A more rewarding future

As someone who’s spent half a lifetime thinking about energy—how we use it, how we waste it, how we build systems around it—I’ve always been struck by how often we misjudge its trajectory. When I started out, there was a strong sense we had reached the apex of energy demand. Smarter appliances, efficient lighting, cleaner power sources—it all pointed to a demand plateau.

But the story didn’t stop there. It just started turning the page. 

Today, we’re seeing energy demand surge in ways that would have been hard to imagine just a decade ago. From the rise of AI to the accelerating shift toward electrified homes and vehicles, the energy grid is being asked to carry a heavier, more complex load—more often than ever before.

This is certainly a challenge, but it’s only a problem if we don’t meet the moment with new solutions. 

This moment gives us an invitation to rethink how we balance comfort, resilience, and sustainability. An opportunity to evolve from reactive customer energy programs to proactive, personalized energy solutions. And at the center of it all: more savings and rewards at home.

A legacy of learning, a future of innovation

Many of our team members here at Renew Home helped to shape and scale one of the earliest and most impactful demand response programs in the U.S.—Rush Hour Rewards, built by Google Nest back in 2013. It was a turning point. We saw what happened when you make participation simple, put customers in control, and reward them fairly: people showed up. They shifted their energy use alongside additional savings they generated each day with their smart thermostats. And they made a difference.  

More than a decade later, that same program is still running strong, now reaching over 1.3 million homes across more than 100 utility programs. Last year alone, participating households earned over $40 million in rewards and incentives. But what excited me more is why it worked: it focused on giving customers more control that aligned with everyday savings and broader grid needs.

Comfort is personal. So is the future of energy.

Traditional demand response programs often revolve around a handful of high grid stress events each year—critical moments like heatwaves or winter storms. They’re essential tools, but they can only take us so far. Enrollment tends to plateau, often topping out at just 10–20% of eligible households in utility-run programs, which means their impact is limited to a small slice of the population and a narrow window of time.

My own home tells me when a traditional demand response event is underway—usually when my son’s sensitive little nose starts to sweat. That’s always been a quiet reminder to me that the path to broader impact has to go through comfort first. If we want millions more people to join us, the experience has to feel easy, seamless, respectful to their routines and deliver savings and rewards. 

That’s why we’ve expanded our vision. 

A vision to expand rewards to more households to prove that you can move beyond the traditional demand response programs to build a daily rhythm of energy optimization—automated, intelligent and always in service of delivering savings and rewards to more customers. Think of it like micro-adjustments: small changes that often go unnoticed, but add up to more savings and grid relief. They are more personalized, adapting to local weather and preferences. They should help you save on your time of use rate and help you earn money back.

And we think this is a concept that should grow across the country—making it easy for customers to earn rewards for shifts that are much more subtle than demand response programs of old.

No sacrifices. Just smarter savings and rewards. 

At Renew Home, we believe the energy future should work for people–not the other way around. That’s why we’re focused on tools that reward customers, adapt to their needs, and deliver measurable value every single day. 

I continue to envision a world where every major energy device in our homes— thermostats, home batteries, EV chargers, even some appliances—are not only connected, but orchestrated to work together on our behalf. A home that intuitively understands when energy is most expensive, when the grid is under stress, and how to shift just the right amount of usage without sacrificing your comfort.

In this future, the energy system doesn’t just serve the grid—it serves you. Every connected device becomes an asset, helping reduce strain, earn rewards, and create savings that are personalized to your lifestyle.

We don’t need to wait for the future. It’s already knocking at the door, disguised as smarter devices, fairer rewards, and simpler ways to save. One small shift at a time. 

No sweat. Big Impact.