The U.S. needs 400 GW of new capacity over the next two decades. Michael Grasso, CEO and founder of Grid Rails, tells Tim Montague that roughly twice that much flexible capacity is already plugged in, and explains why only 20% of eligible devices are enrolled in virtual power plant programs today.

Data centers, EVs, heat pumps, and new construction are pushing U.S. electricity demand up by roughly 50%, about 400 gigawatts over the next two decades. The reflex answer is to build more generation. Michael Grasso thinks we are solving the wrong problem.

Grasso is the CEO and founder of Grid Rails, and he spent 17 years getting to that conclusion. He helped deploy the first residential storage batteries at Sunrun, first on LG Chem hardware and then on Tesla, and he ran the largest residential storage virtual power plant in the country at Sunnova, supporting Luma's grid in Puerto Rico. His argument: the flexible capacity sitting inside the devices causing the load growth is close to double the load growth itself. What is missing is the orchestration and settlement layer that turns those EVs, batteries, thermostats, and water heaters into dispatchable grid capacity, and pays the consumer for it in real time instead of months later as a buried bill credit.

Thirty-four states now have some form of demand response or VPP program on the books, and by Grasso's numbers, only about 20% of eligible devices are actually enrolled. Tim pushes hard on why, and on whether any of this pencils for a homeowner who does not want one more app sending notifications.

What you will learn:

• Why 80% of eligible devices are still on the sidelines, and why Grasso calls that a program design problem rather than a hardware problem
• How real-time settlement changes consumer behavior, and what it unlocks for utilities beyond incentives: collateral, cost of capital, bad debt, and new products like prepaid or unlimited EV charging
• Why Grid Rails is built for the moment a customer opts out, not for constant notifications, and how opt-out recovery keeps programs from quietly bleeding participants
• The ERCOT math driving utility urgency: roughly $50 per MWh bought forward against spot exposure that can run to $5,000
• What Grasso says a simple VPP application is worth to a household, around $500 a year in most markets and into the thousands in some, and why he thinks a more dynamic market leaves a lot more on the table
• Why per-device budgets matter, from capping EV charging at $15 a week to holding air conditioning to 20% of the bill

Grasso points to headlines warning that the largest utility in the country is signaling blackout risk as soon as 2027, and treats that as the pressure finally moving utilities toward orchestration. Tim comes at it as a customer, not an analyst: he does not have a battery yet, his own rate just jumped 25%, and he wants a number before he buys. That exchange is the heart of the episode.

Connect with Michael Grasso, Grid Rails
Michael Grasso | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpgrasso/
Grid Rails: https://gridrails.ai/
Email: hello@gridrails.ai

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