{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/652e6e3b2681ee0012ea47f0/6966135d85eeb5685313ad2c?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Understanding Utility grade AI at scale with Ana-Paula Issa, CEO of  Encyle","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/652e6e3b2681ee0012ea47f0/1768299359877-a62b8867-6a6a-444c-99bd-ac63a4578534.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>If your demand response program looks good on paper but fails under scrutiny, you don’t have a performance problem. You have a measurement problem.</p><p><br></p><p>Ana-Paula Issa, CEO of Encycle, explains why.</p><p>Utilities are offering more incentives than ever. AI, analytics, and advanced controls are being deployed across portfolios.</p><p>And yet many operators still miss demand response targets, struggle to defend savings to finance, or confuse demand response with demand management.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki sits down with Ana-Paula Issa, CEO of Encycle, to cut through the fog around “utility grade,” multi-site AI, and why scale breaks so many energy programs.</p><p><br></p><p>Ana-Paula has been working directly with utilities and large retail portfolios since 2008. She explains what actually holds up when incentives, baselines, bids, and finance reviews are involved and why many programs fail quietly until the end of the year.</p><p><br></p><p>We dig into:</p><ul><li>What “utility grade” really means and why it leaves no place to hide</li><li>Why baselines are the most common failure point in M&amp;V</li><li>How multi-site scale breaks single-building AI assumptions</li><li>The real difference between demand response, demand management, and consumption management</li><li>Why demand response targets are missed more often because of misalignment than technology</li><li>How portfolio thresholds can wipe out DR revenue even when most sites perform</li><li>Why incentives often fail to get credited to the right buildings or teams</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>About Ana-Paula Issa</strong></p><p>Ana-Paula Issa is the CEO of Encycle. She has spent nearly two decades working at the intersection of building controls, demand management, and utility programs, partnering directly with utilities and large multi-site operators. At Encycle, she focuses on turning demand flexibility and efficiency programs into measurable, defensible outcomes at scale.</p><p><br></p><p>Watch if you are:</p><ul><li>An owner or operator managing large, multi-site portfolios</li><li>An energy or sustainability leader accountable to finance</li><li>A vendor selling AI, controls, or DR programs into portfolios</li><li>Trying to turn utility incentives into outcomes that survive scrutiny</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Utility programs do not fail because teams lack technology.  They fail because measurement, alignment, and incentives are misunderstood.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>","author_name":"Powered by Element Six"}