Making DERs work for load growth

18 snips

Jan 9, 2025

Pier LaFarge, Co-founder and CEO of Sparkfund, dives into the future of energy procurement. He argues that distributed energy resources (DERs) can address rising electricity demands faster than traditional power plants. LaFarge discusses the benefits of customer-sited solar and storage, as well as the challenges of cost and effective load carrying capability. He emphasizes the critical role utilities play in leveraging distributed capacity procurement to enhance grid reliability and adaptability amidst growing load demands from tech and manufacturing.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Rapid Load Growth

Load growth from data centers and manufacturing has rapidly become a major concern, surpassing electric vehicles.
Doubling the grid is now a baseline expectation, not a high-end scenario.

INSIGHT

DERs for Speed

Distributed energy resources (DERs) offer a faster alternative to large power plants for meeting load growth.
Building large-scale projects is slow due to permitting, regulations, and interconnection queues.

INSIGHT

DCP and Dual Use

Distributed capacity procurement (DCP) focuses on customer-sited assets with dual-use potential.
This approach leverages existing customer locations to address space constraints in densely populated areas.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

To meet AI-driven load growth utilities and big tech companies have been building — or reopening — big power plants. Georgia Power, for example, is planning to expand its fleet of natural gas plants. And Microsoft signed a deal last September to re-open Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant

But could we meet a portion of that load growth with distributed energy resources? Pier LaFarge thinks so.

In this episode, Shayle talks to Pier, co-founder and CEO of Sparkfund. (Energy Impact Partners, where Shayle is a partner, invests in Sparkfund). DERs can come online much faster than large, centralized generation, Pier argues. He makes the case that utilities are especially well-positioned to lead what he calls “distributed capacity procurement” (DCP) of customer-sited solar, storage, and other assets. Shayle and Pier cover topics like:

How host agreements work, using utility-owned assets sited at customer locations
How the effective load carrying capability (ELCC) of DERs compares to large, centralized power plants
The relationship between DCP and VPPs
The key tradeoff of DCP: DERs are faster to build, but cost more and have lower ELCC than large, centralized plants
Who should pay for those higher costs?
Why vertically-integrated utilities are best-positioned to take advantage of the value DCP creates for capacity, distribution, and transmission
The limitations of DCP at a systems level

Recommended resources

Latitude Media: Can distributed energy answer AI’s power problem?

Latitude Media: Jigar Shah: It’s time for VPPs to get simpler

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.