Speakers

Ben Pickard manages strategy and M&A for CPower, the US Virtual Power Plant (VPP) market leader with 6.3 GW of flexible capacity under management. CPower offers energy users and distributed energy resource (DER) aggregators a single access point to engage and monetize their DERs in markets and programs across the US—creating scaled, diversified VPPs that strengthen the grid when and where it's needed most. Prior, Ben was a Director at National Grid, where he developed and executed partnerships and $200M+ in new investments in DERs, renewables, and venture-backed technology. His market and policy analysis on DERs and electric utilities has appeared in Greentech Media and the New York Times. Ben holds an AB magna cum laude in Social Studies from Harvard and lives in New York City.