Energy Gang

VPPs – virtual power plants – continue to spark heated debate. Are they genuinely a fast, affordable way to add capacity to the grid? Or are they an overhyped concept that falls apart when electricity systems are under stress? To find out, host Ed Crooks welcomes Colby Hastings, the senior director for residential energy at Tesla, to unpack what VPPs can and can’t do for the grid.
Colby explains how storage-based VPPs can behave very differently from the classic demand response that relies on consumers changing their behaviour. She sets out Tesla’s thinking on VPPs, including its strategies for customer participation, reliability, and pay-for-performance. Tesla’s model includes opt-outs, backup reserve settings, and transparency via an app. Customer choice is an important principle.
Regular guest Amy Myers Jaffy also joins the show, and she debates what’s holding VPPs back from scaling everywhere. Electricity market design can be critical for determining how fast VPPs are adopted. Other issues, including concerns about “double compensation” under net metering systems, are also important. Some regions are moving faster than others.
Finally, Colby tells us what’s coming next from Tesla and in the industry. Tesla’s vehicle-to-grid plans are starting to take shape. A pilot, starting with the Cybertruck, was launched last month. And she explains why Puerto Rico is one of the clearest case studies for demonstrating the value of VPPs as critical infrastructure.
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New analysis from Wood Mackenzie shows that 220 gigawatts of additional power demand from data centers is in the pipeline in the US, and 183 GW of that is already backed by firm commercial commitments. That is a huge amount to add in just a few years: it’s equal to about 22% of US peak demand in 2025. The big question is whether the US electricity industry going to be able to meet that additional demand. And if so, how?
On the second day of ACORE’s 2026 Policy Forum in Washington, host Ed Crooks talks to industry leaders and experts about the answers to those questions. First he talks to Wood Mackenzie’s Anna Shpitsberg, who is global head of power and renewables research. She breaks down the numbers on electricity demand from new data centers, and discusses some of the implications for the industry.
Next up is someone whose role is right at the heart of the data center boom. Arthur Haubenstock is senior counsel at Equinix, which is one of the world’s largest developers, owners and operators. He talks about what data centers actually need in terms of electricity supply, and gives his perspective on some of the controversies currently raging around the industry.
A key issue for him is how data center developers can benefit local communities by cutting their electricity bills and strengthening the stability of the grid. He talks about the reality behind popular ideas such as BYOP (bring your own power) and BYONCE (bring your own new clean energy). And he explains why data centers often cannot be flexible loads on the grid, the constraints on backup generation, and why power grids matter.
Ray Long, President and CEO of ACORE, then joins the show to talk about his key takeaways from the event. He says the AI-driven data center boom is creating great opportunities for all kinds of energy, including renewables and other low-carbon technologies. But progress is being slowed by three critical challenges: permitting delays, trade policy uncertainty, and regulatory bottlenecks.
With electricity demand surging, he says, tackling those policy barriers is essential. Governments and the power industry need to find ways to stop electricity bills soaring and the grid becoming unstable, while enabling the infrastructure buildout required for AI.
Finally, Ed talks to three entrepreneurs who are leading startup companies that aim to build the energy industry of the future. Kimberly Johnston of NextGen Energy, Saxon Metzger of Polaris Ecosystems, and Ebony Seymour of Ellement Group, explain the problems in energy that they are taking on, and talk about what they need to accelerate their growth.
This episode is brought to you by ACORE, the nonpartisan nonprofit organization uniquely operating at the intersection of energy affordability, reliability, and clean energy deployment. ACORE is focused on strengthening the electric grid and driving clean energy investment that delivers for the American people.
ACORE’s membership includes industry leaders across the clean energy economy. Nearly 80% of the booming utility-scale domestic clean energy growth was financed, developed, owned, equipped, or contracted by ACORE members. 
Visit www.acore.org to learn more about ACORE's work and upcoming events, like the ACORE Finance Forum on May 12-13 in New York City.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

