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The Measurement of Success: Happiness & Productivity

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Kelly Yazdani

At Voltus we place great emphasis on cultivating an environment in which all of our employees can be their best, most productive, and yes, happiest, selves. To keep ourselves in check, every quarter, all Voltans are asked to complete a Happiness and Productivity survey, measuring each on a 1-5 scale. All results are then presented during our weekly company-wide meeting, Veritas, and we track how these metrics change over time.

The Happiness and Productivity survey offers each Voltan the opportunity to conduct an honest self-assessment of his or her own experience working at Voltus. We value each and every Voltan’s input, and our leadership team thinks very carefully and intentionally about how to act on each piece of feedback submitted. All comments, both positive and negative, are addressed directly and anonymously, and action items are presented candidly to the full team. We see this quarterly process as an important vehicle for Voltus to continuously grow and improve as a company.

Our team works hard to foster a culture of transparency, support, and empathy. Some highlights from past Happiness and Productivity surveys underscore these values:

“I continue to be impressed by the transparency displayed by the executive leadership team … I’ve also been impressed with the way all the employees pull together to support each other. I’ve never worked for a company that gives so many warm fuzzies throughout the week. If you are a person that needs warm fuzzies constantly, this is the company to work for.”

“I feel that I am very well supported and have exceptionally bright, gritty and good teammates. I truly enjoy learning and working with my Voltan colleagues … I sincerely appreciate and admire the candor, adaptability, and values of Voltus, from leadership to new hires.”

“Voltus leadership does a great job at offering transparency, leading by example, and hiring the right people.”

“The trajectory and engagement at Voltus is fantastic. I love our mission-driven product and I feel like a supported and valued member of the team.”

“I really appreciate the transparency that senior leadership has with the Voltans; it is VERY refreshing from the modus operandi of typical corporations.”

Our leadership team also works deliberately to implement change within the organization based on the suggestions given in the Happiness and Productivity survey. 

Voltans submitted comments about improving cross-team communication, so we developed formalized channels for different teams to align on goals and collaborate better. We received feedback about keeping cleaner and more organized sales and account management tools; we’re now actively expanding our Customer Success team to support account management at scale, including investing in new technologies that enable more streamlined customer onboarding. Requests were made to better define professional development and career growth opportunities for Voltans; individual bonuses are now linked to quarterly performance, and a career path and planning guide is being developed for all functional leaders. 

When it comes to employee satisfaction, our chief goal at Voltus is incredibly simple. We want working at Voltus to be the best professional experience our team members have ever had! A happy and productive team is and always will be our true north. We use our quarterly Happiness and Productivity survey as a mechanism to empower and enable each Voltan to make this a reality.

We continue to expand our team of bright, gritty, and good Voltans. Visit Join Us! to browse open positions.

Authored by Ariele Ladabaum

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Thriving (despite COVID) in 2020 – Seven Elements of Voltus Success

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

Author: Matt Plante, President & Co-founder

On Monday, March 9th, 2020, during Veritas (our weekly all-hands call), we hired our 67th employee (Lauren Stenstream, Indomitable Controller), we named Luke “Snakeman” Talltree the Voltan of the Week (Luke installed our technology at seven new customer sites that week), and we celebrated International Women’s Day. Oh yes, and we announced that we were moving our first ever customer conference, scheduled to be held in Times Square on April 1st, to a virtual meeting. On March 9th, 2020, the world had changed. 

We’ve now been living in that changed world for over a full year. 8760+ hours. It’s a year – for obvious reasons, for many reasons, for countless virtual conference reasons – that we don’t ever want to repeat.

Yet today, we hired our 104th employee (Jesus Martinez, Production Technician), we were publicly lauded by one of the world’s largest companies for helping them manage February’s Texas energy crisis, and we closed a deal with an important partner. Oh yes, and we hired Jon Wellinghoff, the former FERC Chairman (since you’re reading an energy blog, I suppose that last clause was unnecessary). 

2020 threw haymaker after haymaker…and we came out stronger. The following seven reasons help explain why, and we hope they will help others lead through times of adversity as well. 

