternative
In fast-response OR programs, loads help balance real-time supply and demand on the grid by curtailing when called upon by the system operator. Businesses get paid to be available to reduce their load, and they are called upon at most a few times per month. Operating Reserves participation is open to customers regardless of retail rate structure, not just to those who are exposed to real-time rates.
While a business on real-time rates does end up using “expensive electricity” to produce its widgets, payments for being available for OR are linked to the real-time price (i.e. you get paid more to be available when prices are high). On net, electricity costs minus OR revenues generally turn out to be less for a customer participating in OR than for the same customer tracking prices and curtailing economically (even assuming they do hit the majority of high-priced hours accurately). To achieve the same net electricity costs through economic curtailment, a customer would need to curtail for hundreds of hours per year!3
Take home
If you want to minimize electricity costs and your business can provide fast-response load curtailment, Operating Reserves is in short a better alternative. The end result? Lower overall costs for much less curtailment.
Notes
1All figures are illustrative, based on a case study for Alberta, Canada.
2Peak shaving to avoid system capacity charges is a separate electricity cost management strategy. This article focuses purely on energy ($/MWh) related charges.
3Assumes 60% customer accuracy for avoiding price spikes.
Nicole Irwin-Viet
Energy Markets Manager
Interested in learning more about how your business can earn cash in Operating Reserves programs? Chat with our team below or email info@voltus.co to get started.
August’s energy crisis in California was a wake up call. Not the kind of wake up call that comes when you’re in a dead sleep, but the kind that comes when you are diligently and tirelessly working toward a goal and receive a push, creating a renewed sense of urgency.
We founded Voltus with a clear vision – to become the world’s leading provider of demand response. We bring this vision to fruition each day by turning large energy users’ behind-the-meter assets into cash-producing distributed energy resources. Voltus makes money when our customers make money. This process, to steal Arnold Palmer’s quote about golf, is deceptively simple, and endlessly complex. No two customers are exactly the same. Our business requires the perfect blend of repeatable processes and customization.
Voltus is the fastest growing demand response provider of all time, serving thousands of customers across nine major North American energy markets. Our team has accomplished this by being bright (e.g., creating game-changing technology for customers who have practiced demand response for decades), by being gritty (e.g. opening markets that wanted to stay closed), and by being good (e.g., we really, really like winning as a team). Last month, the FERC passed Order 2222, enabling distributed energy resource aggregators like Voltus to participate in all wholesale markets. This Order doubles our serviceable addressable market in the months and years to come. It will be the catalyst for continued record-breaking growth.
But, back to the California energy crisis. As the demand for electricity this past August pushed supply limits, initiating rolling blackouts for regions throughout California, the most vulnerable in our community were at risk. One of the reasons Voltus exists is to help prevent blackouts, and this was our moment to do exactly that. Our team and customers stepped up, working around the clock to provide every negawatt possible to the grid. The work we did literally saved lives.
When the ash settled, we realized that we needed to accelerate our mission, to do more good, faster. More demand response is needed. Not just in California, where raging wildfires, climate change, and the widespread implementation of renewables place new stressors on the grid, but in New York City, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Texas, and, quite frankly, anywhere electricity is made and consumed.
Our technology platform unlocks the clean energy transition, prevents future blackouts, and helps our customers turn energy management into a competitive advantage. The world agrees. Within 60 days of announcing our interest in raising additional capital to accelerate our mission, we closed $25M in Series B financing.
Now we are eager to expand our team of Voltans. We have always hired according to the following standard: we must end the interview thinking, “Yes! (S)he is the exact person we need.” We’re looking for that feeling 64 times between now and Valentine’s Day. If you want to create the distributed energy platform that ushers in the clean energy transition, if you love to deliver cash to customers, or if you want to put your heart and soul into being a great teammate, please apply here. It takes an amazing team to make a change this ambitious.
Matt Plante, President
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Commercial, industrial, or institutional customer? Email info@voltus.co to get started. Eager to join our team of bright, gritty, and good Voltans. View open positions here.
