Energy Capital Podcast

ERCOT’s current rulemaking process will shape the Texas grid for decades, driving infrastructure investments that last 30 to 50 years and cost billions of dollars.During this year’s SXSW Texas Future’s Summit in Austin, ERCOT Chief Executive Pablo Vegas sat down with Energy Capital Podcast hosts Josh Rhodes and Matt Boms to explain the grid operator’s approach.ERCOT has added more than 60 gigawatts of new supply since the devastating Winter Storm Uri blackouts in 2021, and battery storage resources have grown from a few hundred megawatts to more than 16 gigawatts. Vegas said the grid is more reliable today than it was three years ago. The challenge now is to plan for what’s coming. Last month, ERCOT announced that load interconnection requests now exceed 410 gigawatts. For comparison, existing load has peaked at around 85 gigawatts in recent years. New data centers drive much of that growth.In this episode, Vegas described how ERCOT determines which projects in the interconnection pipeline are likely to be built. Even a fraction of those projects could reshape the system, especially if data centers arrive in the concentrations that some projections suggest.Vegas also walked through ERCOT’s proposed batch study process for reviewing large load interconnection requests, and why the current one-review-at-a-time approach is inadequate given growing load projectionsAnd he discussed residential demand response — and why it may be a faster path to reliability than building new generation or transmission.The ERCOT grid is growing like never before — yet demand is growing even faster. ERCOT’s response to this challenge will shape our grid and our economy for generations. Check out this week’s episode to learn more about what that response will look like.Energy Capital Podcast is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps* 00:00 - Introduction and Pablo Vegas* 03:40 - Lessons from Winter Storm Uri* 05:42 - How 60 GW of New Supply Changed the Grid* 09:18 - Filtering the 230 GW Load Forecast* 13:28 - Why Data Center Load Broke the Old Process* 19:15 - How ERCOT’s Batch Study Process Works* 22:02 - DERs and the Distribution Grid* 26:57 - Real-Time Co-optimization and RTC+B* 30:11 - Battery Duration vs. Flexibility* 33:26 - Residential Demand Response* 36:41 - How ERCOT Is Using AI* 40:35 - What Texas Should Learn and ExportResourcesPeople & Organizations* Pablo Vegas (LinkedIn)* ERCOT (Website)* Joshua Rhodes (LinkedIn)* Webber Energy Group (Website - LinkedIn)* IdeaSmiths (Website - LinkedIn)* Matt Boms (LinkedIn)* Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (Website - LinkedIn)* Energy Capital (Website - LinkedIn - YouTube)Company & Industry News* ERCOT Goes Live with Real-Time Co-optimization Plus Batteries* RTC Deployed, ERCOT Takes on New Challenges in 2026* New Batch Study Framework for Large Load Interconnections* Texas Task Force Aims to Tear Down Barriers to Virtual Power Plant PilotPrograms & Processes Discussed* ERCOT Large Load Integration* ERCOT Large Load Working Group* Real-Time Co-optimization Plus Batteries Task Force* Aggregate Distributed Energy Resource Pilot ProjectRelated Podcasts by Energy Capital* Who Pays for Texas Grid Growth? Roundtable Discussion* Is Texas Ready for Winter Now? with Will McAdams* Flexibility Driving Reliability and Affordability with Matt BomsTranscriptJoshua Rhodes (01:37.714)the most in the first few years leading our cup? Pablo Vegas (01:40.878)I guess what’s been really interesting learning is, and when you work in the utilities space, and I worked in the utility space in Arcox, back in Albuquerque, Texas, but I’ve worked in the utility space, as you said, for quite a while, for over about 20 years. Pablo Vegas (01:56.908)I was surprised how different grid operations is from what it looks like inside of the utility. So the issues that the grid operator deals with in contrast to what a utility company deals with is pretty stark. And while there’s a lot of kind of overlap on elements of it, of course, but kind of the focus of what we’re looking at, which is, you know, looking at all of the issues across all the different components and players in the system, it’s a lot more complex trying to consider all of the Pablo Vegas (02:26.67)needs of the different stakeholders that are part of the process. When you’re a utility company, you’re always laser focused on your customers, you know, directly, and you’re serving them and you’re making sure that you are working constructively with, you know, your regulators and policymakers to serve your customers. At the grid operator level, the customers are still a very critical part of the conversation, but you’re doing that through one layer removed in helping to oversee the processes. Pablo Vegas (02:52.354)that govern the utilities and the power producers and the retail electric providers and the brokers and traders, the large industrials and the small consumer, everything in between. And so you’re really thinking about kind of the polic

