Field notes The Energy Transition for the Rest of Us

Threads

Utility business

13 notes · Catalyst 11 · Steel For Fuel 2

  1. Catalyst · 20 Aug 2026 Can AI revolutionize grid operations? with Josh Wong, CEO and founder, ThinkLabs AI What actually happens inside a utility’s planning and operations functions, and where could AI change it?
  2. Steel For Fuel · 5 Aug 2026 On data centers and energy “affordability” by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners Are data centers the reason American electricity bills are going up, and is the country facing an affordability crisis?
  3. Catalyst · 9 Apr 2026 The rise of flexible data centers with Varun Sivaram, CEO, Emerald AI Almost everyone now agrees data centers should be flexible grid assets. What is actually stopping it from happening at scale?
  4. Catalyst · 4 Dec 2025 Who benefits from the AI power bottleneck? with Shanu Mathew, senior vice president and portfolio manager-analyst for US sustainable equity, Lazard Everyone in the AI and energy business says power is the bottleneck. Whose interests does that story serve, and how should you discount what you hear?
  5. Catalyst · 9 Oct 2025 How Base Power plans to use its fresh $1B with Zach Dell, co-founder and CEO, Base Power Base Power just raised a billion dollars to put large batteries on houses and sell the electricity. Can a fleet of residential batteries really land a megawatt on the grid more cheaply than a utility-scale project?
  6. Catalyst · 18 Sep 2025 Is now the time for DERs to scale? with Andy Lubershane, partner and head of research, Energy Impact Partners Distributed energy resources were hyped a decade ago and mostly did not happen. Is this time actually different?
  7. Catalyst · 3 Jul 2025 Fresh intel from state utility regulatory filings with Nat Bullard, co-founder, Halcyon What do state utility regulatory filings actually reveal right now about how utilities are absorbing data center load, and about where costs are heading?
  8. Catalyst · 6 Mar 2025 A skeptic’s take on AI electricity load growth with Jonathan Koomey, founder and president, Koomey Analytics How much electricity will AI data centers actually use, and how much weight should anyone put on the forecasts saying the answer is enormous?
  9. Catalyst · 9 Jan 2025 Making DERs work for load growth with Pier LaFarge, co-founder and CEO, Sparkfund Load growth is being answered almost entirely with big centralized projects. Can distributed energy carry a real share of it, and how would a utility actually buy it?
  10. Catalyst · 5 Dec 2024 Explaining the ‘Watt-Bit Spread’ with Brian Janous, co-founder and chief commercial officer, Cloverleaf Infrastructure; previously vice president of energy at Microsoft Why can data centers not get power, when the companies that want it are willing to pay almost anything for it?
  11. Steel For Fuel · 20 Nov 2024 For AI, energy is nothing, and energy is everything by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners If energy is only a small part of what computing costs, why is the AI industry suddenly worried about power, and what should the power sector do with that?
  12. Catalyst · 8 Mar 2024 Will AI deliver the promise of a digital grid? with David Groarke, managing director, Indigo Advisory Group The last wave of smart grid investment did not deliver what it promised. Is the current wave of AI in the power sector any different?
  13. Catalyst · 30 Nov 2023 EV charging on both sides of the pond with Nick Woolley, co-founder and CEO, ev.energy Europe adopted electric vehicles earlier than the United States. Does that make it a window into America’s charging future, and what can each side learn from the other?