Navigating the Shift

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hi I’m Alan Ross and we are at
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Distribute 2025 we’ve got interviews
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with thought leaders and we’d love for
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you to see what we’ve done here hey
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thanks for joining us
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[Music]
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my next guest is Brad Langley brad it’s
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good to meet you you’re with Grid X
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correct what’s your title uh CMO chief
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marketing officer okay so marketing
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you’re going to be able to talk a lot
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about a lot of different things yes
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first of all how’d you get in the power
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industry tell me the journey and what
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were you doing before great yeah happy
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to so I’ve been about uh in the space
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for about 15 years now okay okay uh
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marketing to utilities and I got in the
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space uh back in the late early like
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2008 2009 I was working for a PR agency
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and this was around the time of the AR
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grants and so a lot of investment coming
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in clean techch i founded a clean
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technology practice where we work with
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clean technology companies to get their
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story out uh to get it more public so
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people could see what they were doing uh
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ended up going to work with one of my
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clients which was called Tendril uh they
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were a home energy management pioneer so
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you know think technologies to get more
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real-time data in the house about energy
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usage and and those kinds of things um
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ran marketing there for about 6 years
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and then tendril went through a very uh
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aggressive rollup strategy where we
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acquired about five companies in 6
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months uh wouldn’t necessarily recommend
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doing that again it was a culture shock
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a lot of the culture shock yeah
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absolutely um and we rebranded as a
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company called Uplight and today
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Uplight’s a major leader in customer
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engagement so working with utilities to
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find ways to better engage customers so
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they can take an active role in managing
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their energy consumption um from there I
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went and spent two years at Oracle
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working with their O power business unit
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uh so everyone knows Oracle obviously a
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very big company in this space uh OP was
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also customer engagement and solution um
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and from there I I realized I loved
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working at Oracle but I’m more of a
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smaller company guy a little bit more
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autonomy a little more creativity in the
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marketing mix so I joined Gridex um when
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the CEO who was the COO at Tendril came
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and asked me to join in a marketing lead
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position and so been there now for just
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over 3 years excellent so you know the
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industry from the problems in the
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industry um I I hypothesize that we have
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seen more change in the last five to 10
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years than we’ve seen in 50 years prior
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to that what are those changes and where
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are we where’s the industry today as you
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guys see it yeah I think the industry is
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in a really good place i’ll start there
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i think it’s amazing that utilities are
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committed to decarbonizing the grid to
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getting dirty power out of the system i
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think we need that uh environmentally
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you know I know some people don’t
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necessarily believe climate change is
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real but I think that we’ve seen some
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pretty dramatic shifts and you know it’s
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important that utilities do their part
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um in order to uh to remove those dirty
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emissions from the power system so
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that’s been I think a really great thing
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to see and a good signal and as part of
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that you know you’re seeing lots of
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different distributed energy resources
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on the grid which definitely creates
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some grid strain so electric vehicles
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solar storage uh now you’re kind of
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seeing how all those devices are getting
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orchestrated through virtual power
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plants and other kinds of um
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technologies and processes so I think
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you know it went from very much a
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one-way power delivery to customers keep
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the lights on which utilities do a
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fantastic job at um to now having to
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orchestrate a lot of these different
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devices so that you don’t create
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additional strain on the grid um we’re
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seeing a lot of that now with electric
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vehicles and other devices and so kind
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of moving more from a one-way delivery
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of power billing customers and now
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having to orchestrate all these devices
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that are on it to maximize substations
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and ensure that the grid doesn’t shut
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down so you know and I think that’s only
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going to increase over the next few
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years is more people buy vehicles and
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more electrification of household
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appliances occurs and so I think that’s
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been a really significant shift one more
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thing I’ll say is along those same lines
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I think utilities really recognize the
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role of customers um in maintaining grid
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stability um ensuring that customers
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stay satisfied their bills don’t
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skyrocket as a result of a lot of the
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new energy use devices that are
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currently on the grid and so more
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actively engaging customers not just as
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rateayers but as active participants in
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the energy transition and I think that’s
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been a fundamental shift I’ve seen too
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over the past five years heard a good uh
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a good comment my son lives in
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California as do I yep and and uh he is
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now a proumer yep he creates power he
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sells it to Southern Cal Edison yep he
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takes power he’s got his electric car
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and he and he’s about to get another one
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but the idea that a rateayer could go
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from a rateayer to a consumer which was
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a big leap and then and now they’re
