In this episode of Chamber On, host Matt Appenzeller sits down with Vin Zachariah, CEO of Ampica Energy Solutions, to discuss how Ohio businesses can take advantage of energy choice, better understand their utility bills, and make smarter decisions about how and when they use electricity to reduce costs and manage risk.
From navigating an increasingly complex energy landscape to preparing for growing demand driven by data centers and economic development, Vin shares practical insights for business owners and chamber leaders alike. Whether you're looking to optimize your energy strategy, better understand your monthly bill, or simply stay ahead of what's changing in the energy market, tune in to Chamber On!
Episode Transcript:
Matt Appenzeller
Hello, and welcome to the Chamber On! podcast, the go-to podcast for small employers and local chambers of commerce in Ohio. My name is Matt Appenzeller. I'm the president and CEO of the Southern Ohio Chamber Alliance, also known as SOCA. We're an alliance of 130 chambers of commerce, mostly in southern Ohio. And today we have a special guest from Ampica. We have the CEO of Ampica, Vin Zachariah. Vin, welcome to the Chamber On! podcast.
Vin Zachariah
Matt, thanks for having me. Excited to be on.
Matt
Absolutely. And then you kind of have an interesting background here, because you're, you know, you've combined your, your private equity operating experience, your technology leadership, energy management, and so Ampica, you, you've unified several different companies under one brand, so, so let's just start with this, for people who are unfamiliar with what Ampica is and what you do. What problem are you trying to solve?
Vin
Yeah, now we, what are essentially what we're here to service our customers for Matt is to help them navigate energy usage for their companies, both we handle both residential and commercial customers, so similar to how folks might use someone to help them with their health care programs and other services that aren't forward to their business, but are confusing, we help companies navigate that in an effort to make it more efficient and profitable, and I say one of the things I talk about, Matt, is that we try to take it from just being a cost and a burden to something they can strategically make decisions on.
Matt
Right, right, yeah. So that's a nice segue into my next question here. So, I mean, we've talked about this a little bit offline, how you describe it. Energy is now something that used to be a cost center, now it's a strategic asset. So, so what does that mean in practical terms for the typical small business owner?
Vin
Yeah, I mean, in the past it's always been sort of like lowest cost, it's been a fairly stable service over the last 50-60 years, Matt, and you know it's now it's it's front top, you know it's front page of the news, and everybody's reading about data centers and usage and electrification, so what I tell folks is, is there's, you know, people have a lot more agency in this. It's just not a cost, it's not something you have to bear. There are different things that you are able to have to understand and be able to act on. So, how you're getting billed by the utility, who your suppliers are, how the how you're actually using the energy, it's not just how much you use, it's when you use, so, and in the beauty of being in Ohio is where one of 19 states that actually allows you to have some choice in how you purchase your energy, and as it, as I go back, you know, continue to say you have a lot of agency, to use a fancy term, and it doesn't have to be something you have to grin and bear, and we, I think, it's it's in the, in the face of all the things that are happening in the world, and where energy is going, being able to think about that strategically is going to be very important,
Matt
So sort of piggybacking, that's interesting, piggybacking on that comment. Then, yeah, if, if, if people and businesses have agency, that also means that they need to develop a strategy, right? So, so what should the strategic priorities be for most businesses, or does it vary?
Vin
I mean, it can vary, but ultimately, you know what I tell folks is you have agency in something that is horrendously complex, almost unnecessarily so. Matt, I didn't create that, you didn't create that. It is what it is, and it's confusing. I tell everybody I had yet to meet anybody who, and people who've been in the business a long time in energy, who can understand an energy bill, and by the way, every energy bill by every energy utility is different, so it is a foreign language to understand this stuff, so you know, unless you're big enough to have the expertise, or you want to spend the time, which I recommend folks don't, because you have a full function, it's helpful to have somebody help you understand that, and and that. That's what I tell folks, is being able to understand, and it's just really comes down to a couple things. How you're getting billed, how you're, how much energy are you using, and here's, you know, interesting, and we'll talk about Matt, is when you're using energy, people don't understand, just it's not a function of just how much, but it's when, and you're actually getting billed on that. So all these things are things that folks need to be thinking about, and certainly you know there's there's people that can help you do that.
