Coordinating the Decentralized Grid: Michael Grasso on GridRails and the Future of DER Orchestration

Michael Grasso spent his career building some of the largest residential virtual power plants in the country — from Vistra Corp Solar to Sunrun to Sunnova — before founding GridRails, a software platform built for load-serving entities to bring distributed energy resources online, visualize them, control them, and settle the economics, all through a single system.

James and Michael dig into why only about 20% of the demand-response market has been captured despite roughly 11 million Americans already enrolled, and why Michael sees this as a two-sided problem: utilities lacking the tools to build flexible programs, and consumers uninterested in the rigid offerings they've been given. They talk through how real-time price and demand signals — rather than fixed, regulator-bound programs — could unlock far more participation.

The conversation turns to one of the fastest-moving trends in the industry: the rise of "edge" data centers sited on distribution networks rather than transmission, and what it means to orchestrate flexibility for facilities whose inference-driven load rises and falls throughout the day. They also cover the regulatory tailwinds coming out of FERC Order 2222, why 34 states now have some form of structured VPP program, and why Michael argues that simplifying those programs — not adding more structure — is the real path to scale.

A candid, wide-ranging conversation about coordination, complexity, and what it will actually take to keep the grid working as electrification accelerates.

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