The Tyranny of Status Quo

Here at GridX we are driven to deliver on our clean energy future, regardless of how complex a journey that may be.  

To be successful, we must learn from others in the industry. That is why we are talking to people who are instrumental in building our future grid, in our new podcast, With Great Power. Last week, Brad Langley (the show’s host and our VP of marketing), sat down with Lon Huber, Senior Vice President of Pricing and Customer Solutions at Duke Energy.  

Lon and his team have many responsibilities, from leveraging customer insights and analytics to create innovative programs to coming up with new ways to price and bundle electricity services. At the heart of it all is this basic truth:  We cannot achieve our decarbonization goals without making energy customers a significant part of the solution.  

The future of energy requires distributed energy resources and advanced rates, among other innovative technologies and solutions, but that is not always synonymous with affordability.  One of the most important roads on the journey to our clean energy future is successfully navigating that divide.   

When asked why Huber got into energy in the first place, he said “It’s the impact that this industry has, across multiple fronts, on the world. It’s the core of our economy, having affordable, reliable, ever-cleaning energy supply.” And he tirelessly works on developing innovative solutions to deliver that, all while leveraging customer analytics.  

Rate design is one of those solutions, but it can be complicated. Huber calls the biggest challenge (the ‘tyranny of status quo’), or the built-up constituencies that have a vested interest in keeping things how they are. When it comes to rate design there are many considerations to ensure that everyone is having their essential needs met, like capturing embedded costs for utilities, but keeping product offerings innovative, affordable, and easy for customers to understand.  

For an example of a product/program that gives customers an innovative distributed energy resource, while also offering the opportunity to save money, Huber points to Duke Energy’s partnership with the Ford Motor Company.  

Incentives will reduce vehicle lease payments for program participants who lease an eligible electric vehicle (EV), including Ford F-150 Lightning trucks. In exchange, customers will allow their EVs to feed energy back to the grid – helping to balance it during peak demand.  

Brad asks every guest at the end of the show, what is their superpower in accelerating the clean energy transition. Huber pointed to his understanding of all the stakeholders and their positions. “As long as everyone is serious about change, I can pull together a solution,” he says. After our chat with him, we don’t doubt Lon’s ability to do just that.  

You can hear our entire conversion with Huber here and make sure you like and subscribe to get the latest episodes when they come out.  

Do you have someone you would like to hear on With Great Power? If so, let us know!