  1. We share. We share family photos from weekend adventures, thorny problems we’re struggling to solve, successes that help others succeed, and dog pictures. Lots and lots of dog pictures. Sharing leads to trust, and trust leads to winning as a team.  
  2. We support. Especially this year, we support. COVID has been long. People go through COVID troughs at different times. Especially this year, we pick up and support our teammates. 
  3. We make mistakes. Because our final work product is of such high quality, we sometimes feel like we can’t make mistakes. We actually have to coach people to make mistakes, so that we continue to take appropriate chances and stretch our capabilities.
  4. We innovate. We value nimbleness, creativity, and finding a better way. We understand that the antiquated electric grid, lack of customer choice, and less renewable energy than is possible are simply unacceptable.  
  5. We get after it. We are working on urgent problems that demand hard work. Work hard, succeed. 
  6. We celebrate. Celebrate the little victories, celebrate the big wins. You have to have fun at work, c’mon!  
  7. We love. We say aloud to every Voltan that we want Voltus to be the best professional experience of their lives. Making that happen is a two-way street. For our part, we think very deliberately about creating an atmosphere in which people can do their absolute best work. Part of leadership compensation is tied to a quarterly “Happiness and Productivity” three-question survey taken by every Voltan.

We did something else today: we booked an actual, physical, in-person location for VoltusFest, our semi-annual company-wide off-site. We’ll be in Austin, where we’ll share, support, make mistakes, innovate, get after it, celebrate, and, yes, love. We can’t wait. We cannot wait. 

We’re hiring. View all open positions at www.voltus.co/join-us

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Voltus Announces Victory for Customers as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Unleashes the Full Value of Distributed Energy Resources in Every Market

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

Voltus, Inc., the world’s leading Distributed Energy Resources (DER) technology platform, announces a historic win in its battle to ensure the equal treatment of all DERs in wholesale power markets. Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) responded to Voltus’s October filing by taking steps to unify the treatment of all DERs under Order 2222, ensuring that demand response (DR) can fully participate in wholesale markets as part of DER aggregations without discriminatory state and local barriers.

“FERC’s clarification provides an immediate opportunity for demand response to deliver reliability, economic, and sustainability benefits to every state that is part of a wholesale power market,” said Voltus Chief Regulatory Officer and former FERC Chairman, Jon Wellinghoff. “DER aggregators like Voltus will be able to help customers and DER partners access states that previously restricted demand response from coming to market.”

In his opening statements at today’s meeting, FERC Commissioner Neil Chatterjee lauded the Commission’s decision to prevent the state opt-out provision in Order 719 from “serving as a barrier to demand response resources participating in mixed aggregations.” Chatterjee also stated, “Our responsibility is to make sure our federal wholesale markets deliver reliable low-cost energy services to consumers and the way to get there is to make sure emerging technologies can enter the market, period.”

Voltus celebrates the significance of this step for energy consumers nationwide. “We’re very grateful that FERC removed this barrier to full DR market participation so quickly,” says Gregg Dixon, Voltus Co-founder and CEO. “The benefits of this decision will result in significantly lower wholesale electricity prices, a more reliable grid, and a better environment for all.”

About Voltus, Inc.

Voltus aims to be the Distributed Energy Platform that fulfills the promise of the energy transition. Voltus represents the “potential of us” to better manage energy through simple, cost and risk-free programs for Distributed Energy Resources. To learn more, visit www.voltus.co.

Voltus Media Relations
Kelly Yazdani
Director of Marketing
703-340-9353
kyazdani@voltus.co

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Voltus Highlights Three Exceptional Voltans in Honor of International Women’s Day

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re featuring three outstanding Women of Voltus. These women were selected by their fellow Voltans based on their bright, gritty, and good achievements at work and beyond. In honor of these brilliant, talented women, Voltus will donate $200 each to the charity of their choosing.


