How is the energy landscape evolving, and what can we expect in the future? In this episode, we sit down with Beatrice Petrovich, Senior Energy and Climate Analyst at Ember, to explore these pressing questions. With over a decade of experience in the energy sector, Beatrice offers insights into the rise of renewables in the EU, the latest energy mix, and the management of the utility sector. We’ll also discuss the growth of residential battery storage, the drivers behind this trend, and the progress and opportunities in hydrogen development.

Listen in as Beatrice shares valuable advice for business leaders, highlights common misconceptions, and underscores the importance of innovation in the energy transition. You’ll learn about the EU’s significant milestone of wind power surpassing fossil gas power generation and the structural decline of coal in Europe. We also cover how new business models are emerging to leverage demand flexibility and the promising potential of behind-the-meter battery storage.

What You'll Learn In Today's Episode:

• What Beatrice is most passionate about.
• What Ember’s main goal is and how they achieve this.
• How the EU is transitioning away from fossil fuels.
• Who is leading the way in battery storage growth.
• Advice for business leaders when thinking about the energy transition.
• What we can gain from an accelerated transition.
• The common misconceptions about the energy transition.
• What you need to know about battery storage.

Ideas Worth Sharing:

• “Last year the EU passed a meaningful milestone of wind power surpassing fossil gas power generation for the first time. With this growth of wind and solar generation, we see a decline in fossil fuel power, especially coal. It’s clear that there is a structural decline of coal in the EU and that there won’t be a coal comeback.” – Beatrice Petrovich
• “Awareness for the potential of demand flexibility is growing and that’s really exciting. And there’s no need to wait for regulation to be unlocked. There are new business models that can be there for actors who dare to innovate.” – Beatrice Petrovich
• “The potential of behind-the-meter battery storage is very promising. On the one hand, costs have rapidly declined, so they’re already cost-competitive and costs are expected to drop even more with the ramping up of production. There’s also an additional cost benefit by co-locating it with storage—solar electricity is valued higher.” – Beatrice Petrovich

Resources In Today's Episode:

• Beatrice Petrovich: LinkedIn | Ember
• Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie
• Gareth Evans: LinkedIn
• Dan Roberts: LinkedIn
• VECKTA: News

You can find show notes, resources, and more here: https://tinyurl.com/wf44ru74

Julia Hamm, Partner at The Ad Hoc Group and former CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance, joins the show today to share insights from her extensive career and her passion for connecting people in the energy sector. In this episode, Julia discusses the challenges utilities face in a growing market, the importance of affordable energy and investment in the system, and how businesses can start small on their sustainability journey.

Listen in as Julia talks about the power of utilities as orchestrators and connectors in this evolving landscape. You'll learn about the need for businesses to transition into prosumers, interacting with utilities and the grid, and participating in demand management programs. With natural disasters becoming more frequent and severe, understanding the impact of power loss on business operations and ensuring resiliency is crucial for the future of energy, so don't miss this important episode!

What You'll Learn In Today's Episode:

• Julia’s career trajectory.
• What intrigued her about The Ad Hoc Group.
• The value and importance of partnership.
• Why the energy transition will take time.
• How organizations can take the first step.
• How to make your business more resilient.
• The best way to prepare your business for climate change.

Ideas Worth Sharing:

• “For decarbonization and energy transition efforts, you need a cross-functional senior-level team involved from the beginning. They need to A, be brought into the roadmap at first, but then B, be responsible for ensuring that the execution is moving forward. People from all of those teams across the entire company are going to need to be involved in order to execute successfully.” - Julia Hamm
• “Thinking about resiliency is a huge piece of it because no matter where you are in the country, whether it's hurricanes or floods or ice storms or wildfires … just keep listing the natural disasters, they're getting more frequent. They're getting more severe. When a business loses power for any amount of time, it has a huge impact on its bottom line.” - Julia Hamm
• “The main relationship businesses have traditionally had with utilities is one where they just consume the power and don't need much support. But now there's a need to transition into a prosumer where businesses interact with the utility and the grid. The utility feeds energy to users and users with their own generation feed it back to the grid. Then you add on demand management programs that are impacting load and supply.” - Dan Roberts

Resources In Today's Episode:

• Julia Hamm: LinkedIn
• The Ad Hoc Group
• Smart Electric Power Alliance
• The Gist
• Gareth Evans: LinkedIn
• Dan Roberts: LinkedIn
• VECKTA: News

You can find show notes, resources, and more here: https://tinyurl.com/2svj5eua

Are you prepared for the evolving landscape of the electricity sector? John Cooper, an energy entrepreneur and recognized innovator in the electricity sector, joins the show to discuss the shifting dynamics of the grid and utilities. With his extensive experience in integrating decarbonization, resilience, energy self-sufficiency, transportation, building electrification and data/digitalization, John sheds light on why the traditional way of operating the grid is becoming less reliable.

Listen in to hear about the future of grid management, as well as the transition from manned operations to smart systems and data-driven decisions. You’ll learn the importance of software systems like ADMS in control rooms and the value of data processing in modernizing operations. John also explains what large business leaders can do to optimize their operations in the face of climate change. It’s time to step up and take on more responsibility to make a difference!

What You'll Learn In Today's Episode:

• How John became involved with energy.
• How AI can help the energy transition.
• The importance of leaning on data.
• What large business leaders can do to optimize their operations.
• How every single person can help the energy transition.
• Why business leaders are going to have to take on more responsibility.

Ideas Worth Sharing:

• “The future of running something as complex as the grid is not controlling it ever tighter and having old, experienced hands in the control room to make decisions. It’s moving to software systems like ADMS in the control room, so that we can lean on the value of data, data processing and smart systems and shift a lot of our operations from man operations to machine operations.” – John Cooper
• “For business leaders thinking they can just pay their utility bills and then leave that up to the utilities to take care of is to cede a lot of the control of your business to a third party. And I think it represents an unacceptable risk.” – John Cooper
• “Changes are afoot, and the old way of operating the grid and utilities are on the way to not being seen as stable and reliable as they used to be.” – John Cooper

Resources In Today's Episode:

• John Cooper: LinkedIn
• Gareth Evans: LinkedIn
• Dan Roberts: LinkedIn
• VECKTA: News

You can find show notes, resources, and more here: https://tinyurl.com/3z47svd4