P.s. My chatGPT skills are getting better and better, but I couldn’t get it to put home batteries on the side of Santa’s house…LOL.
As the holiday season fills the air with joy and gratitude, I want to take a moment to wish my current and former colleagues, clients, and friends a Merry Christmas. This is a time to reflect, recharge, and express heartfelt thanks to the people who make our personal and professional lives so meaningful.
This year has been a transformative one for me, marking the first chapter of Evolve. Founding the company has allowed me to focus on an area I’m deeply passionate about—the intersection of distributed energy and transportation electrification. It’s been an incredible journey of learning, building, and innovating, and I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to dedicate my time to the mission to:
Evolve the way we Power and Move or World
Battery Technology will transform and power the Future
No matter the political winds, I firmly believe in the transformational power of battery technology. These advancements are already “Evolving how we Power and Move our World,” unlocking a cleaner, more efficient, and cost-effective energy future—from the grid to behind-the-meter solutions to electric vehicles.
- Grid level: Large-scale battery storage revolutionizes utility operations, enhancing renewable integration and reducing reliance on fossil fuel peaker plants.
- Behind the meter: Batteries give homeowners control over energy use, providing outage resilience, cost savings from peak-shaving & grid support, and optimized solar power.
- Electric vehicles: Advances in battery density and cost make EVs more accessible, with better performance and lower ownership costs than traditional cars.
The best technology almost always prevails, and batteries are only getting cheaper. Innovations will solve rare earth dependencies and deliver battery solutions with better & better economics.
The work we do today ensures a smarter, more reliable, and cleaner energy future—so our kids (and grandkids) can breathe cleaner air tomorrow.
Gratitude for Partnership and Mentorship
I’m deeply grateful to Deirdre Oakes for joining me on this journey. It’s been a true pleasure to collaborate again, blending our expertise and creativity to craft solutions that benefit both utilities and end customers.
A huge thanks to my wife for supporting and believing in me—and not just saying, “Go get a job.” You gave me the room and the time to work on Evolve. Early in our marriage, you instilled the fiscal discipline that let us pay down debt and invest wisely, making this journey possible. You’re also, without a doubt, the hottest CFO I’ve ever worked with. Please don’t report me to HR. Love you tons, honey!
I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the former colleagues who took the time to coach, advise, and innovate with me this year. A special thanks to Jeff Provine, David Price, Simon Boyer, Michelle Fay, and David Gabbard. When you take a bold step like launching Evolve, you quickly discover the people you know that are willing to “say they know you” and openly advocate for your success. Your support has meant the world to me.
Year One Accomplishments
While I’d love to say we knocked it out of the park financially, these things take time. Looking back, though, we achieved a lot. Here are the highlights:
- Setting Up the Business: I learned how to form an LLC, build (and rebuild) a website, set up email and SharePoint, learning PowerApps, and register a trademark. In October, we officially trademarked “Evolve” (Classes 35 & 42), allowing us to drop “Technologies.ai” from the branding—much easier to say!
- Conferences: We attended over 10 industry events and countless webinars, immersing ourselves in market trends, utility pain points, and vendor landscapes. This effort also helped us build relationships and explore partnerships.
- Solution Concepts explored:
- Hosted EV Car-Sharing (residents only): A promising idea for multifamily apartments, but too asset-intensive and requiring subsidies at this stage of the EV adoption curve. I still think this concept has merit, and more solutions are needed for multifamily. Something we cold come back to if the opportunity presents itself.
- Vehicle-to-Building (V2B): We conducted an in-depth analysis of the economics and user behavior by creating a “day-in-the-life” financial and kWh charge/discharge model for an electric vehicle. The insights were fascinating! We concluded that near-term adoption of V2X is more likely to occur behind the meter at home. These findings shifted our focus to behind-the-meter Distributed Energy Assets and Virtual Power Plants. We’d be happy to share more about our insights!
- Home Energy Management: I’m excited to share that we now have a working model to calculate kWh and utility bill offsets for solar and battery systems using 15-minute billing intervals using a year’s worth of customer data!! Key insight: Under NEM3 (California), kWh offset holds little value—bill offset is what matters, with variance between these numbers increasing from 0–5% to over 30% in some cases. Even with a sizable battery array, significant “solar leakage” still goes back to the grid. This model has really commercial potential to help solar providers to find the “goldilocks” bundle that maximizes bill offset at the lowest cost. Interested? Let’s connect!
- Consulting as Stage 1: Recognizing that a software “home run” wouldn’t happen in Year 1, we leaned into consulting to sustain the business and leverage our domain expertise.
- The Distributed Energy Diamond (DED): A framework integrating transportation electrification, site energy management, grid-supportive energy services, and DER flexibility markets. It frames our focus areas and highlights where the market is heading. Plus, we opted for a diamond shape—not the usual consulting wheel—warming this baseball fan’s heart!
- Business Development & Networking: We spent much of the year strengthening relationships with utility and energy service provider accounts, while also stepping up networking efforts to reconnect with long-time contacts and explore new partnership opportunities.
It’s been a year of pivots, learning, and laying a strong foundation for the future. Onward!
Looking Ahead
Starting a business is never easy, but the challenges of this first year have been matched by the excitement of discovery and the joy of meaningful work. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and even more excited about the journey ahead.
As the year comes to a close, I’m filled with optimism. Advances in battery technology and their potential to reshape energy and transportation systems inspire hope for a sustainable and innovative future.
In this ACT of my career, my focus is to do “good, hard work” at the intersection of distributed energy and transportation electrification. To prospective clients and partners: if we can support your efforts in this space, I’d be honored to earn your trust.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you for being part of this journey—whether as a collaborator, mentor, or friend. Here’s to a bright and promising future for us all.
Ted Pelecky
