The new wave of DERs

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Oct 2, 2025

In this discussion, Dana Guernsey, co-founder and CEO of Voltus and former Director of Energy Markets at EnerNOC, dives into the evolution of demand response and distributed energy resources (DERs). She highlights how DERs, once reliant on manual calls, now include automated systems like EVs and smart thermostats. Dana introduces Voltus’s innovative 'Bring Your Own Capacity' model, discusses the barriers to DER growth, and emphasizes the advantages of virtual power plants over traditional power sources in addressing escalating demand.

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INSIGHT

Demand Response Is Now Ordinary

Demand response evolved from manual emergency calls to automated, daily dispatches across many resources.
Dana Guernsey says the market now dispatches DERs every day and the sector is entering a new inflection point.

INSIGHT

Massive Broadening Of Participating Customers

The customer base expanded from a few large industrials to 50+ commercial and industrial verticals plus residential assets.
Guernsey emphasizes portfolio strength from mixing small and large loads to meet grid needs.

INSIGHT

Resources Now Include Storage And Behind‑Meter Assets

Resources now include traditional load control plus behind-the-meter generators and fast-growing battery storage.
Guernsey notes batteries are a top growing vertical due to falling costs.

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Demand response was the original distributed energy resource. In its early days, it was surprisingly manual: a grid operator would call up a large load, like a factory, and request a few hours of reduced demand during peak times.

Fast forward to today and DERs look dramatically different. They’re automated, deployed frequently across the country, and include everything from EVs and thermostats to sophisticated management systems at paper mills and data centers.

So how did DERs evolve from phone calls to fully fledged virtual power plants? And what role do they play now as electricity demand surges?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Dana Guernsey, co-founder and CEO of DER and VPP developer Voltus. She is also the former director of energy markets at EnerNOC, a pioneer in demand response. Shayle and Dana cover topics like:

The changing mix of customers and resources, as well as the evolving use cases

Voltus’ new “Bring Your Own Capacity” model, allowing large loads like data centers to fund regional VPPs

The barriers that hold DERs back, like access to data

The market forces shaping DER adoption, including load growth, declining system costs, and market structures

How DERs stack up against conventional power plants in meeting rising demand

Resources:

Open Circuit: The grid flexibility solutions staring us in the face

Catalyst: Is now the time for DERs to scale?

Catalyst: Making DERs work for load growth

Catalyst: PJM and the capacity crunch

Latitude Media: Google expands demand response to target machine learning workloads

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

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 Bloom Energy. AI data centers can’t wait years for grid power—and with Bloom Energy’s fuel cells, they don’t have to. Bloom Energy delivers affordable, always-on, ultra-reliable onsite power, built for chipmakers, hyperscalers, and data center leaders looking to power their operations at AI speed. Learn more by visiting BloomEnergy.com.