Taming explosive load growth with rate design
In this rerun from season 5, GridX’s Scott Engstrom explains how utilities are using sophisticated rate design to manage unprecedented load growth and enable the clean energy transition.
Podcast
In this rerun from season 5, GridX’s Scott Engstrom explains how utilities are using sophisticated rate design to manage unprecedented load growth and enable the clean energy transition.
Fifteen years ago, Scott Engstrom thought utilities were boring, bureaucratic organizations where people went for job security. But after co-founding GridX in 2010 during the smart meter era, he discovered an industry full of dedicated people tackling complex challenges.
GridX went the next five years without a paying customer. Then, in 2015, California mandated time-of-use rates, and the start-up found its footing. Today, Scott helps utilities nationwide design and implement sophisticated rates for a variety of programs, from electric vehicle charging to demand response programs and virtual power plants. Because as load growth from AI data centers and industrial customers strains the grid, sophisticated rate design has become more critical than ever.
This week on With Great Power, Scott outlines how rate design helps utilities manage unprecedented load growth from data centers and why “growth pays for growth” protects existing customers from new infrastructure costs.
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