Arthur Jen and Carlos Gamarra PowerGen

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Power Gen, energy solutions, distributed generation, energy storage, technical assistance, renewable energy, DOE funding, regional differences, energy efficiency, sustainability, geothermal potential, energy demand, regulatory environment, clean energy, energy portfolio.

00:00

Welcome to the Industrial Talk podcast with Scott. MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots and let's go.

00:21

All right, once again. Thank you very much for joining Industrial Talk, and as always, thank you for your continued support of this platform that celebrates industry professionals. You are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly, you innovate, you collaborate, you solve problems each and every day. That's why we celebrate you on the number one industry related podcast in the universe. All right, we're broadcasting on site. We are on site. Power Gen, Dallas, Texas, is the location, and it is a man I walk up and down the floor, and there's mad technology, mad solutions. And if you don't think the power industries, oh man, it's, it's exciting. You need to be a part of the power industry. If you're not, if you're, if you're on the fence saying, Well, what do I do? You need to be in the power industry. All right, we have two in the hot seat, Carlos and Arthur and and it just seems like two different companies, I don't know, but they're going to clarify it. So let's get cracking. Yeah, I see your business cards. One says, Hawk, hark, hark, and the other one says,

01:31

the other ones opt to me, but I'm the western region. Cap Courtney, opt

01:35

to me. Yeah. We can talk about the Yeah, because I can't keep up. Is there a test after this?

01:41

We can talk about you. The test

01:43

you guys having a good conference?

01:46

Yes, been very busy.

01:48

Yeah, yeah. They're neighbors. They're their neighbors. I keep looking over and of course, they're just constantly busy because they have something that is in demand at this conference in a big way before we get into that conversation. Okay, we're gonna start with you. Carlos, give us a background on who you are, and then Arthur, your connection. We'll go from there. Yeah,

02:09

02:42

Say that again, it's this. H A Research Center Houston,

02:47

advanced research got it. Vice President of energy for heart.

02:55

There you go. Sucks to be you, Arthur. Get to follow Carlos South back. Dazzle me back. Yeah.

03:01

So I'm Arthur Jen. I am the program coordinator for the Western Region tap, and I am a industrial and systems engineer by trade mechanical engineering as well. But now I do a lot of work in sustainability. I've got about 10 years in the industry. Started off with buildings, energy efficiency and controls, and then got into onset energy. And I really love it. I kind of fell into it on accident. And just like you were saying earlier, man, it's, it's so fun to be around because everything is new. You're kind of riding the wave. And, you know, you're kind of riding earlier. A lot of people say they're hippies, but now, you know, second wave, it's a lot of cool, lot of cool technology out there.

03:42

It's exciting. I mean, I've had a number of conversations and and my background, I was a lineman for Southern California Edison, so I climbed the tower. So my knowledge of the power industry, the distribution, all of that, is pretty linear. And now you we, we broach subjects like distributive energy, the power demands as a result of, you know, data centers just massive, massive, you know, disruptions taking place. With that said, I'm going to start with you, Carlos, what are you? I mean, what are we doing here? What Why are you here at this particular event?

04:28

Well, Arthur and I are here because we lead the DOE funded program called on site, energy technical assistance partnership in different states of the of the United States, different regions. It's a program that provides that promotes the deployment of distributed generation technologies, onset generation and energy storage technologies. And we provide different services, like no cost technical assistance. We also do educational webinars on different. Applications for on site energy technologies, and we also write case studies of successful deployments that might encourage end users to adopt these technologies.

05:13

You agree with that? Arthur, yeah, yeah, he said. Said it pretty well for me, I've been in, you know, I've seen facial I've worked in facilities as well. And so a lot of times we're getting directed for management that says, you know, we want to be 100% renewable energy by certain timeline. And you know, facilities engineers are so busy that, you know, they don't know where to start. They're getting approached by sales people. And so that's why I think this type of program is so valuable. It's coming from a neutral place. We're not vendor agnostic. We're technology agnostic too. So really, what we're trying to do is just take a look at all the technologies in our scope, take a look at the geographical advantages for different sites, and take a look at their operations and their energy consumption, and then see what works for them, and then get them started in that in the right direction. So really gets the ball rolling without any concerns about like, are they trying to sell me a rosy picture of whether this technology works?

06:07

So for for your program, this is to you, Arthur, so for your program, if I, if I'm a manufacturer, let's just know I'll if I need power, let's just put it that way, and we're at a power conference, my initial approach would be just, hey, Arthur, I've got this need, or I think I have this need, or maybe I heard about it. I was on the web, and I I have, is that an appropriate way of being able to approach it. Exactly

06:42

what you're saying is like what we'll hear all the time. They don't even know where to start. They don't even know where to start. And that's exactly what we can do, is we can get them started because, you know, we were working with so many different types of industries that, you know, really all we need is a little bit of data collection. It's all anonymous, and so we're working to see what's going to work for them, and they're going to tell us, you know, maybe their organizations have certain types of objectives. Is it going to be bottom line focused? So are we going to be focusing on lowering that payback period, or are we looking at carbon emissions reductions? And so we can tailor the design to kind of focus on making sure that those objectives are being met.

