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

For a long time, the basic story in U.S. energy was stability. Demand growth had flattened, efficiency was doing more work than most people realized, and expansion was steady.Not anymore.In this week’s conversation, Josh Rhodes talks with Michael Webber about what may be the most important shift now underway in energy: the dramatic growth in electricity demand, in Texas and beyond. Data centers are a big part of the story, but not all of it. Electrification, industrial growth, and population growth are also fueling the need for more energy.In this episode, Webber notes that energy progress moves fastest when markets, policy, and engineering align. That is true for shale development, and it may be true again with the coming growth of the grid.Texas is well-positioned to lead this next stage of energy development — we have a strong energy base, growing demand, and a mix of technologies competing to meet it. Josh and Michael talk through why geothermal power is gaining attention, why nuclear expansion plans feel different this time, and why wind, solar, storage, gas, and transmission remain essential.They also address a problem that is becoming hard to ignore: new load can be built faster than new generation, and new generation can be built faster than transmission. That mismatch is showing up in transformer backlogs, turbine supply constraints, and growing pressure to move much faster than some energy executives are used to.n many cases, the challenge Texas faces is not a lack of energy throughout the year — rather, it’s a shortage of power during a relatively small number of peak hours. That has real implications for cost, reliability, and what kinds of loads and technologies make sense for ERCOT.Tune in to hear Michael and Josh talk through those challenges — and opportunities.Energy Capital Podcast is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps* 00:03 – Introduction & Michael Webber Background* 01:14 – The Energy Three-Body Problem* 04:16 – Shale Revolution & Forecasting Misses* 08:42 – Webber’s 2029 Energy Predictions* 09:42 – Why Efficiency Still Matters* 13:37 – Gasoline, Natural Gas & Texas Exports* 18:13 – Electrifying the Texas Oil Patch* 19:45 – Why Webber Is Bullish on Geothermal* 23:32 – Nuclear’s New Momentum* 26:27 – The Three-Part Energy Transition* 33:30 – Scarcity, Flexibility & Data Centers* 39:11 – Build Faster, Then Career Advice* 45:15 – Closing & OutroResourcesPeople & Organizations* Joshua Rhodes (LinkedIn)* IdeaSmiths (Website - LinkedIn)* Michael Webber (Website - LinkedIn)* Webber Energy Group (Website - LinkedIn)Company & Industry News* US power use to beat record highs in 2026 and 2027 as AI use surges, EIA says* GE Vernova expects to end 2025 with an 80-GW gas turbine backlog that stretches into 2029* A tour of global geothermal projects in progressBooks & Articles Discussed* Annual Energy Outlook Products - Archive* Energy Policy Act of 2005Related Podcasts by Energy Capital* Interview with Energy Expert Dr. Michael Webber* Drilling for Geothermal Power and Storage with Cindy Taff* More Power that’s Faster and FairerRelated Posts by Texas Energy & Power* Reading & Podcast Picks — March 4, 2025: Data Centers, Nukes, VPPs, and More* The Growing Importance of Energy Efficiency, Reading and Podcast PicksTranscriptJoshua Rhodes (00:03.726)Hey everyone, and welcome to the Energy Capital podcast. I am really excited to have Dr. Michael Weber on to talk about, well, energy. He’s an energy guy, and I’m really excited to talk to him about energy and Texas energy and all kinds of things. Most of you probably know Michael, but just really quickly, he’s got a PhD from mechanical engineering from Stanford. He’s worked at Rand, various clean energy incubators, really been in kind of the energy space for a long time. Joshua Rhodes (00:32.472)But really the kind of the main areas right now that Michael’s he’s a double chaired professor at the University of Texas, which is pretty rare thing. The Sid Richardson chair at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Cockrell family chair number 16 in mechanical engineering. He’s a former CTO at Energy Impact Partners, which is a big climate clean tech venture fund and a former chief science and technology officer at Engie, one of the world’s largest energy companies, as well as a founding partner of Ideasmus upon which he and I work together. Joshua Rhodes (01:01.688)So he really sits at the intersection of engineering and policy and commercialization. Welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. Dr. Michael Webber (01:10.008)Thanks for having me. Very excited to be part of the conversation today after being a long time listener. Joshua Rhodes (01:14.574)And so you really are kind of like a rare three world energy person. I mean you’ve kind of like gone across the spectrum from engineering to policy and you know commercialization. One of the things that this actually reminded me of and I’m gonna go off script almost immediately is kind of like the three body p

