Last week, Electrify DC spent five days in NYC for New York Climate Week, convening with other folks working to make home electrification easier and more affordable.
I’m Vanessa Bertelli, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Electrify DC. I traveled to New York with Romita Biswas, Electrify DC’s Technical Lead and the architect behind Electrify DC’s Hosting Capacity Study, a guide to accelerate renewable energy adoption through transparent data and improved processes and regulation.
Our mission at Electrify DC is to make homes across the DC region healthier, safer and more affordable by giving power to the people. Climate Week gave Romita and me a chance to share what we are learning in Washington, compare approaches with people tackling similar challenges, and build relationships that can help move practical climate solutions forward.
Making electrification easier
I joined the All Hands on the Switch: Simplifying Electrification in NYC panel hosted by Copper and moderated by Nyla Mabro, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer and Co-Founder at The Clean Fight.
Electrifying a home or apartment can require coordination between residents, building owners, contractors, and the utility. The panel focused on reducing the burden by identifying steps that can be eliminated, areas where organizations can work together more effectively, and ways to make electrification programs easier for residents to navigate.
Electrify DC helps find solutions for many of the same challenges around the District, Maryland, and Virginia. Through our programs and the Electrify DMV Network, we connect residents, contractors, manufacturers, advocates, and local government agencies to identify barriers and make home electrification more accessible and affordable.
Exploring a more flexible electric grid
At the From Our Warehouse to Your Kitchen event, Romita and I visited Electra’s Brooklyn warehouse and saw a demonstration of one of their battery-equipped induction stoves. Andrea Diaz, who previously worked with Electrify DC to provide strategic communications (and now works at Electra!), helped host the gathering. We have been sad to see her go, but grateful that she continues to help climate solutions providers communicate to more communities around the country.
Battery-equipped appliances offer one example of how household technology can support a more flexible electric grid. Home batteries, electric vehicles, rooftop solar, and induction stoves can all help households make better choices for the planet, while giving residents more control over how and when they use energy.
Romita and I continued the conversation about improving our electrical grid at the CUNY Graduate Center, with Innovations for Distributed Energy and Building Decarbonization: EnergyNet Possibilities. The discussion examined how buildings and distributed energy resources can work together at the neighborhood level. Electrify DC is exploring related questions, including how DC can accommodate widespread electrification, while making better use of distributed resources already located in homes and communities.
Connecting housing, affordability and clean energy
At the Electric Innovation Forum, leaders from government, technology, finance, philanthropy and community organizations discussed how to scale electrification while addressing infrastructure, financing and implementation. At Aligning Housing Abundance and Building Decarbonization, we explored how cities can add housing that reduces building emissions and avoids expensive future retrofits.
Both conversations reinforced a central part of Electrify DC’s mission: electrification has to work for the people who actually live in these homes, and the people most affected by decisions about building codes, electrical infrastructure, appliances and energy systems should have a stronger say in their development and implementation.
Strengthening connections to improve DC
Five days in New York reinforced why we do this work in collaboration. Residential electrification works best when renters and homeowners, policymakers, contractors, realtors, utility companies, manufacturers, and community organizations solve problems together.
Residents are an essential part of that work. Choosing an electric appliance, asking a contractor about a heat pump, sharing a resource with a neighbor, and raising your voice around local energy policy conversations can help build momentum towards healthier, safer, and more affordable homes.
Electrify DC went to New York to learn about innovations taking place around the world and to share lessons from the DC region. We’re grateful for the opportunity to build and strengthen relationships between communities; we came home with new connections, new approaches, and newfound energy to improve the electrification process for the District.