07:22

Carlos, is this going to cost me money?

07:24

No, not at all. Not even this interview, how? Yeah, yeah, the doe. The DOE is funding eight different organizations throughout the country to provide these services for free, at no cost for the end user, and is at no cost because the DOE is funding it. So

07:42

why is it important? Carlos, why is this I mean, granted, I'm here at this particular event. You're here at this event. There's a lot of people talking about a lot of things. For me, if I was in, if I was in the power business, there's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of things happening. Why is this important?

08:02

It is very important because, for the most part, every company is an expert on their main process. We're talking about manufacturing companies, yeah, even if you talk about data centers, in the end, they are in in charge of their own processes, but they need the power that need the thermal energy to operate. They are not necessarily experts on that field, and as Arthur mentioned, when they go out there and ask for quotes proposals, if you think about it, every proposal is kind of biased by the experience of the engineer or the person who prepares the proposal. They want to sell you this product, or they want to sell you these services the way they want to provide the services. So a third part, third party, independent entity like us can help advise the end user on what's the best option for them.

08:54

So I'm, I'm doe, and I have, I have the I have money, and then I it's up to, how did, how did this is going for you? You Carlos Hark, how did you become one of those vendors that this is third party? Yeah,

09:11

09:41

and I'll go to you, Arthur, because you also had the same thing. Are you in a different you're not competing against harc? Are you? No,

09:52

no. So we're in different regions. And that's

09:55

10:03

I'm in the western region. And I think it's really important that they split it up into different regions, because the technologies that are going to work in California or Nevada or Hawaii are going to be very different from Texas or Massachusetts. And so, you know, we become those region experts in understanding the fair market value for different types of things, electricity prices, policies and permanent, permanent processes. So it's important for us to split it into those different regions. So I'm not, definitely not competing with Carlos, and we will always pass people along to each other. That's good.

10:36

What are you seeing from from a trend point of view, somebody, I mean, if, if I'm in the western because I was with Southern California, there was a lot of renewables, there's a lot of conversations around all of that stuff. But what, what are we seeing for

10:51

me, man, since I started, feel like I've always heard we started

10:55

our 10

10:59

so definitely not, you know, not as experienced as you know, some of my counterparts here, but since I've started, I've always been hearing the term we need more power. And, you know, it's because everyone's trying to grow their business, everyone's trying to grow operations. And so you got to have power to, you know, supply to that and and so that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to really provide reliable power, and it's going to be dependent on that geography that's available to them.

11:27

Are you? Are you Carlos? Are you looking at sort of the regulatory environment as well, when you start to look at some of these solutions, say, Guy and and those regulatory constraints are different in the West versus maybe, I'm assuming you're a South Central Yes, so just different, and

11:52

we, part of the program is to monitor policies and regulations that come out of Those policies. We also try to help end users understand and sometimes navigate the collaboration with the local utility, or help them explore the process for them to interconnect with the local utility. And as Arthur mentioned, every region is slightly different when it comes to the resources that are available, the energy sources that might be available when we talk about sustainable clean energy, other regions have more oil and gas assets, so this is really a state by state conversation, but even sometimes county by county, because some companies, for Some reason, have access to biomass, and others don't some companies, those are the dynamics we try to cover with this multi region approach that I think is being very effective

12:51

in the South Central Region. Does that sort of align with more traditional type of generation, or what? How do you from a portfolio perspective, I know there's wind assets in those areas. And anyway, yeah,

13:09

there is Texas. In Texas, there is a little bit of everything. It's ERCOT, yeah, well, wind power, Louisiana, wind power, solar combined cycle. I mean, yeah, there is. We see a lot of technologies being successful in Texas. Other states are more platform is more about wind power. I mean, they have a big potential on wind power. Louisiana, there is a lot of chemical industry in the region, so they, for the most part, the oil and gas companies are providing a lot of energy there. So it's really goes in New Mexico, there are different dynamics. They look more into clean energy. Every state is slightly different. They are similar, but different in a way. Yeah,

13:56

no, you're right about that. Arthur out in the west, there is, there's this demand for power is increasing. It just is. We all understand it. That's what everybody's buzzing about. Or got it. Do you think that we're able to use sort of the Clean Energy Solutions to satisfy the demands, or is it going to be more of a real portfolio of different types? I mean, you get the question, right? Can it satisfy? Can renewables be able to satisfy that demand?

14:39

I think it's going to be, again, I'm going to point to that regional. Kind of regional focus is that it's, it's going to be very different. And I'm going to say, for the western region, we got a lot of solar we got a lot of geothermal potential as well solar thermal. There's a lot of potential for a lot of different types of things. Yeah. And I would say, you know. Yeah, it's really going to come down to, like, a balance of everything. I would say, I think it can definitely work. It's important to try, yeah, and yeah. I think it's, it's a good time to try.

