Julia Hamm, Partner at The Ad Hoc Group and former CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance, joins the show today to share insights from her extensive career and her passion for connecting people in the energy sector. In this episode, Julia discusses the challenges utilities face in a growing market, the importance of affordable energy and investment in the system, and how businesses can start small on their sustainability journey.
Listen in as Julia talks about the power of utilities as orchestrators and connectors in this evolving landscape. You’ll learn about the need for businesses to transition into prosumers, interacting with utilities and the grid, and participating in demand management programs. With natural disasters becoming more frequent and severe, understanding the impact of power loss on business operations and ensuring resiliency is crucial for the future of energy, so don’t miss this important episode!
What You’ll Learn In Today’s Episode:
- Julia’s career trajectory.
- What intrigued her about The Ad Hoc Group.
- The value and importance of partnership.
- Why the energy transition will take time.
- How organizations can take the first step.
- How to make your business more resilient.
- The best way to prepare your business for climate change.
Ideas Worth Sharing:
- “For decarbonization and energy transition efforts, you need a cross-functional senior-level team involved from the beginning. They need to A, be brought into the roadmap at first, but then B, be responsible for ensuring that the execution is moving forward. People from all of those teams across the entire company are going to need to be involved in order to execute successfully.” – Julia Hamm
- “Thinking about resiliency is a huge piece of it because no matter where you are in the country, whether it’s hurricanes or floods or ice storms or wildfires … just keep listing the natural disasters, they’re getting more frequent. They’re getting more severe. When a business loses power for any amount of time, it has a huge impact on its bottom line.” – Julia Hamm
- “The main relationship businesses have traditionally had with utilities is one where they just consume the power and don’t need much support. But now there’s a need to transition into a prosumer where businesses interact with the utility and the grid. The utility feeds energy to users and users with their own generation feed it back to the grid. Then you add on demand management programs that are impacting load and supply.” – Dan Roberts
Resources In Today’s Episode:
- Julia Hamm: LinkedIn
- The Ad Hoc Group
- Smart Electric Power Alliance
- The Gist
- Gareth Evans: LinkedIn
- Dan Roberts: LinkedIn
- VECKTA: News
Time Stamps:
- 00:15: Introduction and Background Information
- 00:50: Beginning of the interview and Introduction of Julia Hamm
- 01:20: Discussion on Julia’s career and her passion for connecting people
- 03:51: Discussion on Julia’s career trajectory and her role at the ad hoc group
- 09:25: Discussion about the energy industry and Julia’s role with the utility companies
- 13:08: Embracing the transition to distributed energy assets
- 15:36: Future of the energy industry and its transformation
- 17:30: The Challenge utilities face in a growing market
- 20:44: Importance of Affordable Energy and Investment in System
- 21:34: Scaling at a much faster pace and balancing risks
- 22:45: Challenges and Insights in the Energy Transition
- 23:59: Introduction to TrueCurrent and US Foods project
- 24:55: Mapping out a Sustainable Transition Pathway for Distribution Centers
- 26:19: On Partnerships for Comprehensive Analysis and Execution
- 27:08: The Importance of Cross-Functional, Senior Level Teams in Corporate Transition
- 29:57: Considering Renewable Energy Credits as Part of the Transition
- 32:09: Case Study: Distribution Center Decarbonization & Utility Relationship
- 33:41: Power of Utilities as Orchestrators and Connectors
- 35:29: Importance of Starting Small in a Business’s Sustainability Journey
- 41:03: Insights from Personal Career Break
- 43:35: Introduction to “The Gist”- Ad Hoc’s Monthly Newsletter
- 44:33: Reflection and Success Criteria
- 45:03: How to Connect with Julia
- 45:26: Closing Comments
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