All Hands on the Switch: Simplifying Electrification in NYC

Electrifying a single apartment in New York can require a dozen yeses: owner, tenant, utility, incentive administrator, electrician, insurer, lender and multiple agencies. That coordination burden, more than any technology, is what keeps electrification slow and expensive. This panel puts the people holding those hands on one stage and asks them to work the problem out in the open. The discussion will also bring in the resident perspective: how these choices shape the experience of the people living in these homes. Panelists represent public, market-rate and social housing, state energy programs, demand response, community electrification and appliance makers. Which steps can be eliminated instead of coordinated? What would each participant give up to cut a project timeline in half? And what five-year roadmap makes the next 10,000 units faster and cheaper than the last 100? This panel will answer these questions and more, bringing together the organizations shaping New York's electrification future to identify which bottlenecks can be eliminated today — and what it will take to expedite large-scale housing electrification in NYC and across the U.S. Panelists include: Joshua Land, Founder and Head of Partnerships, Copper (building battery-equipped appliances for home electrification) Zach Zill, Senior Project Manager, NYSERDA (leading New York State’s clean energy programs) Rania Dalloul, Chief Advancement Officer, UHAB (supporting resident-controlled affordable housing in NYC) Vanessa Bertelli, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Electrify DC (expanding access to home electrification) Vince Romanin, Founder and CTO, Gradient (building electric heating and cooling systems) Moderator: Nyla Mabro, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer and Co-Founder, The Clean Fight (scaling climate technologies in New York) After the panel, guests are invited to stay for coffee, networking and light bites prepared on Charlie, Copper’s battery-equipped induction range.