Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI): Climate Tech CEOs & VCs

David vs. Goliath in Power Markets: Retail Electricity Provider + Battery Monetization — James McGinniss, CEO of David Energy

Mar 26, 2021

In this discussion, James McGinniss, CEO of David Energy, delves into empowering consumers in the energy sector, likening his company’s mission to David vs. Goliath. He explains how they function as a wealth manager for energy assets, notably through battery monetization. By leveraging data from customers' devices, David Energy optimizes energy consumption, allowing consumers to save on bills. The conversation also covers the shift towards distributed energy resources and the importance of collaboration in tackling climate challenges.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

David Energy Symbolizes Consumer Empowerment

The name David Energy symbolizes the rise of individual consumers empowered by distributed energy resources.
It contrasts with traditional utilities by prioritizing consumer control over power sourcing and billing.

INSIGHT

Tech, Devices, and Regulation Converge

The convergence of cheaper tech, widespread smart device rollout, and progressive deregulation enables innovative energy solutions.
These factors together make integrating distributed resources into energy markets viable today in the US.

INSIGHT

Vertical Integration Enables Market Edge

David Energy acts as both a retail electricity provider and a software company aggregating behind-the-meter batteries.
This vertical integration enables better market participation and bill savings beyond standalone software solutions.

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

Get the app

Led by James McGinniss, David Energy operates as both an electricity retailer and behind-the-meter energy storage aggregator allowing the company to more accurately predict and control energy consumption thereby saving consumers money on their monthly bills through the monetization of their storage assets.

Below are two excerpts from the podcast.

"David Energy is a reference to the classic story of David vs. Goliath, which we believe is representative of the emergence of the individual electricity consumer with the rise of distributed energy systems that prioritize consumers over big centralized utilities."

"David Energy is essentially a wealth manager for customers’ energy assets such as batteries. Ultimately, we buy power in wholesale markets with the consumer insight that is provided by the data from our network of customers who have granted us access to their devices. This allows us to more accurately predict and control consumption and pass the consequent savings directly to customers. By doing so, we monetize these assets, through our certification as an electricity retailer, when they are not needed for home backup energy. This makes us different than a standalone software provider that would not have the access to electricity markets to truly enable many of the services we provide."

Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.

Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.

We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.

Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.

Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.

To request more information on membership, click here.

Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.