SAN FRANCISCO, October 29, 2020 – Voltus, Inc., the leading distributed energy resources (DER) platform, today announced it has raised $25 million in a Series B financing. The round was led by NGP Energy Technology Partners III (“NGP ETP III”) and included existing investors Prelude Ventures and Ajax Strategies.
The funding will be used to create more jobs, develop additional products, and enter new markets, allowing Voltus to increase its leadership position delivering cash to commercial and industrial customers via innovative DER solutions.
Since its founding in 2016, Voltus has increased the market potential for DERs, entering every North American market and becoming the first aggregator of retail customers in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), in addition to being the first to offer capacity, ancillary services, and energy DER products in these same markets. In total, Voltus has secured over 2,000 megawatts of DERs, making it the fastest-growing provider of such services in industry history.
The Series B financing comes on the heels of FERC Order 2222, which ensures the equal treatment of DERs in wholesale markets in the United States, doubling Voltus’s market opportunity.
“A 15-year plus leader in energy technology investing, NGP ETP III is focused on committing capital to compelling companies focused on energy transition and is very pleased to be partnering with Voltus and to lead the Series B financing. Voltus has a leading DER technology platform, an extensive customer network in key target markets, a world-class team, and a proven track record,” said NGP ETP III CEO Philip Deutch.
Reflecting on the future impact of the Voltus mission, Voltus CEO Gregg Dixon said: “I’m deeply proud of our team’s accomplishments, but the success Voltus has experienced is just the tip of the iceberg. Our technology platform unlocks the potential of DERs for everyone, the benefits of which amount to $200 billion per year globally and a much more resilient and sustainable grid. DERs are the skeleton key to the energy transition, delivering the backstop and balancing resource for intermittent renewables.”
Tim Woodward, Managing Director of Prelude Ventures and Voltus Board Member, describes the impact of this raise: “The Voltus platform connects every type of DER, from energy storage to demand response to distributed generation, in every market . . . today. This round of financing will dramatically accelerate Voltus’s mission.” Veery Maxwell, Partner at Ajax Strategies and fellow Board Member also expresses her support, “This additional capital will take Voltus’s record-breaking growth to the next level. I look forward to working hand in hand with the Voltus team to level the regulatory playing field and achieve their ambitious goals.”
About Voltus, Inc.
Voltus represents the “potential of us” to better manage energy through simple, cost and risk-free distributed energy resources programs. Our commercial and industrial customers generate cash by allowing us to maximize the value of their operational flexibility in energy markets. Voltus makes money when our customers make money by sharing the cash generated from working together. What’s more, there are significant community benefits that accompany working with Voltus – a cleaner, more reliable energy future and dollars invested back into your business instead of being wasted on a larger energy bill. To learn more, visit www.voltus.co.
About NGP Energy Technology Partners III
One of the most experienced energy technology investors in the United States, NGP Energy Technology Partners III (“NGP ETP III”) invests in innovative technology companies seeking to transform global energy markets. NGP ETP III targets growth capital investments in companies with products, services or technologies serving the renewable energy, power, energy storage, energy efficiency, environmental, and transportation sectors. For additional information, please visit www.ngpetp3.com.
NGP ETP III is affiliated with NGP Energy Capital Management (“NGP”). Founded in 1988, NGP is a premier investment franchise in the energy industry, with over $20 billion in cumulative equity commitments organized to make strategic investments in the energy and natural resources sectors. NGP’s 32-year history gives it unique insight into the drivers of value creation in all facets of the energy industry. For more information visit www.ngpenergycapital.com.
Voltus Media Relations
Kelly Yazdani
Director of Marketing
703-340-9353
kyazdani@voltus.co
This past Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruled to unify the treatment of distributed energy resources. Up to this point, states could opt-out, banning the participation of distributed resources in the wholesale power markets serving their local customers. What this meant practically for large commercial, industrial, and institutional organizations was that sites in certain states could not capitalize on their operational flexibility. According to Gregg Dixon, Voltus CEO, this historic FERC ruling “eliminates the antiquated local barriers that have prevented these distributed energy resources from delivering and receiving value in every wholesale power market in the United States.” Put simply, states can no longer opt-out.