Texas built its electricity market to react quickly to changes in demand, attract private capital, and protect ratepayers from private-sector investment risk.A wave of large load interconnection requests is testing that model.In this conversation, Katie Coleman, a leading Texas energy lawyer and partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, describes the pressure points facing the ERCOT grid. Officials are scrambling to determine which loads are real, how quickly they will arrive, and how the state should build transmission and other infrastructure to support them.Coleman brings ERCOT’s challenge into focus. She explains how customers behave differently — signing different contracts, facing different operating constraints, and placing different demands on the system — and grid managers have to juggle those variables.She also walks through a basic divide in the Texas market between generation and transmission. Private investors assume the risk of building generation. But with transmission, regulated utilities must get permission from the PUC to build power lines and then charge consumers for them (plus profit margin) over time.As interconnection requests climb and forecasts shift, these infrastructure decisions will become increasingly important — for the ERCOT grid and Texans’ power bills.The episode explores a range of issues, including:* How ERCOT and policymakers should judge new load forecasts.* Why transmission planning is a central constraint.* How Texas can preserve market discipline while serving growth.Coleman also points to the importance of regulatory stability. As large customers, generators, and utilities make long-term decisions about growth and investment, they need an energy market they can read.That predictability becomes even more crucial, Coleman says, as Texas debates how to respond to unprecedented demand growth.'Energy Capital Podcast is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps* 00:00 - Introduction & Katie Coleman* 01:05 - Katie’s Energy Origin Story* 04:01 - Why She Represents Industrials* 05:55 - What Large Power Users Want* 08:56 - Speed to Power in Texas* 10:57 - How Industrial Demand Response Works* 17:04 - Crypto, Data Centers, and Misperceptions* 20:43 - How the Energy-Only Market Works* 28:27 - Load Forecasts and Transmission Risk* 36:46 - Bringing Generation With New Load* 38:49 - Why Texas Needs Stability* 40:32 - Final Reflections & CloseResourcesPeople & Organizations* Matt Boms (LinkedIn)* Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (Website - LinkedIn)* Energy Capital Podcast (LinkedIn - YouTube)* Katie Coleman (LinkedIn)* O’Melveny & Myers LLP (Website - LinkedIn)Related Podcasts by Texas Energy & Power* Who Pays for Texas Grid Growth? - Roundtable Discussion* More Power That’s Faster and Fairer* Where the Grid Goes from Here | Reading and Podcast Picks - Feb. 4, 2026* Another Winter Storm Bears Down on Texas | Reading and Podcast Picks - Jan. 23, 2026Transcript Matt Boms (00:05.198)Today, I’m really excited to be joined by Katie Coleman, managing partner of the Austin office at Olmelvney and Myers. Katie is one of the leading energy regulatory attorneys in Texas. She has more than 15 years of experience representing large industrial energy customers in ERCOT and before the Public Utility Commission of Texas. She’s best known for her work representing groups like the Texas Industrial Energy Consumers, TIEC, and the Texas Association of Manufacturers, TAM.helping shape some of the most important conversations around energy markets and policy in the state. Katie has also been deeply involved in the industry more broadly. She served as president of the Gulf Coast Power Association, and she previously led the state bar of Texas public utility law section. And across the energy community in Texas, she’s widely respected as one of the very best regulatory lawyers in our business. So Katie, thank you so much for making time for us, and thanks for joining the podcast today.Katie Coleman (01:03.726)Absolutely glad to be here.Matt Boms (01:05.558)I wanted to start with a layup and I wanted to ask you to just walk us through how you first got into energy. Like what is your origin story and how did you end up in this business?Katie Coleman (01:15.182)Yes, so I have no qualifications. I have no business doing this job that I’ve now been doing. My bio actually, I need to update it. This is actually the 20th year when I first started in the industry, which I count as when I clerked when I was in law school, which then turned into a permanent job. I spent the summer doing this, finished law school, and then came back in 2006. So it’s been 20 years now.I went to UT undergrad. I was a liberal arts major. I did a small honors program at UT called Plan To, which people at UT are familiar with, but a lot of other people aren’t. But it is just an interdisciplinary liberal arts honors program. So I had no idea what I was going to do. And I did that very cliched thing where I took the LSAT to see how I did

