Grace Penders

Investor

Grace is an investor at Equal Ventures focusing on climate investments. Prior to Equal, Grace was a climate investor at Energize Capital, where she was most recently a Senior Associate. She covered investments related to electrification, carbon management, resource efficiency, and digital industry, and built several theses around electric vehicle charging, energy flexibility, and circular economy. Previously, she was a Strategy Consultant at Accenture, where she worked with 14 electric utilities to accelerate their clean energy initiatives.

Grace holds a BA from the University of Chicago, where she studied Economics and Spanish Literature. She currently lives in Brooklyn NY and enjoys community gardening, true crime tv, and exploring national parks in her spare time.

Grace

’s latests insights

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Dec 17, 2024

The Rise of VPPs: A Grid Solution Whose Time Has Finally Come

A few years ago, virtual power plants (VPPs) seemed like an elegant solution in search of a problem—a technology waiting for the right moment when renewable energy deployment would cause real shortfalls in capacity and grid services. That moment has arrived. In 2024, several European countries and U.S. states are already experiencing critical grid challenges that VPPs are uniquely positioned to address. The real challenge now isn't proving that VPPs work—it's unlocking and orchestrating the vast potential of distributed energy resources at scale.

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Oct 20, 2024

Plaid Alone Won’t Cut It

Almost three years ago, Equal published Lessons from Plaid for a Future Energy Unicorn, outlining a vision for the future of energy data. In the piece, we proposed the need for a platform that could unlock data hidden across siloed devices and stakeholders. Since developing this thesis, we’ve gained deeper conviction that we are at the cusp of energy’s “Digital Moment.”

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