Time to Power: How Critical Loop Keeps Industrial America Switched On

About this episode

The episode discusses how Critical Loop's modular microgrids address the urgent need for reliable power in industrial America.

In this episode, Madelyn O’Farrell sits down with Bala Ramamurthy, CEO and Co-Founder of Critical Loop, to explore how his journey from NASA and SpaceX led him to tackle one of today’s most urgent problems: industrial access to reliable, scalable power. They discuss why the electricity grid is an underutilized, aging asset facing soaring demand from reindustrialization, data centers, and EV fleets, and how bottlenecks like multi-year wait times for utility upgrades can cripple factories and logistics operators. Bala explains Critical Loop’s solution: modular, relocatable microgrids that combine battery energy storage, generation, and autonomous controls to dramatically shorten “time to power,” including a high-stakes deployment that kept a factory running for nine months during a utility outage. He also covers how Critical Loop works behind the meter and with utilities, the importance of reliability borrowed from aerospace engineering, navigating shifting policy and supply chains, and why industrial operators shouldn’t give up on their preferred locations just because the grid says “no” at first.

People in this episode

Host: Madelyn O’Farrell

Guest: Bala Ramamurthy

Topics covered

• industrial power
• microgrids
• energy storage
• electricity grid
• reindustrialization

Keywords

• microgrids
• reliable power
• electricity grid
• energy storage
• industrial access

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Critical Loop, NASA, SpaceX

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