For a century, the Strait of Hormuz has been one of the world’s key energy choke points. But during the past couple of decades, the U.S. relationship to the shipping lane has changed.In this special episode of the Energy Capital Podcast, Josh Rhodes talks with Michael Webber about what the Iran conflict means now, especially for Texas. The U.S. is not as vulnerable to oil shortage as it once was, but greater energy self-sufficiency does not insulate the country from global prices.The U.S. now produces more oil and gas than it did in the 1970s, when another energy crisis rooted in the Middle East rattled the U.S. economy. That leaves the nation less vulnerable from a security perspective.But consumers in Texas are still tied to global markets through pricing, refining constraints, and fuel trade flows. As Webber explains, even if the country has enough energy overall, price spikes abroad can still show up here at the pump, and they can linger.The conversation gets into a few issues that will develop over the coming weeks and months:* Why gasoline and diesel prices may rise with a delay, then fall more slowly than consumers expect.* Why U.S. oil abundance does not fully protect Americans from disruption overseas.* Why Texas benefits, and what’s at risk, from the state’s current energy mix.Rhodes and Webber also stress that resilience covers a range of issues: what resources can be refined, what generation and infrastructure can be built, and how quickly the system can adapt to challenges. That spotlights variables including refining capacity, permitting reform, and the roles of wind, solar, batteries, and electrification in reducing exposure to fuel volatility.The episode explores how Texas fits into a deeply interconnected global energy system, even after the state’s shale revolution.The unresolved question: if the disruption in the Middle East continues, where will the state’s real vulnerabilities start to show?Energy Capital Podcast is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps* 00:00 - Iran Conflict & U.S. Exposure* 02:29 - Why Prices May Rise* 03:57 - Self-Sufficient, Still Coupled* 06:07 - Texas Refining Constraints* 08:03 - SPR, Export Bans, and Policy Tools* 10:48 - Renewables, Gas, and Energy Security* 16:35 - Affordability Politics* 19:14 - Permitting Reform & OutroResourcesPeople & Organizations* Texas Energy & Power (Website - LinkedIn - YouTube)* Joshua Rhodes (LinkedIn)* IdeaSmiths (Website - LinkedIn)* Michael Webber (LinkedIn)* Webber Energy Group (Website - LinkedIn)* International Energy Agency (Website)* U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (Website)Company & Industry News* US gasoline prices soar past $3.75 a gallon as Middle East war rages on* Oil settles up 9% as Iran vows to keep Strait of Hormuz closed* Goldman Sachs raises Q4 Brent, WTI crude price forecast amid longer Hormuz disruption* Here’s the energy policy we need for the war in IranRelated Podcasts by Energy Capital Podcast* Build Fast or Fall Behind with Michael Webber* Interview with Energy Expert Dr. Michael WebberRelated Posts by Texas Energy & Power* The Growing Importance of Energy Efficiency* Why Are Energy Bills Rising So Fast?TranscriptJoshua Rhodes (00:05.558)Welcome to the Energy Capital podcast. This is a bit of a special edition where we’re going to talk to Dr. Weber again. We’re talking on Friday, March 13th, and we’re really kind of doing a little bit of a current events type take on the energy impacts of the current conflict in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Dr. Weber just published an article or an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle where he just talked about the energy implications of what that would mean for the U.S. Joshua Rhodes (00:33.624)So Dr. Michael Weber, welcome back to the Energy Capital Podcast. Michael Webber (00:39.502)Thanks so much. It was great to be here and have another conversation with you. I appreciate you inviting me. Absolutely. Joshua Rhodes (00:43.854)Well, Joshua Rhodes (00:44.234)let’s dive in. You wrote in your op-ed that the energy risks we worried about 20 years ago, like disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz, that are actually happening right now, but you argue that the U.S. might not care as much this time around. Why is that? Michael Webber (00:58.51)That’s right. say that first of all, the risks of the Strait of Hormuz have been known since the seventies, but really amplified as a risk in the eighties with the Iran-Iraq-Tinker war that happened in the eighties and is really the main justification for why the US Navy projects so much force there just to keep the shipping lanes open, all that kind of thing. So the risk of the Strait of Hormuz as a choke point for global commerce around oil and refined products and helium and aluminum and other things like fertilizer area, that’s been known. But what has changed is how much we might care. Michael Webber (01:27.648)So 20 years ago, when I studied this for Think Tank doing national security work for the Pentagon, we identified the closure