The demand stack: Turning customers into grid capacity [partner content]

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Hannah Bascom traces the evolution of clean energy from utility-driven efficiency compliance to a more market-responsive “demand stack” that combines efficiency, dynamic rates, and flexible devices. As load growth from AI, EVs, and electrification strains the grid, she argues utilities must value customer-side resources as a serious alternative to new infrastructure, using AI, better forecasting, and device enrollment to improve reliability, affordability, and grid flexibility.

Main Topics: Hannah Bascom’s career arc in clean energy (Priority: 4/5): Bascom describes moving from PG&E’s compliance-driven energy efficiency programs to Nest and then Uplight, reflecting the sector’s shift from regulatory box-checking to customer-enabled flexibility. The demand stack as a framework (Priority: 5/5): She explains Uplight’s concept of stacking efficiency, rates, and demand response/VPPs into one coordinated resource that can serve grid needs across the year, not just at peaks. Load growth and the limits of new infrastructure (Priority: 5/5): Bascom argues that AI-driven load growth, electrification, supply chain constraints, and rising rates make it too slow and too expensive to rely primarily on new power plants and wires. Evergy case study and measurable capacity gains (Priority: 5/5): A Brattle study with Evergy shows how improved forecasting, enrollment, event experience, staggered dispatch, and new programs can materially increase demand-side capacity and peak reduction. Technology and AI improving demand-side performance (Priority: 4/5): AI and machine learning are used to predict customer behavior, tailor event design, and maintain flatter, more reliable demand response over longer periods with less customer disruption. Rates and customer participation as underused tools (Priority: 4/5): Bascom says dynamic pricing and point-of-sale enrollment can scale participation and shift load more broadly, while regulators are beginning to treat flexible demand as a real system resource. Regulatory and utility culture shift (Priority: 3/5): She notes that utilities further ahead typically combine leadership support, regulatory incentives, and growing urgency from climate, affordability, and reliability pressures.

Key Arguments: Utilities can no longer assume that building more generation and wires is the fastest or cheapest path to reliability; time, cost, supply chains, and community pushback are major constraints. Customer-side assets should be treated as a unified grid resource rather than separate programs managed in silos; the demand stack helps utilities and regulators value them together. Point-of-sale enrollment dramatically increases participation because customers are most willing to act when they are already buying a device or vehicle. AI improves forecasting and dispatch so utilities can deliver more consistent demand response and customize events to customer behavior, making programs more dependable and less intrusive. Rates remain one of the most scalable tools for shifting demand across entire customer bases, especially as capacity costs rise and rate design becomes more important. Utilities with more experience, supportive leadership, and regulatory incentives are moving faster, but growing load and climate risk are now creating urgency even where adoption was slower. Demand-side resources will not replace infrastructure entirely, but they can defer investments, reduce costs, and improve customer relationships while easing peak stress. The shift from compliance-driven efficiency to market-driven flexibility marks a major change in how clean energy programs are designed and valued.

Data Points: PG&E start year: 2009 - Bascom began working in clean energy designing energy efficiency programs at PG&E. Time at PG&E: Nearly 3 years - She spent almost three years learning utility decision-making before moving on to Nest. Evergy peak reduction capability today: About 52 MW - Equivalent to about 1.4% of system peak in Missouri territory. Evergy current peak reduction share: 1.4% - Current demand-side capability before the demand stack expansion. Evergy projected peak reduction capability with demand stack: 5% - Study result if all five strategies are implemented. Projected capacity increase: Greater than 50% - Between now and 2030, if the full demand stack strategy is deployed. Demand response event duration today: About 6 hours - Current DSM portfolio impact at Evergy before expansion. Demand response event duration with demand stack: About 27 hours - Expanded temporal capability from stacked demand strategies. Adoption lift with pre-enrollment: 10x greater adoption rate - Customers enrolling at point of sale for a thermostat show much higher uptake than later enrollment. Customer bill burden: 1 in 6 customers - Bascom cites U.S. customers unable to pay their bills, underscoring affordability pressure. Capacity planning horizon: Through 2030 - Utilities are planning major capital expenditures to meet growth from AI, EVs, and electrification. Utility capex context: Over $1 trillion - She references more than a trillion dollars in planned utility capital expenditures through the decade. Peak dispatch window examples: 2-hour or 4-hour window - Uplight’s predictable capacity dispatch aims to match power-plant-like reliability over these durations. Decade of data: More than 10 years - Bascom notes utilities now have well over a decade of experience with demand response since early Nest programs.

Pivotal Quotes: "I wanted to take the knowledge about how utilities make decisions and move to a kind of more nimble enablement partner, really." — Hannah Bascom: Explaining her move from PG&E compliance work to Nest and later Uplight. "The demand stack is really a framework for aligning customer programs, utility operations, and planning so that these DSM programs can deliver reliable system value across all hours of the year while boosting grid resilience and managing costs." — Hannah Bascom: Defining the concept at the center of Uplight’s strategy. "The business as usual of investing in more power plants and poles and wires is impossible because of all the reasons, right? Supply chain reasons, community pushback." — Hannah Bascom: Arguing that traditional infrastructure buildout is too slow and expensive to meet rising load.

Implications: Utilities will increasingly need to treat customer devices, rates, and flexibility as core capacity resources. Expect more investment in forecasting, enrollment, and dispatch tech, plus greater regulatory acceptance of demand-side solutions to defer infrastructure and ease bill pressure.