Why We Started Red Shield Consulting — And What’s Next

Energy has become one of the least predictable line items on a business balance sheet.

Price volatility, infrastructure constraints, regulatory changes, and rapid load growth are reshaping electricity and natural gas markets across the country. For many businesses, costs are rising not because of increased usage—but because the rules, risks, and market dynamics have shifted underneath them.

Red Shield Consulting was formed in response to that reality.

I’m Eric Rothschild, founder of Red Shield Consulting Services. I played a key role in launching Green Mountain Energy’s commercial and industrial business, gaining early, hands-on experience building retail energy offerings for sophisticated customers in competitive power markets. I later spent years with GDS Associates, serving clients such as HEB Grocery and Martin Marietta Materials, where my work focused on aligning energy strategy with operational and capital planning across large, multi-site portfolios.

Alongside that work, I spent years operating food and hospitality businesses—where cash flow is tight, downtime is costly, and utility bills are impossible to ignore. That combination shaped how Red Shield approaches energy: not as an abstract market exercise, but as a controllable operating cost that deserves the same discipline as labor, rent, or supply chain decisions.

While my background includes advising some of the country’s largest energy users, I’m equally motivated by helping growing businesses and hospitality operators receive “big-company” treatment—detailed analysis, tailored procurement strategies, and proactive market guidance that smaller customers rarely receive. The goal is straightforward: give local businesses and expanding regional operators the same level of insight and advocacy that national chains expect, turning energy from a distraction into a strategic advantage.

Our work today focuses on helping businesses:

• Reduce exposure to volatile power and gas markets

• Avoid overpaying under default or misaligned utility tariffs

• Align procurement decisions with how facilities actually operate

• Improve budget certainty in uncertain market conditions

This blog will build on that work.

Stay tuned as we publish practical, market-focused insights on:

• Regional electricity markets and how they differ (ERCOT, PJM, NYISO, and beyond)

• Emerging issues like AI-driven load growth, congestion, and infrastructure constraints

• Regulatory and utility changes that quietly reshape commercial energy bills

• Industry-specific energy challenges for hospitality, agriculture, and energy-intensive operations

Our goal is to make complex energy topics more actionable—so businesses can make better decisions before costs escalate, not after.

More to come.

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