Jes Rivas

Executive Vice President

Ink
Fun


Jes Rivas is a building systems engineer with more than 15 years of experience in technology assessment, market characterization, and evaluation. Her expertise spans a wide range of commercial, industrial, and residential programs and measures with a focus on emerging technology, demand response, and the internet of things (IoT). She leverages her engineering background and industry experience to help her clients design for and achieve meaningful results while negotiating a rapidly evolving landscape. With a reputation for exceptional project management, Jes is a trusted advisor who values client service and reliable, consistent, and authentic communication. Recently, Jes developed ILLUME’s pipeline development model that allows utilities to look across their energy portfolio, scan and understand opportunities, and then test and launch new offerings. For the past two years, she has drawn together qualitative and quantitative streams at ILLUME to create a practice designed to research and shape markets. This work is meant to sow the seeds for technology transfer and is enabled by a deep and holistic understanding of markets, channels, and the communities and trusted messengers who support them. When Jes is not helping clients future-proof their portfolios, you can find her exploring the Pacific Northwest’s natural beauty.

jes@illumeadvising.com

Jes is located in Portland, OR.

Related Resources

New Metrics: What Assessing Energy Burden and Bill Impacts Can and Can’t Tell Us

Reorienting toward equity, utilities are seeking ways to remedy disparities through income eligible (IE) offerings. Learn how we helped a Midwest utility client determine the level of energy savings necessary to reduce an income-eligible customer’s energy burden.
Click on the title to read the case study.

A Tale of Two Engineers

In this podcast ILLUME Executive Vice President, Jes Rivas, interviews Senior Consultant and fellow Engineer, Nabila Huq. You’ll learn about Nabila’s background in Chemical Engineering, Renewable Fuel Design, Biomedical Materials, Solar Research, and Inorganic and Organic Photovoltaics.
Click on the title to listen to the podcast.

Growing to Meet the Change – Episode 2

In Episode 2 of Growing to Meet the Change, Anne speaks with each member of the Executive Team about their new roles, and what it means for the future of ILLUME and our clients.
Click on the title to listen to the podcast.

Commercial Lighting: Market Actor Insights on a Dynamic Market

In this paper presented at the 2022 IEPEC Conference, we describe a broad market research study completed in 2020, intended to provide a snapshot of the current state of underserved businesses in one state in the southeast.
Click on the title to read the white paper.

Tunnel Vision: The Impact of Ignoring Behavior in Technological Innovation

In this white paper presented at the ACEEE Summer Study 2022 Conference, the authors explore three case studies conducted with three utilities and organizations testing emerging commercial equipment. Read how the authors present an R&D framework that creates a parallel path to technological investigation, one that focuses understanding on the social and behavioral aspects of a technology, and identifies the interventions needed to overcome barriers introduced by them.
Click on the title to read the white paper.

Demanding More: A Conversation on Scaling Demand Response to Meet the Needs of a Changing Climate and Grid

Demand response (DR) is continuing to grow in importance as a tool to guard against intermittency and as a strategy to address climate change. But, as our climate and grid challenges increase, can we scale DR meet these new demands?
Click on the title to watch the webinar.

From Energy Efficiency to Demand Impacts: In search of viable offerings.

As the need for demand mitigation increases, how can utilities and program administrators extend energy efficiency portfolios to increase demand impacts?
Click on the title to read the case study.

Other: Navigating Work and the Workplace When Your Experience is Not the Norm. (Ep. 1)

In this episode, ILLUME’s Jes Rivas and Amanda Maass talk about the LGBTQ experience in the workplace and share insights on what it means to show up to the workplace when your experience is different than that of those around you.
Click on the title to listen to the podcast.

The Energy Equity Playbook

Join ILLUME’s team of researchers as we break down a) ways to understand the challenge, b) considerations for defining equity, c) ways to bring communities to the table, and d) how to effectively determine and measure who benefits from clean energy investments.
Click on the title to watch the webinar.

Impact Evaluation Considerations in Light of COVID-19

As we continue to think through the implications of the novel coronavirus, we need to consider how to quickly adapt our evaluation frameworks to provide meaningful results.
Click on the title to read the report.

Impact Evaluation Considerations in light of COVID-19

Eileen Hannigan moderates a discussion on how massive shifts in energy use patterns have us rethinking everything from baselines to alternative metrics for 2020.
Click on the title to watch the webinar.

Impact Evaluation Considerations in Light of COVID-19

Anne Dougherty discusses how massive shifts in energy use patterns have us rethinking everything from baselines to alternative metrics for 2020 with ILLUME’s technical team.
Click on the title to listen to the podcast.

Response to COVID-19: Program Design Innovations

ILLUME proposes ideas for program design innovation as the energy industry asks “what now?” when it comes to communications, programs, and research activities in this moment of social distancing.
Click on the title to read the report.

Flattening the Curve: Discussion and Strategies in a Time of COVID-19

ILLUME facilitates a forum as clients ask questions of each other, share ideas, and create the (virtual) connections we need to move successfully through this unprecedented time.
Click on the title to watch the webinar.

Research Considerations in the Time of COVID-19

We navigate how the energy industry responds and adapts to COVID-19 in a preview of our webinar, “Research Considerations in the Time of COVID-19.”
Click on the title to listen to the podcast.

Energy Efficiency is Being Treated like a Resource at Scale, Where Does Billing Analysis Fit?

In their poster presentation at ACEEE Summer Study 2018, Jes Rivas and Pace Goodman discuss the pros, cons, and possible policy implications for expanding the use of consumption analysis in evaluation.
Click on the title to view the presentation.

The Devil’s in the Details: What is the Effect of Methodological Decisions on Estimated Savings?

Why do savings estimates change from one analysis to the next, even when evaluation methods are consistent? Jes Rivas and Pace Goodman attempt to answer this question in this report for IEPEC 2017.
Click on the title to read the report.