About Us
Smart Consumers for a Smarter Grid
Founder and President
John Cooper, clean energy network consultant, has 25 years experience in entrepreneurial, consulting, business development, sales, marketing, political, and research roles. Key consulting clients have included Austin Energy, Tropos Networks, Cellnet (now Landis+Gyr), the City of San Marcos, Xtreme Power, the Pecan Street Project, Sharp Labs of America,Grid Net, and UtiliPoint/Consonus.Selected by FierceEnergy to its list of the 15 most influential players in the energy industry in 2011, John has led a variety of projects that highlight his Smart Grid background. In 2011, John acted as lead consultant for Smart Grid services at UtiliPoint International, an industry marketing and media firm, where he focused on integration of data analytics and services to support utility and consumer Smart Grid objectives. In 2011, John also developed marketing collateral for Trilliant’s virtual smart grid applications. In 2010, John worked with Grid Net, a pioneer software company engaged in the development and commercialization of a Smart Grid software platform. In 2010, John also worked with Sharp Labs to develop business models for virtual power plants. In 2009, John was a consultant with Xtreme Power, an advanced lead acid energy storage company, playing a critical role in securing a multi-million dollar federal loan guarantee to implement a pioneer energy storage solution for renewable energy integration on a wind farm in Maui. In 2009, John was also a critical player in the pioneer Pecan Street Project in Austin, Texas, as both project leader of the Smart Grid committee, which captured the vision of Austin Energy's Smart Grid 2.0 vision, and author of the technical report that captured findings from the year-long project. This was a repeat engagement with Austin Energy (AE) - with the GENie Project in 2004 and 2005, John explored the implications of broadband for electric utility operations at AE, laying the foundation for the utility's groundbreaking Smart Grid program. From 2003-2008, John was a broadband consultant with his firm MetroNetIQ, focused on developing and implementing Smart City applications leveraging new wireless technologies. John's early career in electricity (1996-2000) featured work on pioneer wireless AMR and energy data software at CSW Communications. John helped to found the Texas Senate Research Center in 1986.
John is co-author of The Advanced Smart Grid, which documents his work at Austin Energy building a pioneer smart grid and in the Pecan Street Project designing an energy internet. Smart Grid News called The Advanced Smart Grid “…far and away the best book yet about the smart grid.” John wrote a guidebook on smart cities in 2008: The ABCs of Community Broadband: How Digital Transitions Will Transform America’s Communities, One at a Time. John is an accomplished public speaker and has published numerous articles on electricity and broadband innovation in traditional and new media. John has an MBA with honors from the McCombs Graduate School of Business and a BA in Government from the University of Texas at Austin.
Associates
Embracing the vision of the virutal organization, ecomergence works with a variety of associates on projects.
Company History
Currently, John is currently building an integrated Smart Grid practice at UtiliPoint, combining consulting, media and analyst services with managed services to support smart grid implementations. John is a creative thinker, author, researcher and project manager, active in the energy, telecommunications, IT services and government research industries since the mid-1980s. With extensive experience in business development and consulting positions at innovative electric and telecommunications companies, John has been responsible for leading innovation projects in all aspects of the emerging Smart Grid, ranging from utility IP networks, wireless AMI, distributed generation, demand response, energy efficiency, utility-scale energy storage, virtual power plants, and EV charging infrastructure.
John consulted in early Smart City work with broadband and energy under the brand name MetroNetIQ from 2003-2008. In the fall of 2008, as the national and global economy decline began to unfold, press accounts began to chronicle a new argument - that the world could not afford to address climate change given the depressed economic conditions - it was either save the economy or save the planet. Recognizing that efforts to be more efficient and eliminate waste nearly always have a beneficial impact on the environment, John coined the term "ecomergence" to recognize the connection between economy and ecology and to shift the focus of his consulting practice to sustainability. John began with local solar PV installers, and soon landed a contract with a pioneer energy storage firm, Xtreme Power. The Pecan Street Project work followed in 2009, and in 2010 Sharp Labs contracted with Ecomergence. But it was writing the Pecan Street Project report that helped to further define a new attitude for energy reform, focused on integrating consumer perspectives and needs into energy and utility planning.
The Pecan Street Project storyline has three threads that inform the strategic direction of Ecomergence.
Thus, Ecomergence has become a consulting practice that is drawn consistently to the cutting edge of change in energy and environmental policy and practice. And today that cutting edge pivots on the need to bring consumers along with the Smart Grid transformation. The billions of dollars to be spent on Smart Grid will come from energy consumers - we need to listen to them, adapt the system to their needs, and bring them along for the ride.
John consulted in early Smart City work with broadband and energy under the brand name MetroNetIQ from 2003-2008. In the fall of 2008, as the national and global economy decline began to unfold, press accounts began to chronicle a new argument - that the world could not afford to address climate change given the depressed economic conditions - it was either save the economy or save the planet. Recognizing that efforts to be more efficient and eliminate waste nearly always have a beneficial impact on the environment, John coined the term "ecomergence" to recognize the connection between economy and ecology and to shift the focus of his consulting practice to sustainability. John began with local solar PV installers, and soon landed a contract with a pioneer energy storage firm, Xtreme Power. The Pecan Street Project work followed in 2009, and in 2010 Sharp Labs contracted with Ecomergence. But it was writing the Pecan Street Project report that helped to further define a new attitude for energy reform, focused on integrating consumer perspectives and needs into energy and utility planning.
The Pecan Street Project storyline has three threads that inform the strategic direction of Ecomergence.
- First, technology innovation is driving the development and enhancement of distributed energy resources (DER), which act on the electricity ecosystem and must be integrated into the Smart Grid.
- Second, new energy business models will be needed to address the inevitable changes that will come from incorporating DER innovation into the Smart Grid.
- Third, consumers must be engaged into efforts concurrent with Smart Grid development. Without raised community awareness and mobilization to adapt to change, the promise of Smart Grid will not be realized anytime soon.
Thus, Ecomergence has become a consulting practice that is drawn consistently to the cutting edge of change in energy and environmental policy and practice. And today that cutting edge pivots on the need to bring consumers along with the Smart Grid transformation. The billions of dollars to be spent on Smart Grid will come from energy consumers - we need to listen to them, adapt the system to their needs, and bring them along for the ride.
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Books
In The Advanced Smart Grid: Edge Power Driving Sustainability, co-authors John Cooper and Andres Carvallo describe the vision they developed from 2003 - 2010 at Austin Energy and in the Pecan Street Project. This book provides the reader insights into the evolution of the Smart Grid and the impact of Distributed Energy technologies on the future of Smart Grid.
In The ABCs Of Community Broadband: How Digital Transitions Will Transform America's Communities, One At A Time, author John Cooper reveals insights on the potential for alternative broadband to support a Smart City, specifically concerning new ways that communities can take advantage of new technologies and new business models to bring about transformative digital transitions.