Jon Wellinghoff, the former FERC Chairman commonly referred to as the “godfather” of demand response, also puts this ruling into perspective. “This ruling is the single most important decision in FERC history. By cementing the place of distributed energy resources in wholesale markets, we have taken a leap toward ensuring reliable grids and a clean energy future.” Wellinghoff, who refers to demand response as the “skeleton key” of the clean energy transition, speaks openly about the need for this balancing resource to allow for the widespread adoption of renewable energy.
Yet our work is not done. It will be 90 days before this ruling is written into law, and wholesale market operators then have up to nine months to submit compliance filings on how to modify the tariffs to enable these resources. Voltus is working closely with the appropriate grid operators to expedite implementation, expanding the financial opportunities for multi-site customers, as well as single-site organizations within these localities. Despite these short-term limitations, Dixon writes that the long term vision for Voltus is clear: “Our team and platform are ready to accelerate the energy transition, unlocking the value of distributed energy resources in every state.”
Interested in cashing in on your operational flexibility? Reach out to our team at info@voltus.co to learn more about the opportunities available to your organization.
“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. If you’re asked that question, you’re an incredibly strong candidate. Answer it well and you receive an offer. Answer it poorly and – despite whatever other credentials you have – we are forced to pass.
Why is it so important to us? There are four reasons:
If you want to be a Voltan, you need to be really good at speaking truth to power. You need to be a vocal champion for ideas worth spreading. You need to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. You need to be the kind of person willing to punch a bully in the nose. You see your role in the world as an agent of positive change and you’re ready to get into the arena and go to battle for it.
Please share your experiences speaking truth to power in the comments below or send us an email with your thoughts on the topic.
Gregg and Matt
Today, Voltus got a little pocket money (PR Newswire). It’s creating quite a bit of buzz in the industry (Greentech Media) and we’re grateful for the attention it’s getting.
The back story is pretty simple: a few of us put our nose to the grindstone for a year, built a great technology, signed up a bunch of customers, generated profits, and attracted the interest of investors who really liked the focused business model we developed to attack a huge, underpenetrated market where the competition wasn’t innovating or fully serving customers.
But what’s the secret to our success and how do we plan to extend this success with $10 million in the bank? First, our success to date is simply a matter of attracting bright, gritty, and good people who are passionate about solving energy challenges. Second, our vision is simple: deliver more demand response dollars to the bottom line for our customers than anyone in the industry . . . less energy, more cash. Put the people and the vision together and get out of the way!
This simple model has us doing three things: we build product, we sell product, and we deliver cash to customers. This aligns with how we differentiate: we have a best-in-class technology platform that unlocks every possible revenue stream for our customers, we have a transparent, no-cost, no-risk, single page commercial agreement that makes it easy for our customers to do business with us, and we are world leaders in understanding energy markets and demand response which allows us to more than double the value customers get from what they’ve been doing in the past.
So, for our part, Matt and I sell. We evangelize. That’s us at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield, Illinois last week in the midst of a Monday morning through Friday evening road trip. We crossed paths in Springfield, signed our funding documents, snapped a pic with the front desk attendant, and went our separate ways, Matt to Peoria, I to Champaign-Urbana. We’ll sign up a dozen or so new customers from that trip.
We’re pretty sure that our competition’s CEO and President don’t do this. We’re pretty sure they don’t commit to delivering 100 MW individual sales quotas each year. Because selling is hard, yet it’s the single most valuable thing a company does in a growing market. And Matt and I love to do it . . . we love to meet our customers . . . at their steel plants, their wastewater treatment plants, their grocery stores, their data centers . . . we love to see the pride they take in their work . . . we love to forge new friendships . . . we love to learn about their unique challenges . . . we love to tell the Voltus story . . . and we love to pay our customers to use our product to help them make their businesses stronger.
Our team has a clear plan on how to turn that $10 million into $100 million in short order by delivering exceptional value to customers. You can be sure that Matt and I will be on the road doing our part to help our team get the cash to the customers.
Giddy up!
