DERVOS 2025: Big DERs Energy

DERVOS 2025: Big DERs Energy

From DER Task Force by DER Task Force

January 13, 2026 · 54 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the role of distributed energy resources in the context of data centers and energy regulation.

We kicked off the first discussion of DEROVS 2025 with a panel titled “Big DERs Energy”. If you’re listening to this as a podcast, keep in mind that the full video is available on our website www.dertaskforce.com and Youtube channel. The AI-power nexus isn’t just the domain of energy nerds these days, but we brought some together anyway to go deep about what role DERs play as data centers proliferate. Google’s Hallie Carrao noted speed to power is essential, and that’s where behind-the-meter and distributed solutions come in. Can the regulatory system adapt fast enough for smarter and faster planning? Given the load volatility of data centers, is there any way that batteries don’t have a large role to play? To what extent will data center load itself act as a DER? What role might direct current play? Watch the whole panel to get into the weeds on the energy topic even normies are talking about. Speakers: * Hallie Carrao, Technical Program Manager, Advanced Energy Labs, Google’s Advanced Energy Labs * Sean Jones, Sr Staff Business Development Manager, Megapack for Data Centers, Tesla * Tyler Norris, James B. Duke Fellow, Duke University (now at Google) * Vic Shao, Founder & CEO…

People in this episode

Host: Duncan Campbell

Guests: Hallie Carrao, Sean Jones, Tyler Norris, Vic Shao

Topics covered

  • distributed energy resources
  • data centers
  • energy regulation
  • battery storage
  • direct current

Keywords

  • DERs
  • data centers
  • energy planning
  • battery role
  • direct current

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Google, Tesla, Duke University, DC Grid, Scale Microgrids

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