Behind the scenes, every few minutes, the ERCOT system generates tens of thousands of price signals, outage updates, and operational reports that demonstrate and drive the cost and availability of electricity.Most of that data is public. But how can Texans access it?This week, Joshua Rhodes talks with Max Kanter, chief executive officer of GridStatus, about the gap between public data and practical visibility and application, and why that matters in Texas.In this episode, they discuss:* Why public grid data is harder to use than it would seem.* What real-time pricing signals reveal about system stress.* How outage and congestion data shape ERCOT debates.There are more than 70,000 pricing nodes across U.S. energy markets, updating every five minutes. ERCOT alone produces enormous volumes of operational data.Those signals often spotlight stresses on the system before they show up in prices and control rooms.As Texas adds new industrial loads and faces continued risks from extreme weather, more policymakers, analysts, and large customers want to know what’s coming. They’re looking for distress signals.On this week’s episode, Josh and Max tell you where to find them – and what to do with them.Timestamps* 00:06 – Welcome, Max Kanter intro* 02:00 – Computer science, AI shifts* 03:32 – What is GridStatus?* 04:36 – What users see first* 05:31 – Who uses GridStatus today* 06:56 – Tiers, hobbyists, accessibility* 07:52 – AI tools, new builders* 09:47 – Why a business existed* 12:49 – Early demand validated product* 14:18 – From carbon to markets* 16:44 – Data scale, nodal pricing map* 32:20 – Flip script, Rhodes on public roleResourcesGuest & Company• Max Kanter - LinkedIn • Grid Status - LinkedInCompany & Industry News• The power grid is hard to understand. This startup is trying to help. • Why We Invested in Grid Status Related Podcasts by TEAP• The New Rules Behind ERCOT Prices with Andrew Reimers • Who Pays for Texas Grid Growth? - Roundtable Discussion• Texas’ Load Growth Challenges – And Opportunities, with Arushi Sharma FrankEnergy Capital Podcast is produced by ClarityForge Studios.TranscriptJoshua Rhodes (00:05.778)everyone, and welcome to the Energy Capital podcast. I am really excited to have Max Cantor, CEO of GridStatus on today to just talk about data, all the data that are coming off the grid and everything like that. If you’re steeped in grids, you’ve probably heard of GridStatus, you’ve probably seen at least a screenshot of dashboards and things like that floating around social media. But one of the things I wanted to bring to this podcast was to kind of dig a little bit deeper into some of the more technical side of things. And I promised all Joshua Rhodes (00:35.278)I’d be listeners that I wouldn’t completely bore you to tears with data, but we are going to talk about it a little bit because it is so important. So we have Max Cantor on. has a bachelor’s and a master’s of computer science from MIT. And I don’t usually name check theses, but this one actually caught my eye. So his master’s thesis was the data science machine emulating human intelligence in data science endeavors, which sounds like a harbinger of basically AI. We’ll get back to that here in a bit. Joshua Rhodes (01:05.294)He started off as CEO and co-founder of Feature Labs, which was acquired by Alteryx in 2019. At that point, was the VP of Engineering at Alteryx for the next couple of years before going back to MIT as a visiting scholar in the Data to AI lab, where at that time when he was at MIT, launched Grid Status in August of 2022. And the tagline, or at least the one that’s on his socials is, the future of the electric grid runs on data and AI. Grid Status provides Joshua Rhodes (01:34.562)data and insights for the understanding, investing and operating of the electrical grid. And our goal is to be the most trusted source for whatever is happening on the grid. Max Kanner, welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. Max Kanter (01:47.522)Thank you, Joshua. Happy to be here. Joshua Rhodes (01:49.452)Yeah, I should probably say full disclosure, I’m actually a client as well. So I have a subscription to GridStatus. So thank you for making it so easy to get all of these data. Max Kanter (01:58.456)Yeah, that was the goal from the very beginning. Joshua Rhodes (02:00.46)Yeah, no, I think it’s worked out quite a bit. It’s much easier. I wanted to actually immediately kind of go off script. Your bachelor’s and master’s are in computer science. Do you have a feel for what computer science means today, kind of in this age of AI? How has it changed since you were there? Max Kanter (02:16.312)Computer science as an academic field is younger than many, right? So things like biology or physics, right? Computer science, I’d have to double check, but I think it’s probably a phrase that has only formally been studied for less than a hundred years. And so it’s come a long way in just that time from something minor to one of the hottest topics. One

