Thoughts From the 2022 Champion of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Energy Storage
By Peak Power
It’s been almost a full year since Peak Power was selected for the first annual Champion of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Energy Storage Award at last year’s Energy Storage Canada (ESC) Conference. Per ESC’s website, the award aims to recognize corporations that consistently advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion within their organization or the industry broadly.
In the case of Peak Power, we’ve built diversity into our hiring and internal processes, putting policy into practice.
When hiring, tools such as Gender Decoder are leveraged to detect and correct potentially gendered language in the job description and its corresponding responsibilities. We’ve learned that gendered language has the ability to discourage certain groups, particularly women, from applying to an open job posting. We also targeted recruitment from a range of diverse talent pools: searching job boards, engaging with networking groups, and attending hiring events that focus on marginalized groups.
Additionally, all candidates are asked in their pre-screening process what DEI means to them to ensure the individuals joining our teams share our outlook on the importance of DEI, bringing diverse perspectives and fostering an inclusive environment.
Peak Power’s investment in DEI is present at every step of our team members’ career journeys.
We’ve partnered with consultants like Nomandin Beaudry to create a compensation and career framework to balance our company’s external competitiveness with internal equity.
Another key tool is our JEDI – Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity – Committee, which sets annual goals for the organization and facilitates fun and educational programming for team members to ensure everyone is continuing to develop their skills and knowledge of DEI.
One new initiative this year is our monthly Pod-lunch sessions. We listen to a half-hour podcast together during lunch, either in person or remote. Each podcast focuses on a DEI subject, often with a tie-in to sustainability. This is followed by breakout groups where team members can share their thoughts in a safe, moderated setting.
Even as we look ahead, our team at Peak Power aims to continue our commitment to DEI. We’ve already done a lot to ensure that DEI is an integral part of everything we do at Peak Power, but we want to do even more.
We’ve designed governance for committees to provide more structure around term limits and committee roles to ensure that more staff are able to participate and offer their perspectives.
We’re working to align our performance management process with our core values, which counsels team members to “do everything with integrity and make a positive impact on people and the planet.” This focus ensures we’re measuring and supporting the traits we want to emphasize in the company’s culture.
Managers receive training on unconscious bias to ensure they are cognizant of unintentional prejudices that could influence employee reviews. DEI surveys are performed regularly to refresh and refine our goals and action items to capitalize on areas of opportunity.
The emphasis on DEI when Peak Power was founded was pragmatic. We began as a diverse company, and we attribute our success to the diversity of backgrounds and life experiences that constantly bring new ways of thinking to our teams. Diversity promotes innovation and ensures the company stays competitive and a great place to work! However, even if it was there from the beginning, our commitment to DEI requires work, continued learning, and the right tools.
Peak Power’s DEI program and the policies incorporated because of its efforts contribute to a working environment valuing fairness, opportunities, resources, and a voice for employees.
We appreciate the recognition of the effort we’ve made at Peak Power through ESC’s Champion of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award and we look forward to opportunities to share our work again in the future.
Peak Power is an energy storage software company founded in 2015 operating in Ontario, New York, New England, and California. If you’d like to learn more about Peak Power’s JEDI initiative or any other element of their company, be sure to reach out or read more at their blog.
By Peak Power
It’s been almost a full year since Peak Power was selected for the first annual Champion of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Energy Storage Award at last year’s Energy Storage Canada (ESC) Conference. Per ESC’s website, the award aims to recognize corporations that consistently advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion within their organization or the industry broadly.
In the case of Peak Power, we’ve built diversity into our hiring and internal processes, putting policy into practice.
When hiring, tools such as Gender Decoder are leveraged to detect and correct potentially gendered language in the job description and its corresponding responsibilities. We’ve learned that gendered language has the ability to discourage certain groups, particularly women, from applying to an open job posting. We also targeted recruitment from a range of diverse talent pools: searching job boards, engaging with networking groups, and attending hiring events that focus on marginalized groups.
Additionally, all candidates are asked in their pre-screening process what DEI means to them to ensure the individuals joining our teams share our outlook on the importance of DEI, bringing diverse perspectives and fostering an inclusive environment.
Peak Power’s investment in DEI is present at every step of our team members’ career journeys.
We’ve partnered with consultants like Nomandin Beaudry to create a compensation and career framework to balance our company’s external competitiveness with internal equity.
Another key tool is our JEDI – Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity – Committee, which sets annual goals for the organization and facilitates fun and educational programming for team members to ensure everyone is continuing to develop their skills and knowledge of DEI.
One new initiative this year is our monthly Pod-lunch sessions. We listen to a half-hour podcast together during lunch, either in person or remote. Each podcast focuses on a DEI subject, often with a tie-in to sustainability. This is followed by breakout groups where team members can share their thoughts in a safe, moderated setting.
Even as we look ahead, our team at Peak Power aims to continue our commitment to DEI. We’ve already done a lot to ensure that DEI is an integral part of everything we do at Peak Power, but we want to do even more.
We’ve designed governance for committees to provide more structure around term limits and committee roles to ensure that more staff are able to participate and offer their perspectives.
We’re working to align our performance management process with our core values, which counsels team members to “do everything with integrity and make a positive impact on people and the planet.” This focus ensures we’re measuring and supporting the traits we want to emphasize in the company’s culture.
Managers receive training on unconscious bias to ensure they are cognizant of unintentional prejudices that could influence employee reviews. DEI surveys are performed regularly to refresh and refine our goals and action items to capitalize on areas of opportunity.
