Energy Central Top Voices 2024 [Energy Management Network]

Each year, Energy Central proudly recognizes the Top Voices across our six networks.  These individuals have gone above and beyond in sharing their expertise, insights, and thought leadership with our community, delivering high-value content and sparking meaningful discussions about the future of energy. In a year full of challenges and opportunities, their contributions have shaped the conversation around the most pressing topics in the energy sector.

We asked each of our 2024 Top Voices honorees three important questions this year:

1. What was the most significant trend in the energy and utility sector in 2024 and how do you think it changed or impacted the industry? 
2. What do you anticipate will be the story to watch in 2025? 
3. What’s a recommendation you have for our Energy Central community—an article, podcast episode, book, video, etc.—that’s elevated the way you think about our industry? 

Keep reading to hear from the Top Voices in the Energy Management Network (and stay tuned all week as these Top Voices get published in each of the six networks—we’ll update this article with links to all Top Voices as they go live). 

By the way: Want to be a Top Voice for 2025? Now’s the time to start sparking conversation on Energy Central.

 
Syd Bishop

Company: Virtual Peaker

Title: Sr. Content Specialist

Energy Central Member since 2022

Key Community Contribution: Why Educating Utility Customers is Crucial For Demand Response

The biggest story in 2024: If we want to get the most out of distributed energy resources, we have to make them reliable, especially behind-the-meter DERs. I think a big trend next year will be in the adoption of more demand flexibility programs that use AI to optimize their behind-the-meter DER output to remove uncertainty in energy planning for demand events, which will not only remove uncertainty over DER intermittency from load planning, but, hopefully, also encourage more DER adoptions as they become increasingly useful to utilities. 

What to watch in 2025: Optimistically, I anticipate that the energy sector will continue to focus on the energy transition, irrespective of how the political landscape shifts. DER adoptions are high and represent a valuable resource for utilities, particularly as a means of enhancing grid resiliency while minimizing high peak energy costs from the market. Nothing has changed in that sense, and I anticipate seeing more advancements to come.

Syd’s recommendation: The first book I read related to our industry was “A Thousand Barrels a Second.” Although the data in that book is now dated, it’s still a sobering analysis of previous energy transitions historically, as well as the future of fossil fuels.

 
Fereidoon P. Sioshansi, Ph.D.

Company: Menlo Energy Economics

Title: President

Energy Central Member since 2004

Key Community Contribution: Renewables’ Shock Absorber: Flexible Demand

The biggest story in 2024: The rapidly declining cost of batteries is a game changer for grid operators as well as rooftop solar owners 

What to watch in 2025: I suspect that the IOUs in high cost regions have to rethink their business models in view of the rising attractiveness of distributed generation and self consumption

Fereidoon’s recommendation: Solipsistically speaking I recommend my edited book on ELECTRIFICATION AND THE FUTURE OF DECENTRALIZED ELECTRICITY SUPPLY forthcoming in early 2025

 
Jay Stein

Company: Energy Technology Revolution

Title: Energy Technologist

Energy Central Member since 2006

Key Community Contribution: Wait! Propane is the heat pump refrigerant of the future? – Energy Technology Revolution

The biggest story in 2024: The most significant trend in the electricity sector in 2024 was a series of widely reported dramatic increases in forecasted load growth, due in large part to data center expansion. I wrote about how AI’s advance is a big factor in that expansion in an Energy Central post titled What Clean Energy Supporters Need to Know About AI. My expectation is that, just like the last information technology power-related panic around the turn of the century, data center operators will improve their energy efficiency enough that somehow they, and the utilities that serve them, will muddle through without catastrophe.

What to watch in 2025: One big issue to watch for in 2025 will be the refrigerant transition. Starting on New Year’s Day, the refrigerant that’s currently the standard for residential and light commercial air conditioners and heat pumps will be banned from use in newly manufactured units. In a post titled Refrigerants Will Be a Big Deal in 2025, I wrote about how that refrigerant is being banned because of its excessive contribution to climate change, and that It will be replaced with two new climate-friendlier refrigerants. These new refrigerants are slightly flammable, and this is the first time in the history of the domestic HVAC business that flammable refrigerants are being used in home equipment. That’s sure to raise consumer anxiety, as well as some confusion for the burgeoning building electrification movement which depends on refrigerant-charged heat pumps.

Jay’s recommendation: Lastly, I’d like to draw attention to the work of Ankit Kalanki, an analyst in RMI’s Carbon-Free Buildings Program. He’s done groundbreaking research on The Global Cooling Prize and on refrigerant reclamation. He’s currently investigating how to improve the ability of US air conditioners to dehumidify homes and other buildings. Excessive humidity in buildings can endanger both human health and building shell integrity, and humidity levels are being exacerbated by more energy-efficient building techniques and higher-efficiency air conditioners. I also am doing research in this area and expect to publish a post on this topic soon.