Texas’s new era of electricity demand is forcing policymakers to walk an unprecedented tightrope.The state has to keep the lights on – and it has to make sure that Texans can afford to do so..Massive load growth from data centers, population, and electrification is teeing up existential questions for the ERCOT grid. How do we build what we need without overbuilding? And how do we avoid burdening households with costs that businesses and large users should be paying?Those questions framed our latest Energy Capital roundtable with Matt Boms and Dr. Joshua Rhodes.Why bills are rising faster than people expectUtilities across the country are planning massive infrastructure investments over the next several years, and Texas is leading the way. Between new generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades, the price tag for this growth is substantial.Texas has covered recent load growth primarily with a mix of solar, wind and batteries. Some state leaders have prioritized new gas plants as well, though capital costs for these facilities has more than doubled in some cases, even as wait lists for turbines have grown.At the same time, transmission and distribution companies are filing rate cases tied to resiliency, reliability, and growth. Those investments often show up in rates years before customers see any economic benefit from load growth.What’s driving costs matters more than everAs large new loads, especially data centers, request connection to the grid, the question of who pays becomes unavoidable.The basic principle is simple: if infrastructure is built for a specific customer, that customer should bear the cost. If infrastructure provides broad system value, then costs should be shared. Problems arise when all customers pay for expensive upgrades to cover loads that may be temporary or never fully materialize – especially with transformers, substations, and core hardware now costing multiples more than they did just a few years ago.Without guardrails, Texas risks building expensive infrastructure that everyone pays for, even if demand disappears for the energy that infrastructure is meant to support.Underused toolsThere are ways to blunt this load-growth pressure.Distributed energy resources (i.e. community power or local power), demand response, and energy waste reduction can reduce peak demand and delay or avoid costly grid upgrades. In many cases, these solutions are faster and cheaper than traditional investments in poles and wires.Analyses show that even modest levels of community power can save ratepayers meaningful amounts of money by deferring transmission and distribution spending while also delivering wholesale market value.One way or another, decisions made in upcoming utility rate cases will lock in costs for decades.Grid growth is real. Infrastructure costs are rising. Ignoring either won’t protect customers. The state must align costs with the parties driving them, wringing out value from lower-cost flexibility strategies before committing to the most expensive build-outs.If Texas effectively walks the line between affordability and reliability, this period of load growth can strengthen the grid without punishing Texans who rely on it.Timestamps* 00:06 – Rising Costs, Rising Stakes* 01:17 – Load Growth and System Pressure* 03:16 – Gas Dependence and Fuel Risk* 06:21 – New Generation Costs and Competition* 07:05 – Oncor Rate Case, $830M Request* 08:27 – Who Pays, ERCOT vs Other States* 12:08 – Driveway vs Highway Cost Test* 15:33 – Capital Bias and Regulatory Incentives* 18:49 – Avoiding Rate Shock, Role of DERs* 24:07 – Higher Prices, Solar Payback Effect* 34:12 – Missing Price Signals in Distribution* 37:05 – Final Takeaways and WrapResourcesHosts Platforms* Texas Energy & Power - LinkedIn, Twitter (X), and Bluesky* Micalah Spenrath - LinkedIn* Matt Boms - LinkedIn * Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) - LinkedIn* Joshua Rhodes - LinkedIn * IdeaSmiths * Webber Energy Group, UT