Episode 1.03 On the Future of Transactive Energy with Kay Aikin

Power Flow

As we transition to an all-electric future, we are presented with an unprecedented opportunity to control individual device usage to be more efficient. How do edge devices “decide” whether it’s efficient to operate? Perhaps the answer lies in proper economic incentive. Transactive energy is a concept where the instantaneous price of energy allows the grid to communicate its challenges to users and for users to communicate back to the grid their priorities.

How does it work? This week we are talking to Kay Aikin at Dynamic Grid for a crash course in how transactive energy works and how it could shape the grid of the future.
Quotables

"I think that people are starting to understand that the decisions they make with their finger [on their devices] make a difference." – Kay Aikin

"We have to start thinking beyond the edge of envelopes. Everyone has a different envelope, and as long as you are thinking past the edge of yours, you are contributing to the solution."
- Kay Aikin and Amy Simpkins

This Week’s Guest:

Kay Aikin is the co-founder of Introspective Systems LLC. and Chief Product Officer of Dynamic Grid, a software company based in Portland Maine. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and holds a degree in energy/sustainability engineering. She has spent her career as an energy engineer, architectural designer, and business development executive, currently Chief Product Officer of an AI-based complex systems software company focused on energy controls software.

Over the last few years working with partner, Dr. Caryl Johnson they studied the application of AI/complex systems to the integration of Distributed Energy Resources into the electrical grid as an expansion of her experience in sustainable technologies. She is a recognized Transactive Energy expert and is a regular speaker at conferences on this topic as well as distributed intelligence in the electrical grid. She is on the Board of the Grid Wise Architecture Council (GWAC), she is one of 13 members setting overall direction for the Department of Energy in the areas for grid modernization and smart grids. She is also a member of IEEE Power and Energy Society, Smart Electric Power Alliance, Seismological Society of America. She is an active participant in SEPA’s Transactive Energy Working Group, Microgrids and the Grid Edge group for the Interstate Renewable Energy Council.

Resources

• Connect with Kay Aikin on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Follow DynamicGrid on LinkedIn and Twitter, and check out their website.

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