Nicole Irwin-Viet

Voltus’s leadership team is distinguished by its transparency and vision. I strive to pass that on to the people who are now reporting to me. I take the time to share why we’re taking certain actions and how those actions fit into the broader Voltus vision. -Nicole

Nicole’s market knowledge, analytical chops, and ability to cross-functionally collaborate with our sales and dispatch operations teams are critical to the success of Voltus’s customers. Nicole leads one of Voltus’s “largest and most well run markets,” according to Dana Guernsey, Vice President of Product and Energy Markets. “It’s a fine-tuned machine where all stakeholders understand their role, are aligned, and drive forward innovative solutions. Nicole deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the work she’s done as a leader.” Nicole also stands out as an exceptional mentor and teammate. “Nicole is extremely bright and driven by personal and professional growth. She loves to win as a team, and is always eager to jump in to help a teammate.”

Outside of work, Nicole lives her values, dedicating countless volunteer hours to supporting the work of organic farmers. “Post-college, I went to work on a dairy farm in France. I learned what incredibly hard work farming is and fell in love with the experience. This past fall, I spent my first vacation at Voltus volunteering through the WWOOF program in New Hampshire. I enjoy the hands-on aspects of farming, but it’s also fascinating to gain insights into the daily operations and forward planning that go into running a farm.” 

Charity of Choice: Mass Audubon


Jess Scott-Dutcher

I don’t find it compelling to lie to people; it’s just not useful. Sometimes people use Truth to Power as an excuse for being mean, but I see it as a tool for being realistic. It’s about being honest with your teammates and yourself, and effectively communicating those honest reflections to others. –Jess

Jess was hired as a junior front end engineer in late 2018, and within two years was promoted to lead the applications team, a feat that she humbly notes is “not unremarkable” in the tech world. Her team is responsible for the look and feel of Voltus’s DER platform, VoltApp, which Voltus President Matt Plante says is a “big driver of our competitive advantage.” Jess revels in perfecting her craft, solving real problems and building the right solutions. Her honesty, both with herself and with her team, garners respect and allows her to drive efficiencies. Jess “never balks at the ever-amounting requests coming at her,” according to teammate Bill Kusters. “She stays positive the whole time and doesn’t stop until the job is done.”

Jess decided to start running the year after she graduated from college, while watching the Boston Marathon with a bowl of ice cream in hand. After some goading from her mom, who drove her to Target to buy running clothes, Jess downloaded a “couch to 5K” app, and took her first run later that day. “Running didn’t come easy to me,” said Jess, who would run around the Central Park Reservoir to build up her stamina. She stuck with it, though. One year later, she ran her first race, and two years after that, she completed the New York City Marathon.

Charity of Choice: World Central Kitchen


Lauren Stenstream

Our leadership team truly believes in each Voltan’s story and empowers us to be successful. With that level of support, how could I not go above and beyond for this company? I feel supported as an employee and as a mother. – Lauren

Lauren’s role as Controller encompasses a wide range of accounting and human resource functions with varied daily responsibilities based on company priorities. “Lauren juggles all of the questions and needs of the team on a daily basis, while simultaneously tackling all of the larger projects I ask her to own,” says Voltus CFO Doug Perrygo. Lauren says she’s always been highly driven and focused on professional success, but becoming a mother has reinforced that drive. “My boys see me working hard day in and day out. As they grow older, I hope that work ethic inspires them to fiercely tackle their own goals.”

Lauren took a “leap of faith” last September when she filed for divorce and became a single parent to her two boys, ages one and three. “I wanted a better life for my kids. I wanted a better life for myself.” Being a working single mom is not easy. Lauren starts her days as early as 3:30 AM, tackling work and house chores before the kids are awake. The ability to work from home has given Lauren the flexibility she needs to balance caring for her children with her full-time role, especially during the pandemic. “I’m able to get my boys off to school in the morning, work a full day, pause to pick them up from school, and jump back on the computer once I get them to bed. The ability to structure my day around my family’s needs is priceless.”

Charity of Choice: Feeding America


Voltus continues to dedicate itself to closing the cleantech gender gap. Visit our Join Us page to view all open positions.