Austin Company & Industry News* Electricity rate hikes slash commercial solar payback periods by 33%, says Wood Mackenzie (pv magazine USA) * Rising retail rates are accelerating commercial solar payback periods (Wood Mackenzie) * The Value of Integrating Distributed Energy Resources in Texas (Advanced Energy United) * TAEBA news page, DER study links (Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance)* CenterPoint raises 10-year spending plan to $65.5B (Reuters)Related Podcasts by TEAP* More Power that’s Faster and Fairer, Roundtable Discussion (TEAP) * Why Are Utility Bills Rising So Fast? (Powerlines) (TEAP) * Distributed Energy Resources and all-of-the-above energy solutions (TEAP)* Texas’ Load Growth Challenges, And Opportunities (TEAP) * Texas Needs a Vision for Customer-Side Solutions (TEAP) * Where the Grid Goes from Here, Reading and Podcast Picks (TEAP)Energy Capital Podcast is produced by ClarityForge Studios.TranscriptMicalah Spenrath (00:05.55)Hi everybody and welcome back to the Energy Capital podcas

Texas keeps adding load, adding generation, and adding complexity. But attracting the next wave of investment often comes down to a crucial question:How does ERCOT use market forces – especially signals that determine where energy prices are set – to boost reliability on the grid?In this episode, Josh Rhodes sits down with Andrew Reimers to pull back the curtain on the machinery most people never see, including operating reserves, scarcity pricing, and what changed when ERCOT launched real-time co-optimization in December.The quiet lever: reserves, scarcity, and incentivesAndrew breaks down the pricing story to a simple idea: when electricity on the grid gets tight, the value of the next increment of reliability rises fast, which should signal to investors that they can make money by building more generation in Texas. ERCOT tries to reflect that through scarcity pricing and its operating reserve demand curve.The hard part is running the grid in a way that ensures affordable, reliable electricity, and that doesn’t smother the very price signal that’s supposed to attract new capacity to the market.“Carrying this large volume of operating reserves… you can suppress the prices… disincentivizing investments in new generation.”That tension – lowering the risk of outages today vs. maintaining investable signals for tomorrow – drives the entire market design debate in Texas.Reliability policy is also investment policy.What changed on Dec. 5, and why it mattersIn this episode, Josh and Andrew discuss ERCOT’s move to real-time co-optimization late last year and what it means for the ways reserves are procured and obligations show up in real time. That can change outcomes, even if the physical grid looks the same.The conversation covers:* Why pricing can look wrong even when the grid is fine.* How rule changes can create unexpected incentives.* Why these mechanics matter more as demand rises and the resource mix shifts.Batteries, forecasting, and the value of looking aheadJosh and Andrew also show how this all connects to batteries.Andrew frames batteries as a question of timing and trade-offs, not just megawatts.“Batteries… it’s opportunity cost. If I discharge now, I can’t necessarily discharge in the future.”If ERCOT’s market structure encourages operators to look ahead even an hour or two, the state will end up valuing flexibility more intelligently – and customers will avoid the excess cost of simply buying more reserves to cover forecasting errors.Final ThoughtsThis episode shows that the Texas grid is not just about steel in the ground. It’s also a unique, and largely successful, experiment in how free-market policy – with smart guardrails – can translate individual investment into reliability for all.If you want to understand why ERCOT decisions spark so much argument, and why market design tweaks can have outsized consequences, this conversation is a great map.If this prompted questions for you, drop one in the comments. And if you know someone who cares about ERCOT prices but hates reading market docs, send them this episode.Energy Capital Podcast is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps:* 00:05 – Episode Setup, Why This Matters* 01:09 – Andrew Reimers, Role of the IMM* 05:03 – Operating Reserves and Market Design* 09:55 – Real-Time Co-Optimization Explained* 14:30 – ERCOT vs Other Markets* 16:42 – Post-Uri Conservatism and Price Signals* 19:12 – Scarcity Pricing and Investment Incentives* 23:50 – DRRS, RUC, and Reliability Tradeoffs* 28:26 – NPRR 1309 vs 1310 Debate* 31:02 – Load Forecasting and “Officer Letter Load”* 36:55 – Solar, Wind, and Shifting Peak Dynamics* 40:45 – Batteries