15:12

Have you been to a geothermal plant? Yeah, yeah, Imperial Valley. Did you go to Imperial Valley area? I

15:17

worked in Fremont originally, and we had the second largest geothermal system in the Bay Area, after Google. So Got it, got to work a lot on that, that

15:26

that was, was that technology more? That was in Flash? Is it hot enough to flash? So

15:34

that was in Warm Springs, Fremont. So it's just enough to kind of satisfy room temperature needs. Yeah, see,

15:41

I, long ago, own a galaxy far, far away. I used to negotiate those contracts in Southern California, Edison, and we'd go down to Imperial Valley, which, this is not a slam on Imperial Valley, but it gets hot in Imperial Valley, but their geothermal sources are just blistering the flash technology. I don't even know where they stand anymore.

16:07

Yeah, there's, there's a lot in Nevada as well. There's a lot of potential there. And there's, there's different kinds of advancements, like right now, there's a lot of different advancements in boring technologies that are trying to make it a lot cheaper and more accessible. So boring is not very boring, but so

16:27

look at this, a powerful conference. So Carlos, with all that said, where do you see? A lot of this new technology, what's what excites you and saying, Hey, this is sort of, you know, some people are really there's some people that are having unique technology, what, what's out there that sort of excites you.

16:56

What really excites me is challenges. Are the challenges we're facing always, is I see. I've been in other conferences where, for example, geothermal was, was big, the conversational geothermal, the diversity on the power sources we have, the technologies that have the ability to generate power, the ways we have to store power, thermal energy too. I mean, we've never, we never had these many options. And acknowledging that is true, acknowledging that there is no option that's going to really win. Finding the right mix in each location, I think, is what excites me. I mean, each client might have different resilience needs, environmental emissions reduction goals, cost savings goals, and helping find the perfect the perfect mix for each client is, I think what that's where the challenge is, because you think about it, I think all the technologies we have right now are going to stay for many years. Yeah, we need, as Arthur said, there is an increasing demand for power, so it's for us to identify which are the best options in each location that exists.

18:14

What about you, Arthur? What sort of gets you all excited? I think

18:19

for me, it's the fact that you're squeezing as much energy out of every single technology that you are. It's kind of like not being reliant on one specific source of generation anymore. You're kind of trying to find that balance, so that way, if one source fails, you're able to rely on other ones. And that's to me, it kind of reminds me of like Native Americans, where you're using every part of the animal. And that's what I like about energy, is, like you're really trying to, if there's, if you got some gas processes, you know, then you can, you can tap off of and get some waste heat to power. You can get some CHP out of it. Or, if you're in sunny California, you get that solar, solar power. But you can also get solar thermal, which can also do some cooling as well. And so there's a lot of different ways that you can utilize the power, which seems like it's coming from the same source, but use it in different ways. So that's a lot of fun for me, because you're again, we're kind of at this very beginning where it feels like you're kind of, it feels like you're making it up as you go along. And it feels so fun to do that

19:17

it's you're absolutely right. Because I when you start talking about taking all of these sources and this portfolio power to be able to deliver to the end user, whatever that might be, that clean, consistent, you know, power, 60 cycles, whatever, and make it do it again. I'm glad they're smart people that are actually looking into how to do that, because it's just, from my perspective, it's, it's, it's amazing. Well, you guys are just absolutely spectacular. How does somebody get a hold of you? What's the best way? Because you guys are broken up into regions. You. Hi, we've got Arthur for Western and we got Carlos for South Central. What's the best way you can

20:09

go to the do is website, Google on site, energy, technical assistance, partnerships, you will get to the program website. And there is a map with all the directors, with the names, phone numbers and email addresses for all directors for every region, that's it's very easy. You Yes, you guys, send us an email, give us a call, and we'll be happy to help you out on LinkedIn. Yes, we have each tab has their own LinkedIn group.

20:41

Yeah, you Arthur, yeah, you can type in my name, Arthur, Jen, that's a r, t, h, u, r, j, e n, I think there's a couple Arthur's out there, but, uh, I'm sure you can find me without glasses up to the

20:53

park. Yeah, you guys are great. All right, man. Thank you very much. Thank you for being patient. They're neighbors of mine. Thank you for having right across the street. All right, we're gonna have all the contact information for these two gents out on Industrial Talk. You need, you need energy Sherpas. I'm gonna, yeah, you guys can run with energy Sherpas. It's all yours. Take it. Energy Sherpas. All right, make sure that you connect with broadcasting from power Gen, Dallas, Texas is the location, and it, it's, it's a collection of these individuals like Carlos and Arthur that know what they're doing. You need to, you need to check it out. All right. We're gonna have come back later and wrap it up. So stay tuned. We will be right back.

21:35

You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network. You Hey,

21:44

Carlos and Arthur. Hey, you know, if there's one thing that you gain from this conversation at power Gen with these two gents is that the market of power generation is on fire, not metaphorically, it's an exciting time. You're looking for a career. You're looking for opportunities. Don't look any further. Anything dealing with power, utilities, transmission, it's an exciting time, and it's only going to get even in greater demand. All right, couple of business options here. We have a book coming out. It is everything that I've had, sort of, I distilled all of these solutions down into a book. Be on the lookout for that. And then, as well as an event called Med device, September 30 through October 1 you're in the world of medical. That's where you need to be. All right, be bold. Be brave. Dare greatly hang out with these two jets. You're gonna change the world. We're gonna have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned. You.