Interview with Savannah Goodman: YPE NYC Events Director
Young Professionals in Energy NYC (YPE NYC) facilitates the advancement of young professionals in the energy industry through social, educational, and civic service-oriented events. We have sixteen active board members, eight of which help plan events throughout the year.
Savannah Goodman is an events director at YPE NYC. She has an extensive background in energy, having worked with companies such as NRG, Tesla, and now, Blueprint Power. We were excited to have Natalia Sharova, one of our YPE NYC marketing & communications directors, interview Savannah about her current experience working for an innovative startup, her clean energy background, and her involvement with YPE NYC.
Tell us about your job and how it’s connected to the energy industry.
Sure! I am currently the director of modeling and simulation at a startup called Blueprint Power. Blueprint Power is an early-stage startup that turns buildings into power plants. To clarify, we are building a software platform that enables automated market participation for distributed energy assets at buildings. Some people might be more familiar with the term “virtual power plants.” I'm leading the team that's designing, architecting, and implementing all of the models (optimization or machine learning) that enable automated market participation. We're focused on the New York City market, so we’re looking at utilities and ISOs. We optimize their energy assets, like energy storage or cogeneration plants, and optimize their dispatch into various electricity or fuel source markets.
How did you get started in this particular role and in the energy space?
I started this role at Blueprint almost two years ago. I had met the three co-founders of the company at a previous internship in San Francisco and had later heard that they started a company. I read about their mission and said, “wow that's exactly what I want to do!” I contacted the three co-founders and then took the jump and moved from California to New York.
As for the energy space, I've been interested in it for a long time. I always like to share that when I was a freshman in high school, one of my best friend's moms worked as an environmental science professor at Loyola University, and she helped our high school set up a biodiesel lab. We would take the waste vegetable oil from our school’s cafeteria and football game food stands and turn it into biodiesel in our lab. This biodiesel was then used to run the school’s generators. It was cool to be exposed to this full-circle sustainable energy biofuel endeavor at such a young age. I was immediately fascinated and amazed by the energy space and what you can do within it. I didn't really stay in biofuels, but from there, I learned as much as I could about energy, renewables, and the power sector. That was also the case in college and grad school.
What would you say is your favorite thing about your job right now?
There are two main things that I really love about my job and Blueprint. The first is that although a lot of the energy industry tends to be fragmented and siloed, Blueprint tries to take a holistic approach when looking at different energy assets and energy markets to optimize for minimal carbon.
I also love the interplay of technical work and regulatory work. My team is very technical. We’re coding 80% of the time, and then building these optimization models that take a deep understanding of how the market works. We have to know what the market structure is, what the rules are, how you get paid, and what the values are. I enjoy getting into the weeds and translating these market rules into code. I value being able to go deep into the subject matter and then taking a step back and building out a modeling platform that enables us to generate revenue and reduce carbon use for our customers.
Who are your customers?
Typically, our customers are real estate companies of many different sizes. We’ll have some family businesses, large real estate owners, malls, multi-family buildings, communities of residential homes, etc. We also work closely with the utilities and regulators to provide our input and feedback about where the markets can be improved (e.g. access, value). While our customers are in the real estate industry, we have a lot of stakeholder engagement across the energy industry.
What trends are you seeing in your market and which are you excited about?
Blueprint is operating behind-the-meter assets, so movement toward a decentralized grid is a significant trend. Behind-the-meter solar, storage, and cogeneration fuel cells are particularly interesting and are definitely increasing in number because the value stack is the highest there. If you have front of the meter assets, you're not able to take advantage of some of the electric bill savings or the resiliency value stack.
One trend that's specific to energy markets is that slowly, but surely, these markets are becoming more open, accessible, and appropriately valued. A lot of these markets typically have large-scale generators with teams of operators working around-the-clock. Because of the transition to distributed energy, the value proposition, and decarbonization laws, the ISOs and utilities are forced to rethink their market structures and market products.
It can be a battle, but there's a trend of making those markets accessible for distributed energy assets. For example, instead of having a fixed price in these markets, we’re moving towards real-time pricing, which is necessary for an efficient market. That’s a trend that I'm really excited about. It comes with its challenges. The utilities and ISOs have had a way of operating for a long time, and many times those parties aren't talking to each other. Sometimes even within the same organization, the right hand isn’t talking to the left, so there are definitely challenges along the way. That's what Blueprint is trying to address - giving stakeholder feedback to reduce those barriers.
How has the pandemic and economic slowdown affected your industry?
The pandemic has really affected my industry from the financing and employment perspective. Some construction has stopped, which impacts the amount of solar and storage that can be deployed.
Our customers are real estate portfolio owners. There are many questions about how this pandemic is going to affect them. Office buildings, for example - everyone's working remotely. Companies aren’t paying their rent, or they’re ending their leases. That’s a challenge for the real estate sector. One thing Blueprint can do is increase the value of that real estate by helping it generate revenue through existing on-site assets. For example, if the real estate has combined heat and power, we can optimize it. Our customers are affected by the pandemic, but in some ways, it opens an opportunity for our software to diversify their revenue sources, so they don't solely depend on rent.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you’re staying sane these days? Are there any fun facts about yourself you’d like to share with us?
I feel lucky to have escaped to my parents’ house in Indiana, which means I have a little bit more space than I would in my 400 square-foot apartment in Brooklyn. I’ve been doing yoga, running, mountain biking, listening to audiobooks, crocheting, and of course, binge-watching Tiger King.
Fun fact: when I was at Stanford doing my master's degree, J.B. Straubel, who used to be the CTO of Tesla and is one of the co-founders, taught a class about energy storage. Even though I hadn’t taken the class, I had done an internship at an energy company called NRG where I learned a lot about energy storage. I was lucky enough to be a TA for him. It was a whirlwind experience. I got to drive his Model S, which was terrifying, but awesome! The fact that he was the CTO of Tesla and was able to dedicate time to teach this class was amazing.
Tell us how you got involved with YPE NYC and what events you’ve put together over the past year.
I had attended many YPE San Francisco events. When I moved to New York, I only knew the folks that I worked with, and I was the fifth employee, so not a ton of people. I wanted to get out there and build an energy network in NYC. YPE NYC seemed like a really great group, so I got connected, and then I spoke on a YPE panel about coding in the renewable sector. I enjoyed the event a lot and reached out to the YPE NYC president, Leo Trudel. A few conversations later, I ended up on the board as an events director.
YPE has been a great way to meet energy people. Even in my short time on the board, the group has grown tremendously. The turn-out at events is amazing. That’s what keeps me excited about YPE - the enthusiasm and the momentum.
I’ve put together two events. One has happened, and the other has been delayed due to the pandemic. The first was a thought leadership panel on impact investing and venture capital in the energy sector. We had an amazing panel, and they covered the gamut on energy topics. One of my favorite topics from that event was how things have changed from cleantech to climate tech, and what those latest trends are. Cleantech has had a lot of negative press on investment returns. It was great to learn how investors have changed their strategies and revived those sectors.
We’re hoping to host a virtual event soon on EV charging infrastructure. We’ll be getting different perspectives from the utilities, consultants, NYSERDA, and other interesting stakeholders.