and Multi-Interval Markets* 49:15 – Out-of-Market Actions and Hidden Impacts* 53:59 – Final Takeaways and Wrap-UpResources:Guest & Company* Andrew Reimers (LinkedIn) * Potomac Economics (Website - LinkedIn) * Potomac Economics - ERCOT IMM overview* Joshua Rhodes (LinkedIn) * Webber Energy Group (LinkedIn) * IdeaSmiths (Website - LinkedIn) Company & Industry News* ERCOT NPRR 1310, IMM comments (Feb 3, 2026) * S&P Global, ERCOT ancillary services rule changes and IMM perspective (Aug 6, 2025) * RTO Insider, ERCOT and IMM ancillary services study (Jul 1, 2024) * Potomac Economics, 2024 State of the Market Report for ERCOT (PDF) Books & Articles Discussed* Ancillary Service Study, Initial IMM Results (Aug 28, 2024) TranscriptJosh Rhodes (00:05.174)Right now, Texas is planning for rapid load growth while still catching up on transmission and interconnection constraints. The challenge is not whether demand is coming, but how fast the system can realistically respond. Welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast, where we cover the decisions, data, and debates shaping the Texas grid and the energy future. I’m your host, Joshua Rhodes. Today’s guest is Andrew Reimers. He’s deputy director of ERCOT at Potomac Economics, the independent market monitor. Andrew is an expert on grid planning, Josh Rhodes (00:35.234)load growth, and how infra

Every time a winter storm hits, Texans run through a mental checklist: gather more blankets, drip the pipes, and hope the grid holds up. Kurt Heim, Vice President of Environmental Advancement at Daikin Comfort Technologies North America Inc., understands why that anxiety stuck after 2021’s devastating Winter Storm Uri.But this reliability and affordability problem has a surprisingly accessible solution.In this episode, Kurt and host Matt Boms zero in on a big part of winter peak demand that doesn’t get enough attention: electric resistance heating, especially in older houses and apartments. These systems use excessive amounts of electricity to heat homes in one of the least efficient ways possible.It’s an easy issue to miss … until you run the math for millions of housing units.As Matt notes, if Texas has to serve roughly 12 gigawatts of resistance heating load during extreme cold temperatures, that represents real low-hanging fruit. Addressing it would fortify the grid in a way that helps Texans who struggle to afford their power bills:“What it would do is pay some really good dividends around affordability.”Kurt also talks about “flattening the peaks” so Texas gets more value out of infrastructure that Texans already paid for, instead of constantly adding fixed costs that show up in rates.That framing lands even harder in light of ERCOT’s booming load forecasts: if Texas is serious about serving this growth, we should be just as serious about reducing waste, especially during the most extreme weather.Policy levers that are already movingDiving into the weeds, Kurt discusses updates to the technical reference manual that sets industry calculations for energy efficiency. The updates will make it easier for new construction and multifamily development to have more efficient systems. New construction is only part of the story—improving existing structures will take more work. But as this episode makes clear, such investments will pay off in greater reliability and affordability.Final ThoughtsTexas can chase growth and reliability at the same time. But we can’t afford to do so with outdated systems that exacerbate grid weaknesses and punish the people least able to absorb their bills.The grid has a waste problem. Texas needs to deal with it. The best place to start is with a readily accessible solution that addresses a clear problem, lowers bills, frees up capacity when Texas needs it the most, and allows the grid to keep growing.If this sparked a question for you, drop it in the comments. And if you know someone who still thinks winter reliability is only about power plants, send them this episode.Energy Capital is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timeline:* 00:00 – Winter peaks, why it matters* 01:20 – Kurt Heim, background* 02:59 – Winter anxiety, resilience mindset* 05:08 – The resistance heating problem* 07:08 – How big these loads get* 09:21 – Heat pumps, how they work* 13:11 – Climate tech, variable speed* 15:10 – Efficiency math, 1x vs 2–4x* 16:50 – Economics, bills and adoption* 18:57 – ACEEE study, scale of savings* 26:58 – What blocks heat pump adoption* 29:05 – Codes, standards, and design basis* 35:30 – Incentives and contractor training* 37:53 – Political will, signs of progressResources:Guest & Company* Kurt Heim - LinkedIn * Daikin Comfort - LinkedIn * Matt Boms - LinkedIn* Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance - LinkedInBooks & Articles Discussed* Transforming Texas: How Heat Pumps Can Replace Electric Resistance Heat, Reducing Costs and Winter Power Peaks * Quantifying the impact of residential space heating electrification on the Texas electric grid* Our Homes Aren’t Ready for Extreme Cold and Power OutagesRelated Posts by Texas Energy and Power* Texas Got Tested, Grid Stayed Upright* 2022 Cold Snap Shows Resistance is Futile* ERCOT calculates a 1:7 chance of outages in December; could be worse in January and February* ERCOT Still Doesn’t Understand Winter Demand* NRG’s Gigawatt VPP in Texas with Travis KavullaExternal References and Tools* Energy Efficiency at the PUCT* Texas Climate Zones by County * State Energy Conservation Office Programs TranscriptMatt Boms (00:05.004)Why does Texas continue to see winter peak demand spike so sharply during cold weather, even years after winter storm Uri put winter reliability front and center? Welcome back to the Energy Capital podcast. I’m Matt Bombs. And today we have a really special guest and someone I’ve been excited to talk with for a very long time. Joining me is Kurt Heim. Kurt is vice president of environmental advancement. Matt Boms (00:32.662)and Texas Government Affairs at Deichen Comfort Technologies, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of high efficiency heating and cooling systems. Kurt has spent more than two decades in the HVAC industry, including leading the development of Deichen’s massive manufacturing facility in Waller, Texas, one of the largest HVAC plants in the world. He works at the intersection of technology, manufact

Texas just got another winter gut-check—not on the level of the deadly 2021 freeze, but still with enough ice, outages, and anxious headlines to remind everyone how fast confidence can evaporate.In this episode, Matt Boms and Josh Rhodes unpack what they saw in real time. The biggest takeaways are simple: a lot has improved, and some of the hardest problems are still sitting right in the open.“There were a lot of questions… what has changed since Winter Storm Uri [in 2021]. The first part of that is absolutely the winterization efforts.”“Texas deserves a lot of credit for how far it’s come since then.”The first misunderstanding, grid vs. everything elseA chunk of what people experience as grid failure is not the bulk power system at all, but rather the distribution layer: the poles and wires in neighborhoods, tree limbs, cars that skid into poles, and ice that turns ordinary infrastructure into a brittle mess.That distinction matters:even if ERCOT grid is in decent shape, plenty of Texans could still be in the dark because local equipment gets wrecked.What actually got better since UriThe hosts give credit where it is due: far more power plants have been winterized since 2021.At the same time, their conversation keeps circling back to one big concern: natural gas.Texas leans hard on gas in peak winter conditions, so energy insiders end up asking some version of: Will the gas system hold up when demand spikes and the weather is ugly?That question is not ideological. It is operational.The quiet headline: new capacity, new shapeOver the last five years, Texas added a lot of generation, and a big share of it is solar plus batteries. That changes the daily rhythm of how ERCOT meets load.And it changes the conversation during winter events, too.Renewables and batteries strengthened the grid last weekend and helped shield Texans from theprice spikes that other regions saw. While batteries do not solve winter, this storm shows how they provide essential electricity when conditions are tight and every megawatt matters.Josh also gets specific about how people should think about storage—not as a magical substitute for everything else, but as a tool that can provide particular services at particular moments.The public narrative still lags the realityCoverage of extreme weather events often flattens into a single question: Did the grid fail?That framing misses the more interesting, more actionable questions:* What failed: generation, transmission, distribution, fuel supply, or communications?* What was close to failing, but did not?