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The Wo(man) in the Arena – A Guide to Leadership at Voltus

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

Voltus is growing fast, super duper fast. When we took in $25 Million in Series B funding a little over four months ago, I had about 70 teammates. Today, as I look at our #general Slack channel, the number sits at 119. That’s a lot of new Voltans.

As a culture-first organization, our top priority is vetting and cultivating talent. This process starts when you first interview (Co-founders Matt and Gregg still interview every prospective Voltan before an offer is extended) and continues through a carefully crafted cadence of feedback and training as you progress in your career.

There’s a very good reason for this level of care: we love promoting from within. The direct reports of today are quite literally the leaders of tomorrow. In fact, over the last year, 13% of our current employees moved from individual contributor to manager roles. There’s also plenty of room for external talent. We currently have open management roles with new positions popping up all the time.

Whether you are a preexisting or could-be Voltan, there are four elements of Voltus culture you need to internalize if you aspire to lead.

  • Servant Leadership

Every leader at Voltus is a player coach. Not only are they responsible for the goals and development of their particular piece of the business, but they are expected to be in the arena with their team, directly contributing toward those goals. Leading through example provides leaders with more insight into the actual issues and challenges their team faces and results in more targeted feedback. It also builds respect and camaraderie. Matt and Gregg still routinely cold call prospective customers in support of the Inside Sales team. 

  • Full Transparency

Every Monday afternoon, the entire Voltus team gathers for a company-wide meeting called Veritas. In addition to sharing the QWERTY (Quote We Enthusiastically Relay to You), featuring the Voltans of the Week, and voting “yay” or “nay” on the week’s proposed Voppelganger (apparently we have teammates that bear a striking resemblance to Donald Sutherland and Sophie Turner), Veritas, true to its name, provides a forum for the leadership team to provide transparency into the internal workings of the business. After each quarter’s Board meeting, for example, the Board meeting deck is reviewed in full on Veritas. In fact, during VoltusFest (our thrice annual company offsite) San Francisco, our entire team actually attended a Board meeting.

  • Radical Candor

At Voltus, we practice the idea of radical candor – providing direct, honest, and frequent feedback in a caring and compassionate way. As a result, Voltans have a clear understanding of where they stand relative to their individual and collective goals. Managers are expected to deliver this feedback formally during bi-annual performance reviews and during weekly one-on-one meetings with their direct reports. Feedback is always two ways, and every Voltan is encouraged to speak truth to power. As a result, change at Voltus is most often driven by the team and not by leadership. 

  • Happiness and Productivity

Leaders are judged not solely on performance, but on the happiness and productivity of their direct reports. Each quarter, we conduct a company-wide assessment of happiness and productivity. Both are measured on a 1-5 scale, (our goal is 4+ in both categories), and the results are reviewed on Veritas. Comments, both negative and positive, are addressed directly and anonymously. The data are used to coach managers and influence human resource strategy.

As Voltus charges at full speed toward our mission of being the distributed energy platform that fulfills the promise of the energy transition, nothing is more important than developing our talented team of bright, gritty, and good Voltans into the leaders of tomorrow. We have over 30 open positions. Who wants to join us?

Kelly Yazdani
Director of Marketing
kyazdani@voltus.co

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Voltus Releases CashDash 2.0, the first Distributed Energy Resources Monetization Platform Interconnected to Every Wholesale Energy Market

Posted on March 3, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

3 March 2021, San Francisco, CA

Voltus, Inc., the leading platform for Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), announced today the release of CashDash 2.0, the financial transaction engine of its DER operating system, VoltApp. With the release of CashDash 2.0, VoltApp becomes the only auditable DER platform in the world, allowing Voltus and its partners to monetize every type of behind-the-meter DER with an automated “meter to market to money” customer experience. According to Voltus CEO Gregg Dixon, “VoltApp is the transaction platform that unlocks the full value of DERs, from smart thermostats and electric vehicles to battery storage and distributed generation. VoltApp provides a direct connection between these DERs and every wholesale electricity market in North America.” 