Matt
So, I have two questions to follow up on that. I get the first question would be, so what are the biggest mistakes that that you see companies making when they're trying to manage their expense, and then, secondly, like, what, what would you say are the hidden opportunities that are overlooked that, that are kind of a layup, right?
Vin
Yup, first is, is that in Ohio you have choice in the, in who you decide to buy your energy from, and you know, unfortunately, there's been a lot of bad actors, principally on the residential side. Everybody's gotten those mailers at home, it looks a little fishy, and unfortunately, there has been some bad actors. So people are naturally wary of using someone other than the incumbent utility, we tell folks, first mistake is there's a lot of great things your utility does. I'm not a naysayer on utilities, but they are not the best, they're not the best sources of where you should be purchasing your energy from. So the first mistake you get is take a look at what your options are, and it is not that is a legitimate market, and what you may see, the mailers you're getting at home, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's it's not something that you can get, it is something you can get transparent pricing on, so a shop, right, this is America, we believe in capitalism, shop, find out, get your best options, so there's opportunities to look at different things there, second is, you know, make sure you're, you're, you're getting billed directly, right, so How do you think about in that kind of hieroglyphics, that is your bill, you know, are you getting put on the right tariffs? Are you what riders are being put on, etc. etc. So, you know, those are the two things that I generally tell folks that you have to be able to navigate, and mistakes folks make is that they let themselves again, they things happen, they take the utility, they get billed the wrong way, and it's, oh, well, you know, just is what it is, and I have to go figure out how to save money elsewhere to offset the foster my utilities.
Matt
That sounds kind of, that's interesting. I didn't, I didn't realize that, that the bills were different, and that we even, you have described them as hieroglyphics. So,
Vin
Yeah.
Matt
I would imagine that that's probably the one of the first steps that you go through with with companies. So, so let's imagine here, then that that you're on stage in front of a room full of business leaders, so how would you try to impress upon them to think about risk management when, when it comes to their energy procurement?
Vin
Yeah, yeah, I mean, look, I tell everybody, particularly, you know, depending on the size of your business, you know, what I tell them is you have to think about a couple things now, right. So we are getting into environment, Matt, where I can't, I can't necessarily with the amount of demand that we're going to see, and folks read about data centers, I read about what's happening in this space, and you know where all that's going, the demand, you know, the demand, the load growth that we are expected to see is going to be significant. That does fall on the question, a natural assumption that we've had in American business, which is, I, you know, they'll flip the light switch on and expecting the lights to turn on, and increasingly companies are getting concerned about that, and we talked to certain companies, and what is the risk when you have power outages, when you have intermittent issues, and I, we, Matt, you and I have talked about this, you know, there's something that we call power quality, so it's not even that the power isn't on, as far as you can tell, but the quality of the power can impact your machine. So we work with certain customers where they're seeing the life expectancy of the machine, because the quality of the power in which they're taking the way they're taking. Load off can actually impact maintenance and potentially replacement costs for the machines, so this whole issue of like I flip the switch on, I'm going to get good power, I'm getting consistent power, and I can go worry about what I want to worry about. I'm not sure you can do that, so we have to think through not only is it just, hey, it's a Sony, and call them up, and it turns on, and just, you know, set it and forget it. So, how you're using Powell? The second thing I talked about is people don't realize this is about 15% of everyone's bill each year, or every month, is based on how much power you're using in five hours of the year, and the highest usage patterns we have in the state of Ohio. They go in and they say, here's what Matt is using below percentages that you have, and then they bill you on that the rest of the year. So, Matt, you, you know, you might not be a big power user, and I'm using it, being a little dramatic, but if you're a big user in those five hours, you're going to get billed every month based on that. So, you know, we told everybody it's something as simple as we do a pretty good job of understanding when those five hours are. You don't know about it, so at the end of the year, but we can probably guess when that's going to happen, and simple, simple things of just being able to reduce your power, that can have a sick, as again, this is 20% of your bill is based on this, so folks don't realize that, right, you think I'm just getting paid on usage, that's not the case, and again, it's there's good reasons for why they do that, but most people don't understand that. So, I tell everybody there is just a host of things that we need to be thinking about strategically, just like you would be looking at a lot of your income and supply growth of how do you manage all this stuff, whether it's labor costs, whether it's direct goods cost energy should be viewed the same way, so you know, when I tell folks inevitably, when I get in front of room of CEOs with a bigger, you know, mid-sized businesses, I see a lot of like CEOs turn to the side and asking the CFO or how to finance or their accountants, you know, about this, and that kind of, like, you know, geez, I didn't, so it's, it's, it's really, it's, it's something I said folks, unfortunately, need to spend more time.
