Arushi Sharma Frank is the founder of Luminary Strategies, a consulting firm that helps utilities, retail electric service companies, independent storage developers, and technology vendors work better together and with regulators to drive electrification readiness, grid modernization, virtual power plant (VPP), resilience and backup power, and wholesale-integrated programs. Sharma Frank has been a market design leader at prominent national trade associations in Washington, DC (American Gas Association and Electric Power Supply Association) (2011-2016), the lead in-house counsel for compliance of the Exelon Generation power plant fleet with the rules of 7 grid operators and NERC (2016-2020), and the policy and market entry lead for Tesla’s US energy wholesale and retail businesses (2020-2024). She has launched several tech-utility-grid programs and has represented utilities and merchant generators in major initiatives before the White House, federal agencies (CFTC, DOE, DOI, EPA, FERC, NERC, SEC, USACE), local and state agencies, and U.S. and Canadian grid operators. In her trade association roles, Sharma Frank collaborated extensively with Washington D.C. regulatory and Congressional affairs teams on major issues like Dodd-Frank implementation and FERC dockets like price formation, capacity market reform, and gas-electric coordination. Sharma Frank is also an expert in utility and grid operator dispatch program design, wholesale and retail law and compliance for utilities, and grid participation tariffs and governance. She is responsible for foundational legal, policy, and regulatory market design work for resilience and virtual power plant programs including the Battery Emergency Demand Response Program (CBES Puerto Rico), the Texas Aggregated DER Project, ERCOT wholesale-backup power microgrids, and most recently, on behalf of Together New Orleans, expanding the opportunity for the City to apply $32 million in utility settlement funds to expand solar-battery microgrid and residential VPP investment. Sharma Frank is an independent subject matter expert appointee to the PUC of Texas Aggregated DER Task Force and advises national labs and government agencies on reports and studies in this area. She is an Executive Council member of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center, University of Texas, and a guest lecturer at graduate programs nationwide. Materials from Sharma Frank’s academic seminars and lectures are available at https://arushisharmafrank.substack.com