CleanTechies Podcast #266 Can the Grid Survive Climate Change? | Mishal Thadani (Rhizome)
Oct 29, 2025
Michal Tandani, Founder and CEO of Rhizome, delves into climate-resilience planning for utilities, sparked by his experiences with extreme weather. He explains how Rhizome helps target high-risk assets to reduce costs and improve grid resilience. Tandani discusses the pressing need for such technologies amid rising climate threats and outlines how utilities can adjust their investments. He also shares insights on effectively selling to utilities and the evolving climate tech landscape, emphasizing resilience as a growing focus.
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Precision Targeting Cuts Unnecessary Grid Spend
- Rhizome builds climate-resilience planning software that pinpoints high-impact grid investments at asset-level detail.
- The product helps utilities prioritize targeted upgrades instead of wholesale, costly replacements.
Prioritize High-Risk Assets First
- Invest in precise upgrades by replacing only high-risk assets rather than whole lines or programs.
- Targeting the top-risk 1% of poles can address 30–40% of overall risk at far lower cost.
Regulatory Gap Drives Need For Better Metrics
- Regulators lack tools to evaluate resilience value of utility investments, creating misalignment over ratepayer spending.
- Rhizome aims to bridge utilities and regulators by quantifying risk reduction from specific investments.