Matt
Yeah, so it sounds to me like half the battle here is just understanding it, like, yeah, not only just understanding the bill, but understanding how you rebuild and understanding the changing environment to me, it's very, it's fascinating that you have mentioned this, this whole concept of set it and forget it, that and that era, according to what I'm hearing here, that era is over, is that correct?
Vin
I think that's right, Matt, and I, you know, Matt, I know you know, and spend a lot of time talking about health care with your members and the chambers that are involved there, and I imagine that the similarities and parallels are striking, right, that there is time and expense and options and things you need to be doing, and maybe 50 years ago or 40 years ago you could just do that, right, it's very similar, very similar, and you have to be looking at it very holistically.
Matt
So, wow, so in terms of let's let me just frame this next question in terms of like what chambers, chambers, and what economic developers do. Right, so you know Chambers of Commerce spend a lot of time on workforce development, economic development, so with this changing environment, then how, how would energy now fit into that conversation? Because energy has already been a big part of local economic development, so how is that changing?
Vin
Yeah, availability. Matt, and I know many of the chambers and economic development folks are thinking about this, right? You know, it's just not how much, you know, it's just not how much, but is it going to be available? It's going to be able to manage my growth. It's a lot of attention. You're seeing a lot of news articles now about communities putting moratoriums on data center developments. So I tell everybody it's top of mind, right? And Ohio, thankfully, is in is on folks' radar right now. We are a rose area for for energy. Why is that? We have wonderful availability of energy, we have multiple sources of energy, we have availability of land, so it's. Yes, we're very attractive right now, and in a market where folks have there's a lot of demand, and I tell everybody that every example I give is, and you don't need to know the numbers, but just as relative sort of comparison, you know, Ohio, we have two nuclear reactors here in the state of Ohio. They roughly generate about a gigawatt of power, so doesn't matter. Don't worry about what a giga gigawatt means, just know it's a lot, and it's a nuclear reactor that's great. And you know the president and SoftBank just announced that they are building a 10 gigawatt data center in southern Ohio, so just put that in perspective. Nuclear reactor, one gigawatt, this data center that we're building in southern Ohio is going to be 10, is going to be 10 gigawatts of load, right? So think about, you know, and that's just, you know, that is significant, and that's going to be a $30 billion facility, right? Is I understand how much capital is good. So, yeah, if you're, if you're a chamber and you're going to economic development, how you want to position yourself on this is going to be very, very important, and working with working with utilities with the power suppliers, understanding that holistically, I would imagine for for these EVs and chambers.
Matt
Yeah, it's really interesting. You have a lot of really good and clear information on your website@ampika.com that's spelled A M P I C A dot com but I guess one of my questions would be, you know, as a chamber guy, right? So, so in this changing environment, what role should or can the chambers of commerce and the local economic development organizations play in helping businesses navigate energy costs, energy sustainability, and all of that. What, what role do you see that they can play?