CashDash 2.0 gives customers the ability to forecast, audit, and report on the value of their DERs across all energy markets. Supported by 30-second telemetry data, VoltApp automatically connects to and settles financial performance with the market, while providing full digital payment processing and line item automation. All of Voltus’s customers and partners gain immediate access to CashDash 2.0.

“This solves many of the problems that have held back our investment in DERs,“ said Jim Mullin, Director of Energy Procurement at JBS. “Our team now sees, in real-time, the value of managing JBS’s energy every hour of the year. This allows us to budget and forecast the value of JBS’s operational flexibility. It’s what we’ve been asking for for years.”

The power of VoltApp extends beyond Voltus’s direct customers. This transaction platform is used by third parties who want to access the very same markets that Voltus serves. “Rather than building out their own resources market by market, DER type by DER type, we’ve built for our partners a set of common services for any DER to interact with all markets,” says Neil Lakin, Voltus’s Chief Technology Officer. 

The need to easily monetize and unleash DER capability has never been more apparent. February’s ice storms across Texas triggered rolling blackouts throughout ERCOT, MISO, and SPP, as generation capacity failed to keep up with demand. Also, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s landmark Order 2222 calls for the unified treatment of DERs in all wholesale markets nationwide, opening up new markets and states to DERs. “The market for our product is exponentially larger than even we believed when we started Voltus. We’re now serving classes of customers and we’re in markets that we never contemplated in our original business plan,” explains Lakin.

As DERs, powered by VoltApp, take a more and more prominent role in power markets, the grid moves closer toward the clean energy transition. Says Dixon, “When DERs are given unbridled access to wholesale markets, we will see a massive shift from central power stations to energy on the edge and an energy internet of things that becomes the new paradigm of power. The benefits of this paradigm are undeniable. Just like our current paradigm of computing is superior to the mainframes and “dumb terminals” of the 1970s, DERs are simply a superior model for a reliable and resilient electric grid.”

About Voltus, Inc.

Voltus aims to be the distributed energy platform that fulfills the promise of the energy transition. Voltus represents the “potential of us” to better manage energy through simple, cost and risk-free programs for distributed energy resources. Our commercial and industrial customers generate cash by allowing us to maximize the value of their operational flexibility in energy markets. 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. To learn more, visit www.voltus.co.

Voltus Media Relations
Kelly Yazdani
Director of Marketing
703-340-9353
kyazdani@voltus.co

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A V2G Tesla Model S Would Have Paid for Itself in ERCOT Last Week

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

Authors: Gregg Dixon, Jon Wellinghoff, Dana Guernsey

The three central US power grids, ERCOT, SPP, and MISO, which represent 270,000 MWs of electricity demand (34% of total US demand), faced catastrophic power outages last week. While the pundits and critics point fingers and place blame, we believe this energy crisis could have been significantly alleviated in a sustainable way that ensured reliable power while costing consumers less.

The answer lies in the power, no pun intended, of distributed energy resources (DERs) that largely lie fallow all around us, or more accurately, in the WiFi home thermostat, the remotely controllable on-site generator at the grocery store, the EV in the garage, the rooftop solar panels, the building management system at the mall, the cogeneration system at the food processing plant, and the countless other Internet-connected devices that consume, produce, or store electricity in our modern, digital economy. We now need the courage of lawmakers and regulators across the political spectrum to recognize the potential of these resources, and to acknowledge that no one answer, no one technology, will solve our energy problems, just the same as no one technology or resource type is to blame for them. The power of DERs is by very nature their diversity. Much like a well balanced financial portfolio, the electricity grid also becomes far more resilient and reliable when harnessing the power of decentralized and diverse resources. 

Taken together, DERs today have the potential to deliver 54,000 MWs of power to the grid in 30 minutes or less, often in seconds, across the ERCOT, MISO, and SPP grids. In the future, as more and more DERs are networked together and instantly controllable, we will see many multiples of this potential available to consumers and grid operators alike, representing the full potential of the “energy Internet of Things.” In the 20th century, we built our electric grid to ramp supply up and down in order to meet variable demand. In the 21st century, the energy Internet of Things will also allow us to adjust demand to meet supply just as effectively. The possibilities are endless and here today.