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proumers is uh that’s kind of unheard of
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i I want to flip back to to uh your
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previous career ami there were a lot of
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people that jumped on it pretty quickly
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but I I don’t know how you couldn’t have
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jumped on it talk a little bit about
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because Tendril had to have something to
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do with AMI yeah absolutely so we would
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take and ingest the AMI data to do our
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insights and analysis and such um I
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actually live in California and I was
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there when PG& implemented AMI and there
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was a lot of uh um consternation from
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customers thinking it was like spying on
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them or there were health benefits to or
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health you know ramifications to it and
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so I think what that shows is that
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utilities didn’t always do a great job
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of explaining the benefits of AMI why
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this new fancy meter was going to the
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house um AMI penetration I is a very
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high percent now i think it’s you know
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80% upwards of utilities that have AMI
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and now we’re seeing a shift to AMI 2.0
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i think one thing I would say is I don’t
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know that all that utilities have fully
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maximized the value of that data um to
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do what was intended which is to
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optimize the system to provide insights
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to customers so they can make
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intelligent decisions and so as we shift
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to AMI 2.0 No I think it’s important to
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make sure you know we’re storing that
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data we have a plan for how to maximize
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it how to use it so that we can make
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sure that we’re justifying those
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investments and making use of the data
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as you know intended and that’s one
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thing I know we’ll talk about gridex but
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ingesting all the AMI data to do some
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really valuable cost insight so people
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know exactly how much they’re going to
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pay for their energy energy usage in
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this kind of new paradigm of different
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deers and such and um I know we just I
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was at a conference recently and um one
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of the VPs from a southern company so
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it’s a Georgia power Alabama power
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customers southern company and uh they
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had been used to about 1 to 1.2% load
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growth primarily coming from the Atlanta
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area they’re now at 8% load growth and
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growing and growing and uh the second
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largest AI center in America is North
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Atlanta the first being Northern
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Virginia uh the whole point about
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connecting AMI at the consumer level
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it’s got to have a there’s got to be a
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connection there to say if you got that
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kind of load growth you can’t just build
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more capacity right yeah I think so and
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I think consumers can certainly play a
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role in reducing that load growth but at
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the end of the day it’s the large data
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centers and the large manufacturing
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facilities are driving a lot of that and
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so I think it is important that we find
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strategies and ways to make sure that
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the residential consumer doesn’t
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necessarily pay for a lot of those
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investments and energy uses being made
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and so I think there are ways to
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optimize those kinds of systems to
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charge these large data center operators
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or large facilities you know to shift
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their energy usage out of the peak so
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because you’re right we can’t just add
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more capacity as a very expensive
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proposition and so I think there’s more
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cost effective ways to shift that demand
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to make sure that you know um you you
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welcome investments in your area because
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I’m sure Georgia wants those large
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energy use appliances to be built but
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just to make sure it doesn’t add undue
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impact to regular customers because
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you’re seeing lots of rates across the
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country go up oh yeah that continues to
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do so i mean being in California you
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know we see our rates increase quite a
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bit and uh you know we do try and shift
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our usage but it can be difficult to do
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so just making sure that everybody you
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know is really playing their role and
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yeah AMI the utilities are giving their
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AMI to strategic technology providers to
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find ways to analyze that data to make
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sure that they’re on the right rate that
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if they buy an EV here’s what they can
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save to make sure they’re accompanying
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that with you know a level two charger
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and charging overnight there are
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strategies that you can take to use AMI
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data to optimize a person’s energy usage
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by giving them a little visibility and
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insight yeah in Georgia we uh we uh
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opened another nuclear
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read the articles yeah plan votal and uh
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that kind of met but it’s already maxed
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out we’ve already maxed out the use here
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so I don’t know where we’re going to get
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more power um let’s switch gears so
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you’ve seen it you have a good grasp of
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the industry what do you think the next
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5 to 10 look like it’s hard to say i
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mean I think load growth is going to
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just continue um you know obviously the
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AI revolution is driving a lot of these
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data centers to be built um I think
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utilities will continue to find ways to
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avoid large capital infrastructure
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projects um and look for more innovative
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use of that data to provide insights to
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people to make smarter energy decisions
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um I think that’s one thing um I think
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we’re seeing a lot too in terms of
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wildfire prevention um that’s obviously
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a really hot topic being in California
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we’ve seen how impactful that can be so
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whether undergrounding power lines or
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putting sensors in areas where you’re at
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higher fire risk I think risky utilities
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pay a lot more attention even in areas