Vin
Well, I think Matt, between us, you know, there's.. I think we were very good about providing materials and education on that were we're available for webinars, I think being able to be a leader for your communities to help them understand and navigate these items were we could certainly help and want to help and to participate and lead and and help folks in discussions, webinars, on-site meetings, etc. I think it's important to just continue to have the dialog with your members, because again, I think every level of this is confusing, and understanding kind of that how to talk about this would be really important, and the good thing is, is once we get the conversation going, I think there's a lot of it's, it's, it is something that folks can get their arms around, and they can appreciate, and again, I think, for from a chamber perspective, what we have put together is the ability to leverage a much larger network to be able to give your members the opportunity and options to be able to really optimize their energy spend. It's not, you know, similar to what other programs and services we do at in the face of this environment having options, being able to leverage a bigger provider, an expert in this, folks who have relationships with many, many different - in our case, suppliers, energy suppliers. I think you know you're really well positioned for your members to be able to navigate this, and you know, in a crazy, crazy time.
Matt
Yeah, I agree with that. So, the for listeners out there, that the Chamber Energy program has been around, you know, for a while. When, when Apico came in and, and brought in basically multiple companies, they, we got together and we've decided to continue the program. I think that the fact that you have, you know, brought multiple companies together. I actually think that that gives you an advantage that maybe we in the Chamber Energy program didn't have before. Can you, can you just comment on that?
Vin
Yeah, I mean, look, we're, I tell people we are, our number one, our relationship is with the chambers and their members, our duty is to them. We are agnostic about where the right energy solution is, so what may work for one member and one supplier, and the supplier they use could be totally different for another member and the supplier. They pick, so at any point in time, we're talking, you know, when members use the Chamber Energy Program, we're talking with anywhere between seven or 15 different suppliers on the right pricing, and the markets are very volatile, so it's not, you know, there's a price here, and that's set for the next three months, every day the pricing changes, so we think it's really important to make sure that we're talking with all the big suppliers and mid-sized suppliers to make sure we're always getting the best way based on the profile for individual customers.
Matt
Well, then all of this has been enlightening, no pun intended there, but what I would like to do, what I would like to do, if it's okay, because you know, because we're in such a changing environment, would you be open to coming back on the podcast, maybe you know, in about six months or so, and we'll, we'll kind of keep tabs on where things are at.
Vin
Absolutely, man, I, you know, I'm just so impressed with what you, what you guys do, and, and how you support the chambers and their members, and we're just thrilled to be a part of it, and happy to participate in this. I think this is a great forum that you provide for your membership, so thrilled, I would love to try it, and as you can tell, I love talking about energy, and I probably should have some better, more fun things to talk about social parties. Well, but you know,
Matt
That's that's a good segue, because every guest, every guest on the podcast has to answer the most important question.
Vin
Lot of pressure.
Matt
Yeah, it is a lot of pressure. So, who is the greatest rock and roll band of all time? Is it the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or Led Zeppelin?
Vin
I got to go with the Beatles, and I just feel like it was there's too many different things that they were able to transcend, but that's a, you know, that's a great list, and I'm impressed, and certainly wouldn't argue with the other two. Just heard some great stories about how the Beatles and the Stones shared music back in 1963 so probably a lot more overlap than we all knew about, at least I knew about, so that's my, that's my answer, and I'm willing to be judged.
Matt
No, that's very cool, as I've said many times. A compelling argument can be made for all three bands. I think Jim, are you still keeping the running, running tally? Yeah, what's
what's the, what's the tally, Jim?
The Beatles. We don't have an exact count, but I can tell you the Beatles are leading on this question. So, Vin Zachariah of Ampica, you can, you can find out more about Ampica at ampica.com that's A M P I C A dot com. Thank you so much for joining us on The Chamber on podcast!
Vin
Thanks, Matt. Have a great day, everybody.
Matt
All right, Chamber On, everybody. Take care.