So, just what are these DERs and how do we take full advantage of them to help prevent catastrophe in our era of climate change while acting as the backstop and balancing resource that renewable energy needs to fulfill its promise and potential? Let’s take a look at a number of use cases, measure potential, and talk shop about how to tie it all together. Here are some jaw dropping examples:

  • Google Nest thermostats are WiFi-enabled controllers of heating and cooling loads, loads that represent nearly 10 percent of all electricity consumption. There’s nearly 27,000 MWs of this load in the central US alone. Our estimates show that about 10 percent of that is already controllable through Google Nests, but almost none of these devices are connected to wholesale power markets where they could offer capacity, energy, and ancillary services. That is about to change though. FERC recently ruled in Order 2222 to allow DERs to compete on a level playing field in US power markets. Companies like Voltus can bring these DERs to market in aggregations, turning these resources into one of the single largest virtual power plants in the US. This reimagined power plant is capable of not only turning load down but also ramping up quickly to provide such services as regulating reserves. The payback on a Nest thermostat during peak power prices in ERCOT last week would have been 28 hours even if the Nest was controlling just a single kW of electricity.
  • If that’s not impressive enough, then consider this: a Tesla Model S would have paid for itself in two days in the ERCOT ancillary services market last week, assuming you could export its capacity to the grid (known as V2G). Two days. The whole car. And not the base model. A nicely equipped Model S! You read that right. By the year 2030, the combined lithium ion battery capacity in EVs in the US will be more than double the combined power capacity of all traditional supply-side power plants in the US. All of the coal, gas, wind, hydro, nuclear, and solar . . . times two! Imagine a world where we could interconnect all of these EVs to deliver and benefit from wholesale power markets. This isn’t pie in the sky. In fact, Voltus can manage what’s known as V1G EV (simply curtailing battery charging) market participation today. When we get to V2G, kind of like what 5G is to telephony, the possibilities are staggering. What’s most amazing is that EV manufacturers will allow consumers to dial in their grid services preferences on their dashboard no differently than a consumer signs up to Google’s Rush Hour Rewards program right on their thermostat. We’re at the forefront of this, working with EV manufacturers to innovate the best solutions.
  • It’s been said that the “greenest kW is the one never built.” More than 13,000 MWs of electricity load is supported by an existing fleet of onsite generation at tens of thousands of commercial and industrial locations in ERCOT, SPP, and MISO, and hundreds of thousands more at homes that have backup power. Power Secure, Generac, Caterpillar, and a whole host of innovative companies are internetworking these systems to preemptively run to take load off of the grid, helping to keep the lights on for everyone, taking advantage of resources that already exist but aren’t yet fully tied into a broader network.
  • Perhaps the most interesting electricity loads we’ve seen in a generation are coming online . . . cryptomines. In the central US alone there are already plans for 10,000 MWs with 1,000 MWs already online. These loads are controllable in microseconds. In fact, we’ve integrated Voltus technology at cryptomines in MISO, SPP, ERCOT, and other wholesale markets. Watching a 100 MW load come offline in seconds, controllable at the microprocessor level, is a grid operator’s dream come true. 95% of cryptomining expense is electricity and, due to the technology in play, these loads are not only massive (the largest single loads ever seen in human history, topping 1,000 MWs in some locations) but hyper-responsive to grid signals, whether prices, automatic generator control (AGC), or calls for emergency capacity where the load needs to stay down for hours, or even days. Think about all of the benefits of Lithium Ion energy storage but with the ability to deliver for a much longer duration and at a small fraction of the cost.

The most affordable, most resilient, and the most sustainable model for computing is the distributed, networked model. This is why the mainframes and “dumb terminals” of the 1970s have given way to cloud computing today. The same promise holds true for the “original network:” the electric grid. Central power stations and “dumb loads” will be complemented by distributed energy resources converging with cloud computing to create an energy internet of things that will deliver one of our generation’s greatest, positive impacts. And, just as cloud computing has created incredibly equitable outcomes, this energy Internet of things will do the same.

