Energy Empire

Inside California's Plan to Fix the Utility Business Model with Senator Josh Becker

California built the one of the cleanest grids in the country and wholesale prices have never been lower — but utility bills keep going up. One reason: utilities make more money by spending more. California State Senator Josh Becker is writing the bills to change that. Before politics, Becker was in venture capital — he seeded Opower and worked on EPA's first Clean Air Marketplace Conference in 1992. Now he runs much of California's energy policy from Sacramento. Jigar and Arnab Pal (in for Jamie) talk with Becker about tying utility executive bonuses to keeping rates down, the metrics regulators should use to measure utility performance, why your home battery should count toward grid reliability, and how to use the grid we've already paid for before building more. Along the way: why the grid is like a Walmart parking lot built for Christmas Eve, the plan to take wildfire costs off your electricity bill, and Becker's blunt verdict that "hope is not a strategy." Plus: listener questions on virtual power plants, nuclear, and what happens when everyone goes off the grid — in this week's Ask Jigar. Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar [https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar] S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order [https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order] Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas [https://octopusenergy.com/faas]

Ask Jigar: Where do you actually start when you want to electrify your life?

A lot of people are walking around with energy questions and not getting straight answers. That changes now. Ask Jigar is a new weekly segment on Energy Empire. Three listener questions per episode. Jigar answers them on air. No hedging, no "it depends" non-answers. Should you sign a long-term electricity contract? Is your utility actually serious about clean energy? What separates the startups that make it from the ones that don't? Send it in. In this teaser: where do you actually start when you want to electrify your life? Submit your question: octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar [https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar] Ask Jigar is supported by Octopus Energy.

What If Data Centers Paid You?

The backlash against data centers is, in many places, a backlash against rising electricity bills. Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy US, thinks the solution isn’t to stop building — it’s to change who benefits. In this episode, Nick explains why the way data centers currently connect to the American power system puts the costs on nearby communities while sending the upside elsewhere. He breaks down how Octopus Energy flipped that dynamic in the UK by giving communities a direct financial stake in local wind energy through discounted bills — and how the same model could reshape the data center boom now unfolding across the US. Jigar, Jamie, and Nick get into what virtual power plants actually are, why networks of home batteries, EVs, and smart thermostats can function like power plants, why Texas is moving faster than California on clean energy deployment, and what it would take for homeowners in places like Loudoun County to get paid instead of squeezed. Plus: whether 160 gigawatts of virtual power plant capacity by 2030 is realistic — or wildly optimistic. Links: Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar [https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar] S2G Investments: ⁠https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order⁠ [https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order] Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas [https://octopusenergy.com/faas]

The Guy Who Built American Wind — and What He’s Betting On Next

Sandy Reisky started building wind farms in 2000, before it was an asset class. He founded Apex Clean Energy in Charlottesville, Virginia, scaled it into one of the country's largest independent wind developers, and in 2015 bought up distressed wind projects when the tax credit extension looked uncertain. Wind now generates around 12% of U.S. electricity — 30 to 50% across the Great Plains. Jigar and Jamie talk with Sandy about how he scaled Apex, why community relations was a competitive advantage most developers skipped, what wind looks like in a hostile policy environment, and his new focus: Pearl Score, a home energy performance rating that gives sellers credit for efficiency upgrades at the point of sale. Along the way: the power maps that helped Apex win over hostile communities, why fossil fuels have already lost the battle of physics, and Jamie's proposal to name an offshore wind farm after the president — and paint all the turbines gold. Learn more at energyempire.fm Links: S2G Investments: ⁠https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order⁠ [https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order]Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas [https://octopusenergy.com/faas]

Bonus episode: Why Is Lady Liberty Holding a Power Cable?

The Energy Empire logo has a two-prong plug. Apparently, that's a problem. Since launch, we've been getting called out on LinkedIn by people who are very concerned about electrical safety. So we brought in our designer, Rosie Jewell, to finally answer for it — is our brand unsafe? What happens if Lady Liberty gets struck by lightning holding a janky appliance? What exactly is she plugging in? Does artistic license cover electrical code violations? Jamie talks with Rosie about how the Energy Empire brand came together — the symbols they rejected (Roman architecture, the eagle, the flag, and yes, a lightning bolt), why Lady Liberty was the only image that worked, and what it took to get from pencil sketch to a mark that's already generating opinions on LinkedIn. Along the way: why clean energy needs to put down the lightning bolt, what most energy brands get wrong about visual identity, and the one American symbol that hasn't been co-opted by either side. Learn more about Rosie’s work at https://www.rosiejewell.com [https://www.rosiejewell.com/portfolio] Get in touch with us at energyempire.fm