Opinion Dynamics

Welcome to the team, Rose Williamson!   Rose recently received her master's degree in climate change, development, and policy from the University of Sussex, where she completed a dissertation assessing California’s renewable electricity plan using open-source energy modeling. Prior to her time in the UK, Rose completed her bachelor's degree in economics and international relations at Loyola Marymount University, where she was valedictorian and also worked to facilitate trainings, outreach, grant writing, and feedback-oriented research in support of sustainable practices on college campuses. Rose's strong communication skills and ability to fluently articulate nuanced analytical considerations and findings make her an excellent asset to our team, along with her clear and genuine interest in energy policy and quantitative research-based solutions to sustainability challenges. We are very excited for her to join our team!

Whether heading to GridFWD 2024 or not, we’ve got you covered! Join PG&E and Jordan Folks to learn about Report It app functionality and customer experience research results at next Wednesday's session: Collaborating with customers to identify wildfire risks. PG&E’s Report It app empowers customers to swiftly notify PG&E about potential wildfire hazards, enabling prompt response and resolution. Furthermore, the app facilitates real-time communication between customers and PG&E, fostering transparency and accountability in the resolution process. Not able to attend? You can check out Jordan’s companion video on YouTube! https://lnkd.in/en9BHhbf

Are you heading to GridFWD 2024 next week in the breathtaking town of Banff? If you can tear away from the views, network with us! Grid Forward invites market makers, participants, and solution providers to a unique event tailored specifically to explore innovations in market models for states, regulators, TSOs, and DSOs to build and operate the modern grid. Catch Jordan Folks there! https://lnkd.in/gYDFkn8Q

Join Erin Kempster at Smart Electric Power Alliance and Solar Energy Industries Association's RE+ 24 in Anaheim! RE+ 24 brings the modern energy industry together to foster a cleaner future and marks its 20th year as the largest and most comprehensive event in North America for the clean energy industry. Join Erin next Tuesday for the session: WISE Up: Insights from the California Solar and Electrification Customer Experience. California's climate aspirations rely on millions of customer choices about solar and electrification. Opinion Dynamics’ evaluations conducted with TECH Clean California heat pump customers yielded important insights about the role of solar in-home electrification. These findings can focus sales prioritization, marketing efforts, and manufacturer investment. This session will highlight three insights around solar and heat pumps, the "so what" for our grid, and anyone hoping to influence customer decision-making. Find details online at: https://lnkd.in/dfQipZms #anaheimconventioncenter #electrification #evaluation #presentation

Our work on behalf of the California Public Utilities Commission for the transformative TECH Clean California initiative has recently received wonderful online media coverage, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Our Executive-in-Charge of this work, Ellen Steiner, Ph.D., commented, “The findings shared by these news outlets point to the benefits of a WISE™ model of evaluation where we are able to feed insights back into the program and into policy conversations while the program is still running. With the speed at which California aims to transform the home heating and cooling marketplace, this form of iterative feedback is crucial for understanding progress and supporting sound decision-making.” Make sure to follow us to keep up to date on upcoming findings! (New report coming soon!) Check out the press release and article at the following links:  https://lnkd.in/gGnQQajT https://lnkd.in/grKEjXU7 Learn more about our WISE™ model online at https://lnkd.in/gpsg953z #pressrelease #opinion #surveyresearch #heatpump 

Check out our latest podcast over on our SoundCloud channel! Jen Loomis, PhD and Sarah Naiman, Ph.D. discuss their recent work providing recommendations on how to evaluate the outcomes of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Collegiate Competition Programs. In this podcast, they discuss how equity is integrated into competition program designs, opportunities to collect data during program implementation, and what to do with the information once it’s been collected. Stream at https://lnkd.in/ebWA6zqw Transcript available at: https://lnkd.in/em9YkTF7 #podcast #equity #DEI #SolarDecathlon #RaceToZero #CollegiateCompetition #DataCollection

Introducing our newest Principal Consultant, Lauren Bates! Lauren brings nearly two decades of experience in research and evaluation, with specializations in formative evaluation, market transformation, and heat pump research. She spent part of her career in the education evaluation sector, designing and conducting applied research and program evaluation studies for clients, before transitioning into the energy sector. Over the course of her career, Lauren has gained invaluable experience serving as a technical advisor for policymakers, presenting evaluation results at conferences or to stakeholders, and mentoring and training new staff members. We’re especially excited to involve Lauren in our electrification and decarbonization work!

Welcome to the team, Kathleen Ward! Kathleen joins Opinion Dynamics as a Lead Data Scientist. With expertise in econometric modeling, flexible load impact evaluation, experimental and quasi-experimental design, and data analytics, Kathleen brings a range of experience and technical skills that will bolster our data analytics capabilities. She has ten years of experience in the utility demand-side management industry, leading impact evaluations of demand response, EV/EVSE managed charging, and behavioral energy efficiency programs. She is also experienced in developing and implementing company data strategy, building dashboards and data visualizations, and collaborating with engineers and product designers to bring products to market. Kathleen is a proven thought leader in data science and DSM program evaluation, and we are thrilled to have her on our team.

Welcome to the team, Julia Linder! Julia recently earned her Master of Science in environment and natural resource studies from the Ohio State University. With a focus in environmental social science, her graduate research examined the structural and social barriers to climate adaptation, specifically in the realm of agriculture. She is well-versed in mixed methods research and data analysis, and she will apply her skillset to administer participant surveys and provide data analysis support on various projects. We are so excited to have her join our team!

Also, next Wednesday at PLMA's EV Symposium, you can catch Kessie (Ksenia) Avseikova, Co-Chair, as she moderates Break Out 4: ConEd Case Study—Energizing Medium Duty/Heavy Duty Fleet Depots with Existing Infrastructure. Distribution system constraints mean that delivering energy for large, location-specific, new medium- & heavy-duty fleets is a big challenge for utilities. Join this session for key project learnings resulting from an electric school bus depot in the Bronx in which ConEd has leveraged load management technologies to speed up EV adoption. Plus, highlights from the grid edge innovation technologies that support this depot and how these can benefit utilities and fleet owners/operators in the future. Learn more at: https://lnkd.in/ermukJqX #HeavyDutyEV #MediumDutyEV #ElectricBus #FleetOperators #EVEvent