About the Authors:

Gregg Dixon is the CEO of Voltus, Inc. Voltus is building the distributed energy platform that accelerates the energy transition, connecting every device that uses, produces, or stores electricity to the electricity grids that value them. With 20 years of experience in distributed energy resources, Gregg and his teams have brought more than 12,000 MWs of distributed energy resources to market around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon Wellinghoff is the CEO and founder of GridPolicy Consulting. As a former FERC Chairman, Jon brings more than 40 years of leadership experience in federal, state and local energy policy, regulation, and market development to help solve today’s most pressing electric grid challenges.

Dana Guernsey is the Vice President of Product and Energy Markets at Voltus, Inc. With nearly 15 years of experience developing and operating distributed energy resources in electricity markets around the world, Dana is among the world’s leading experts in distributed energy resource productization and electricity market development.

Voltus Media Relations

Kelly Yazdani
Director of Marketing
703-340-9353
kyazdani@voltus.co

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Voltus in Action – our real-time response to today’s Energy Crisis

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Kelly Yazdani

Right now, Texas is experiencing the most acute energy crisis in nearly 10 years. This afternoon, due to record low temperatures, load is forecasted to exceed system capacity by 10,000 megawatts.

Source: www.ercot.com

For the first time in its history, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) is calling for scheduled blackouts to ensure system reliability as demand surpasses available generation.

Source: Southwest Power Pool (Twitter)

Demand response exists for days like today. Our customers are executing their electricity curtailment plans, earning demand response revenue, avoiding $9,000/MWh energy costs in Texas, and doing their part to help the electric grid resume normal operations as soon as possible.

The need for more demand response has never been more apparent. We continue to be in close communication with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), and SPP to provide additional relief today and moving forward.

As our dedicated team of Voltans rallies around Texas on this would-be three-day weekend, we are reminded that although the grid never sleeps, the key to ushering in the clean energy transition lies firmly in our hands.

Matt Plante
President & Co-founder
mplante@voltus.co

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Ontario energy consumers take note – Voltus secures its place as a leading provider of demand response in this month’s capacity auction

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

Ontario’s demand response market has grown for the sixth consecutive year and Voltus is continuing to grow with it. The IESO procured almost 1 GW of capacity at one tenth the per MW-Year cost of the generator contracts that make up the Global Adjustment. Capacity auctions provide a more flexible and cost effective option than generator contracts, and the IESO will increase its reliance on auctions as contracts expire over the next 20 years. 

Voltus is now the 3rd largest Demand Response Aggregator in Ontario. “We are excited to provide our 82 MWs of customers with over $25,000 per MW each year responding to critical grid events in the province,” says Voltus Vice President of Energy Markets and Product Dana Guernsey. This demand response program will run from May through October next year, but is likely to return to running year-round in 2023, as the need for capacity increases. “The time is ripe for Ontario businesses to offer their operational flexibility to the grid as we expect the value of demand response in Ontario to only increase over time,” says Guernsey.

Source: Average of Recovery Scenarios provided in the July 22, 2020 IESO Planning Update

For Ontario businesses considering taking the plunge into demand response participation, this program is straightforward operationally and quite lucrative; the Summer season has historically only seen 1-2 events per year, equating to $3,000 to $6,000 per MWh in earnings potential. 

Participation in programs like this helps reduce the Province’s dependence on fossil fuels and keeps electricity rates lower as new power plants and transmission line investments can be deferred. Program enrollment is limited though. The value goes to the first businesses to jump on board.

Interested in earning cash for your business through demand response? Email info@voltus.co to get started.

—

Michael Pohlod, IESO Energy Markets Manager, mpohlod@voltus.co

 

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The 4 Horsemen Of Distributed Energy Resources

Posted on December 17, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

Voltus CEO, Gregg Dixon, and Suncast’s Nico Johnson are back to talk about the 4 Horsemen of Distributed Energy Resources

  • Energy Efficiency
  • Demand Response
  • Distributed Generation
  • Energy Storage

The interview is also available on Suncast’s website: https://mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/325. You can subscribe to Suncast via iTunes.

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