The emphasis on DEI when Peak Power was founded was pragmatic. We began as a diverse company, and we attribute our success to the diversity of backgrounds and life experiences that constantly bring new ways of thinking to our teams. Diversity promotes innovation and ensures the company stays competitive and a great place to work! However, even if it was there from the beginning, our commitment to DEI requires work, continued learning, and the right tools.
Peak Power’s DEI program and the policies incorporated because of its efforts contribute to a working environment valuing fairness, opportunities, resources, and a voice for employees.
We appreciate the recognition of the effort we’ve made at Peak Power through ESC’s Champion of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award and we look forward to opportunities to share our work again in the future.
Peak Power is an energy storage software company founded in 2015 operating in Ontario, New York, New England, and California. If you’d like to learn more about Peak Power’s JEDI initiative or any other element of their company, be sure to reach out or read more at their blog.
Insights – 2022 Pioneer in Energy Storage Award Recipient
By Annette Verschuren, CEO, NRStor Inc
It was a thrill to receive the Pioneer of Energy Storage Award last year. What a journey it’s been since we started our company in 2012. Energy storage was not a common concept back then and there was literally no market to sell the service into.
Energy storage will change the face of every power grid in the world.
We pioneered as a flywheel technology developer with Temporal Power and again with a fuel free compressed air energy storage facility with Hydrostor. They were small but significant projects that we negotiated with the IESO. With our MPower company we have been installing powerwalls since 2014 across the country. We built out our Commercial & Industrial NRStor business, which was eventually sold to Blackstone, in 2020. We learned a lot, made mistakes, solved them, pivoted, and kept focused and determined to grow our company.
The industry needs to continue to innovate on business models to extract the most value from this new asset class to benefit ratepayers, and share assets for best and highest use.
One of our proudest moments for NRStor however was closing the Oneida project, standing next to our development partner Six Nations of the Grand River, a six-year development journey. Aecon worked side by side with us over the last 4 years and then Northland Power and Aecon joined us as our equity partners. Northland Power is the major shareholder of the Oneida project and are strong and engaged partners. The Canada Investment Bank and NRCAN were instrumental in getting this deal done.
Unlocking the indigenous potential to power Canada’s net zero economy is what Oneida is all about. I challenge the business community to treat indigenous potential not as an ESG/CSR file but a core strategy. We need to provide equity opportunity for indigenous communities for sustainable economic and social growth.
I also commend the provincial government and the IESO for moving energy storage ahead on the agenda. Ontario will be home to the largest energy storage facilities in Canada. We always say that the regions with the most storage will have the most flexibility in how energy is distributed and traded. The electricity/energy market will double and triple over the next decade.
But there is more work to do. We must do our best to avoid new investments in carbon producing assets. We must work to enhance the supply chain to get Canada’s valuable minerals extracted, refined to the highest value product to feed the supply chain needs of batteries globally, maximizing our country’s participation and value creation.
We have to deploy more storage on a decentralized basis to help us maximize the use of our constrained power grid and avoid needing to overbuild our systems to meet peak needs – we can lower ratepayer costs if we do this right, with all forms of storage, while we support and enable the economy to fully decarbonize itself.
And on a personal note, these are such exciting times. Energy Storage Canada plays a critical role in defining the pathway of the energy storage industry. What a great organization! I’m proud to have pushed for the creation of this organization in the early years…… you are great pioneers and innovators.
By Annette Verschuren,
CEO, NRStor Inc
It was a thrill to receive the Pioneer of Energy Storage Award last year. What a journey it’s been since we started our company in 2012. Energy storage was not a common concept back then and there was literally no market to sell the service into.
Energy storage will change the face of every power grid in the world.
We pioneered as a flywheel technology developer with Temporal Power and again with a fuel free compressed air energy storage facility with Hydrostor. They were small but significant projects that we negotiated with the IESO. With our MPower company we have been installing powerwalls since 2014 across the country. We built out our Commercial & Industrial NRStor business, which was eventually sold to Blackstone, in 2020. We learned a lot, made mistakes, solved them, pivoted, and kept focused and determined to grow our company.
The industry needs to continue to innovate on business models to extract the most value from this new asset class to benefit ratepayers, and share assets for best and highest use.
One of our proudest moments for NRStor however was closing the Oneida project, standing next to our development partner Six Nations of the Grand River, a six-year development journey. Aecon worked side by side with us over the last 4 years and then Northland Power and Aecon joined us as our equity partners. Northland Power is the major shareholder of the Oneida project and are strong and engaged partners. The Canada Investment Bank and NRCAN were instrumental in getting this deal done.
Unlocking the indigenous potential to power Canada’s net zero economy is what Oneida is all about. I challenge the business community to treat indigenous potential not as an ESG/CSR file but a core strategy. We need to provide equity opportunity for indigenous communities for sustainable economic and social growth.
I also commend the provincial government and the IESO for moving energy storage ahead on the agenda. Ontario will be home to the largest energy storage facilities in Canada. We always say that the regions with the most storage will have the most flexibility in how energy is distributed and traded. The electricity/energy market will double and triple over the next decade.
But there is more work to do. We must do our best to avoid new investments in carbon producing assets. We must work to enhance the supply chain to get Canada’s valuable minerals extracted, refined to the highest value product to feed the supply chain needs of batteries globally, maximizing our country’s participation and value creation.
We have to deploy more storage on a decentralized basis to help us maximize the use of our constrained power grid and avoid needing to overbuild our systems to meet peak needs – we can lower ratepayer costs if we do this right, with all forms of storage, while we support and enable the economy to fully decarbonize itself.
And on a personal note, these are such exciting times. Energy Storage Canada plays a critical role in defining the pathway of the energy storage industry. What a great organization! I’m proud to have pushed for the creation of this organization in the early years…… you are great pioneers and innovators.