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A conversation with Cole Ashman about building resilience for everyone, not just homeowners with deep pockets
Here's the thing about power outages: they hit different people in wildly different ways.
For some of us, it's annoying. We can't watch Netflix. The Wi-Fi dies. Maybe we light a candle and call it cozy. But for a lot of people? It's actually dangerous. Medications that need refrigeration start warming up. Medical equipment stops working. Parents who work from home suddenly can't earn. Small business owners watch perishable inventory spoil in real time.
And here's what nobody wants to admit: this is happening more and more often. We're way past the point where losing power is just about being uncomfortable for a few hours.
Cole Ashman, who started Pila Energy, knows this better than most. He grew up in New Orleans and lived through Hurricane Katrina. One memory still shapes everything he does:
"One of the standout visuals post-storm were thousands of refrigerators discarded on the street… because people had been gone for weeks and the food had spoiled."
Years later, Cole ended up working on products like the Tesla Powerwall. That's when he started noticing something strange. People were dropping twenty grand on backup batteries—but not to power their whole house. Most of them just wanted to keep a handful of things running.
"It's usually one or two loads—a fridge, insulin, a CPAP machine, internet for work—that motivate people."
Makes sense, right? Except most people can't drop $20,000 on a home battery. And even if they could, installation is a whole thing. Which means the people who actually need backup power the most are the ones who can't get it.
Traditional backup systems—whole-home batteries, generators—assume a few things. You own your home. You can afford the upfront cost. You can deal with permits and electricians and installation that might take weeks.
Cole puts it plainly:
"About half of American households either rent or live in condos or multifamily buildings. Even if they could afford a Powerwall, they just can't get one."
So resilience—the ability to keep going when the grid fails—has quietly become something only certain people can afford. That's a problem.
The grid's getting squeezed from every direction. Infrastructure that was built decades ago is aging out. Meanwhile, we're plugging in way more stuff—electric cars, AI servers, data centers—all at once. And then there's climate change, which is making extreme weather way more common.
"There have been more billion-dollar weather disasters in the last three years than in the entire Katrina decade combined."
Sure, utilities are working on upgrades. But that stuff takes years. People need help now, not in 2030.
Pila's approach is refreshingly straightforward: portable batteries that you can plug in yourself. No electrician. No permanent installation. No waiting.
"We need solutions that are as smart as a Powerwall, but as affordable as smaller battery packs."
Instead of one massive system that powers everything, you put batteries where they actually matter. One above your fridge. Another under your desk to keep your router alive. Maybe one in the garage for your sump pump. You start with what you need and add more over time. It's not sexy. But it works.
Here's where it gets interesting. Multiple Pila units can talk to each other, kind of like those mesh Wi-Fi systems everyone uses now.
"Just like mesh Wi-Fi, you build it out based on your needs—one for an apartment, more for a larger home."
When they're connected, the batteries can coordinate to stretch out backup time, shift energy use to cheaper hours, and basically act smarter together than they would alone. That works whether you're renting a studio or own a house.
Suddenly resilience isn't just for people who own property and have savings accounts. It's something you can actually build over time.
The whole conversation really boils down to one idea:
"What matters most is the upfront cost and whether people can get started today."
As outages get more frequent and the grid gets more strained, we can't keep pretending that resilience is something only homeowners with money can have. There's a better way—one that meets people where they are and protects what actually matters to them.
One fridge at a time. One household at a time.
Tags: energy, sustainability, climate resilience, emergency preparedness, renewable energy, innovation
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