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where maybe wildfires haven’t been a
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major issue i think I saw was it the
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Carolinas there was a big time yeah
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absolutely i mean these huge wildfires
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in places you wouldn’t necessarily
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expect uh so I think we’ll see more
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utilities do some preventative measures
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to ensure that that kind of tragedy
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doesn’t befall them or they’re doing
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what they can to prevent those kinds of
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things uh in in the future and I think
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we’ll also just see more of a heightened
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role on end customers in being part of
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flexing demand so whether that’s
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business customers or residential
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customers you know we found that by
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shifting to different rate structures
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you can actually have significant load
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shift um and load shed and so finding
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more opportunities to have like
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customers be part of the solution even
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as load growth and usage goes up I think
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is going to be a really primary focus
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for utilities going forward what does
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Grid X do yeah so thank you for asking
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uh so Grid X is a software company and
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we uh have been around for about 15
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years and we really are about um helping
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utilities transition to uh complex rates
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and program so when you think about
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rates like time of use rates that shift
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what you pay based on the time of day
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that you use the energy dynamic pricing
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we’re seeing a lot of that in California
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where you’re sending real time signals
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that change the price of energy uh EV
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rates uh and then from a program side
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managed charging programs BPPs and what
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Gritex does that AMI data we talked
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about we ingest all that AMI and
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customer data so that we can tell
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customers exactly what they’re going to
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spend on their energy if they switch to
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that rate or if they charge their EV at
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a certain time of the
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So that’s part of what we do but we also
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are moving into helping utilities design
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rate structures so a lot more utilities
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are starting to see the value in
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different rate structures and right now
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they use very antiquated tools like
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spreadsheets to do this there might be
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one person in the rate department that
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knows how to operate all those pivot
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tables um and so a more thoughtful and I
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think um efficient way of doing that all
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the way through the billing of those
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rates so right now if you implement a
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rate or a program um the customer
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information system which is essentially
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the utilities cash register doesn’t do a
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great job of building those rates
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without a lot of extra investment or
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customization and so we can do that much
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more effectively so that utilities can
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pilot programs a lot more quickly a lot
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more effectively and not have to wait a
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year or two to do a managed charging
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pilot to do a dynamic pricing pilot but
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to do it in much quicker means to see if
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it works make enhancements and then just
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roll it out to much um much broader
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audience so is it installed at the uh
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utility or is it separate system that
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you It’s a software as a service
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technology so it lives in the cloud so
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super easy to plug into existing utility
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infrastructure and we’ve seen that trend
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where utilities are now more comfortable
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moving kind of off premise and adopting
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software as a service which is fantastic
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because those on-rem systems can be
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super expensive and once they age
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they’re difficult to to really modify
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and get them up to to to deal with you
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know the various systems and
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technologies required to really spur
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this energy transition and it seemed to
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me that your your biggest enemy is that
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guy the CIO that says cyber security
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cyber security to do something in the
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cloud so obviously you all have overcome
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yeah we’ve I mean we applied all the
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appropriate security protocols and
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standards and but yeah I wouldn’t call
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the CIO the enemy but you know a lot of
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times it can certainly be an influence
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decisions because they’re the ones that
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I I know you were playing with words but
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uh yeah we we love all facets of the
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utility but uh that security piece is
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important um we also run into like
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because utilities have massive amounts
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of data it can be difficult to transfer
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them to a company like ours and so lots
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of conversations with it and systems on
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our side to make that as seamless as
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possible because we’ll get those
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15minute interval reads you know we will
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ingest that data every single day to do
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the magic that we do so it’s important
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that it feel comfortable with uh our
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ability to process that and keep it
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secure and then be effective with it i
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know uh CIOS are not the enemy uh but
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they are certainly a a roadblock and if
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you can get through that roadblock it
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creates uh a partnership because the
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utilities are not going to get to that
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next level until they figure out how to
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ingest all of these new there’s so many
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new things on market and you hear people
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saying hey they they talk different
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languages somebody has to speak the
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common language like you all speak a
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common language I I I think we do
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especially as it pertains to customer
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data and AMI data and rates and programs
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we’re experts in that space and I think
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we’re really good at what we do good
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represent them well thank you so much
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thank you all very much i appreciate the
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time
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