ACORE, the power and renewables industry group, is this week hosting its annual Policy Forum in Washinton DC. It’s an event where industry leaders and experts discuss how the changing landscape of US energy policy is shaping infrastructure investment, the growth of electricity supply, and the affordability of power.
Host Ed Crooks is recording two special episodes from the forum. This first show is focused on the US government’s attempts to build up a domestic supply chain for renewables and other energy equipment. Ed speaks with Dr Sarah Kapnick, who is the global head of Climate Advisory at JP Morgan, and Peter Toomey, the Chief Development Officer at Cypress Creek Renewables, which is one of the country’s leading energy developers.
They discuss how supply chains and infrastructure for renewable energy are evolving. Demand for electricity is booming, but supply chains are under pressure. Volatile government support creates uncertainty for developers and suppliers. The “one big beautiful bill” (OB3) last year, which scrapped tax credits for wind and solar power, created “cliffs” in support for projects as the deadlines for eligibility are passed. That creates challenges for equipment manufacturers thinking about investing in new production capacity in the US.
The Trump administration, like the Biden administration before it, faces a tension between its objectives of building up US manufacturing, accelerating US electricity supply growth, and making consumers’ power bills more affordable. The ultimate question is whether the US can build resilient, competitive, domestic energy supply chains while balancing affordability, energy security, and surging demand from AI.
Plus, Ed talks to Alice Lin, a senior tax advisor at the Natural Resource Defense council who worked on the Biden administration’s move to increase tax credits for low-carbon energy with the Inflation Reduction Act. They debate the realities of clean energy tax incentives, and in particular the latest changes to the FEOC (Foreign Entities of Concern) rules. The aim is to stop companies from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from benefiting from US tax credits. But even though the US Treasury recently published guidance on how it will apply the rules from the legislation last year, it is still not entirely clear what effect they will have. Developers, manufacturers and investors are still cautiously feeling their way.
Follow the show wherever you’re listening to it so you don’t miss an episode: there’s more from the Policy Forum coming tomorrow.
This episode is brought to you by ACORE, the nonpartisan nonprofit organization uniquely operating at the intersection of energy affordability, reliability, and clean energy deployment. ACORE is focused on strengthening the electric grid and driving clean energy investment that delivers for the American people.
ACORE’s membership includes industry leaders across the clean energy economy. Nearly 80% of the booming utility-scale domestic clean energy growth was financed, developed, owned, equipped, or contracted by ACORE members. 
Visit www.acore.org to learn more about ACORE's work and upcoming events, like the ACORE Finance Forum on May 12-13 in New York City.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Data centres have become one of the most contentious issue in US power markets. The question of who will pay for the new generation and grid upgrades needed to keep them running has been soaring up the political agenda, and attracting attention in the White House.
Host Ed Crooks is joined on this episode by Brandon Oyer, Head of Americas Power & Water at Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Vince Parisi, President & COO at NIPSCO, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, to discuss a solution.
Together, they unpack their new agreement to develop power capacity in northern Indiana, which they say will enable AWS to add 2.4 gigawatts of data centre capacity without sticking everyone else with the bill.
Data centres are not just for AI: they are the “invisible digital backbone” behind everything from banking to healthcare to emergency services, Brandon says. But he also acknowledges that local communities around data centre developments are right to ask hard questions about costs. NIPSCO and other utilities agree. Vince says they welcome the economic activity and tax revenues that new data centres bring, but the goal for the electricity system is to ensure customers “aren’t paying for it.”
AWS and NIPSCO say their agreement, which they announced last November, will achieve that goal. In fact, they expect to save customers money, unlocking $1 billion in customer savings over 15 years.
So what actually makes this deal different, and is it a template others can copy? Brandon and Vince walk through the ring-fenced structure (a separate GenCo that funds and builds generation), the performance incentives, and why both sides landed on a 15-year commitment even as data-centre hardware cycles every few years. You’ll also hear why AWS doesn’t see its data centres as truly flexible loads, how the GenCo model let NIPSCO lock in long-lead equipment early, and what plugging this capacity into the MISO power market means for the reliability of electricity supplies.
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It’s the hottest sector in the global energy industry right now, driven by rising power demand, the need to back up variable renewable generation, and escalating threats to grid resilience. It is of course, battery storage. Host Ed Crooks and regular guest Amy Myers Jaffe speak with Julian Nebreda, CEO of energy storage systems company Fluence, about why batteries are becoming essential grid infrastructure.

At peak hours during the bitterly cold weather that has covered much of North America in recent weeks, batteries accounted for about 1% of US power supply. But even a relatively small share of battery capacity can play an outsized role in preventing outages, Julian says. He argues that batteries are best understood not as replacements for fossil fuels, but as system optimisers: delivering fast-response capacity, stabilising grids and allowing generation assets to run more efficiently. With Amy and Ed, he addresses some of the common myths around batteries’ cold-weather performance, multi-peak demand days and reliability compared with traditional generation.

The gang explores the next wave of demand growth for batteries, particularly from new data centres for AI. Julian points to “speed to power” as a major new driver for storage deployment, as the hyperscalers and other tech companies try to bring new data centre capacity online as quickly as they can. Their discussion also covers the geopolitical significance of storage, the attempt to build a battery supply chain in the US, the strengths of distributed versus centralised system designs and examples of operations from Texas to Ukraine. As Amy notes, the industry is still catching up to the full potential of storage, but the potential is enormous.

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