* What investments best reduce the next risk Texas will face?As the panelists note, there was some tightness and scarcity on the grid last weekend. It was not nothing. But it was nothing like the challenge we faced in 2021.The next wave is not weather, it is loadWinter events are the stress tests everyone feels, but load growth is the slow-motion pressure that can change everything, including market behavior and planning decisions.The hosts touch on the reality that even partial progress matters. That is not a victory lap, it is just what real system improvement looks like.As they note, Texas needs to focus on reliability math, not vibes. What policies move the needle, and what trade-offs Texans are making when we choose between speed, cost, and resilience?The ERCOT grid is getting stronger. Winterization has helped. The resource mix is changing quickly. Batteries are becoming real operational players. Gas still matters.But distribution outages still hurt. And load growth is coming, ready or not.Energy Capital is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps:* 00:05 – Winter Storm Fern, system performance* 01:56 – Uri comparisons and media anxiety* 03:17 – ERCOT forecasts, winterization progress* 05:21 – Batteries, frequency and morning ramp* 07:30 – Natural gas risk and Permian freeze-offs* 11:56 – Resistance heating and winter peak demand* 16:00 – Diversified grid, solar, wind, gas together* 24:33 – DOE order, demand response, what’s next This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.texasenergyandpower.com/subscribe

In two weeks, Texas will observe the five-year anniversary of Winter Storm Uri — the devastating 2021 freeze that drove electricity demand to unprecedented heights, froze gas lines and plants, and triggered a blackout that darkened nearly half of the state.The anniversary will come just days after the latest arctic blast hits Texas; this coming weekend, people across the state will likely see lows well below freezing, as well as snow and freezing rain.It’s meaningful that state leaders expressed confidence this week that “there will be sufficient generation to meet demand this winter,” thanks both to five years of weatherization efforts and burgeoning supplies of renewables, especially batteries.But as this week’s Energy Capital Podcast shows, the defining grid issue in Texas is not simply whether it will survive the next extreme weather event.It’s whether Texas can serve skyrocketing load growth without once again facing the systemic risk that Winter Storm Uri exposed.Former Texas PUC Commissioner Will McAdams joined The Energy Capital Podcast to reflect on what really went wrong five years ago, how Texas legislators and regulators responded, and what has to go right next.As McAdams notes, Uri was not a single failure — it was a cascading series of failures.“There were a number of events that occurred that stacked on top of each other. You had generation outages, you had frequency issues, you had other generators tripping offline as they tried to arrest the frequency freefall of the system. And then that led to deep load shed, situations where power was curtailed to the entire energy system. So it was a series of dominoes that ended up falling.”In the years since, the state has bolstered protections against extreme weather. ERCOT now conducts regular winterization inspections of generators, McAdams said, and the Public Utility Commission has authority to hold generators accountable.“ERCOT has hired hundreds of inspectors that go out every season to inspect to those standards… the PUC can fine [generators] up to a million dollars per day per incident where they’re out of compliance.”The state’s booming battery storage industry has also changed the game. In 2021, Texas had less than one gigawatt of batteries on the grid. Today, it has more than ten times that. McAdams said that dispatchable battery capacity can transform the way the system responds to a Uri-like emergency:“If we had had the batteries that we have today during Winter Storm Uri, those batteries would have instantaneously reacted. They would have arrested the frequency freefall, stabilized the system, and bought time for other generation to respond. That doesn’t mean it solves everything, but it changes the dynamics dramatically.”That helps ERCOT navigate extreme weather — and accommodate massive load growth.ERCOT’s large load interconnection queue grew nearly 300% last year, with large industrial and data-center loads seeking service at a scale ERCOT has never managed before. But just as he expressed confidence about the state of the grid heading into next winter storm, McAdams said the state is well-positioned to serve the economic growth that’s coming.“This feels unprecedented because of the size and speed, but Texas has gone through major load growth before. After World War II, with the buildout of air conditioning, we saw huge increases in demand. And we innovated our way through that. That’s what we’ve always done.”Five years after Uri, Texas is more prepared than it was in 2021. The grid is bigger, stronger, faster, and safer. That will matter this weekend, helping keep the lights on when the cold temperatures arrive. It will matter even more down the road, as large loads come to Texas. Please subscribe and share.Timestamps:* 00:05 – Intro, Will McAdams* 01:19 – PUC path, lessons from Uri* 05:20 – Weatherization rules, what changed* 07:33 – Demand growth, defining decade* 09:38 – Building generation, lead times* 11:45 – Why bills rose, T&D costs* 16:32 – DERs and new grid tech* 20:50 – ADER, dispatch at distribution level* 22:38 – Flexible demand, smart load shifting* 26:51 – Deferring wires, market incentives* 30:31 – Batteries, volatility, price impacts* 32:41 – Transmission vs DERs, politics* 35:17 – What Will is doing next* 38:52 – Final thanks and outroResources:Host, Guest & Company* Matt Boms - LinkedIn* Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance - LinkedIn* Will McAdams - Linkedin * McAdams Energy Group - LinkedIn* Texas Lobby StrategiesBooks, Articles, Reports Discussed* The Value of Integrating Distributed Energy Resources in Texas - TAEBA* Aggregate Distributed Energy Resource (ADER) Pilot Project* Winter Weather Readiness - ERCOT Related Podcasts • All Energy Capital Podcasts • Flexibility Driving Reliability and Affordability with Matt Boms• How AI Data Centers Can Go From Villain to Hero with Varun SivaramTranscript: Matt Boms (00:00.0)Hi everyone, I’m really excited to welcome Will McAdams to the podcast today. This is a real

Texas is not short on energy.Texas is short on time.New load is arriving faster than the grid can plan, permit, and build, raising a question that will shape our state’s future: can Texas grow without sacrificing reliability or pushing costs onto the wrong people?That was the backdrop for our first Energy Capital roundtable with Matt Boms, Joshua Rhodes, and Micalah Spenrath.The Defining Story of 2025When we talked about the biggest energy story of 2025, everything circled back to load. Not just more demand, but uncertain demand.Planning gets harder when projections keep shifting. Transmission, interconnection, and long-term investments all depend on forecasts, and those forecasts suddenly feel less stable.And yes, data centers are at the center of it.As Josh put it, you almost cannot talk about energy anymore without talking about data centers. They are reshaping how fast demand shows up and where reliability pressure lands.Markets still matter, but speed does tooTexas remains an energy-only market. Resources still need to compete on cost, reliability, and performance.But markets only work if the system underneath them can move fast enough.ERCOT and the PUC are working to plan for the future, but compressed timelines make responsible planning harder. Speed is no longer just a project challenge. It is becoming a grid constraint.What constraints unlockThis is about more than just generation — ERCOT’s transmission system also is racing to keep up with rising load. Given such constraints, Texas needs to embrace fast, close-to-home energy strategies, including:* Distributed energy resources (DERs)* Demand response* Backup power* Energy waste reductionAs Josh noted, constraints force innovation. When the old approach cannot keep pace, the economics for flexibility get much clearer.What we’re watching in 2026Looking ahead, Micalah, Matt, and Josh kept returning to a few basic themes:* Clean, firm power that can scale* Backup power and resilience* The untapped potential of DERsThese policy solutions sit at the intersection of reliability, affordability, and speed, which is exactly where the grid debate is heading.Texas is going to build a lot of infrastructure in coming years. That brings real benefits, especially to rural communities, but also real impacts.Micalah framed it simply: this is about balance and fairness. Growth works best when communities understand the trade-offs — and they trust that costs and benefits are being shared responsibly.Closing ThoughtsTexas is entering a build-fast era where speed itself becomes a grid resource.That does not mean cutting corners. It means prioritizing the highest-value infrastructure, being honest about who pays for what, and using every available tool to maintain reliability and affordability.Moving forward, we’ll keep these conversations grounded, curious, and practical. If you have thoughts on what Texas should prioritize next, jump into the comments.Energy Capital is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps:* 00:06 – Welcome, roundtable kickoff* 01:49 – Micalah origin story, policy path* 03:54 – Josh background, technical roots* 04:08 – Host reactions, early framing* 13:19 – SB 6, PUC, building infrastructure* 15:27 – Data centers, speed-to-power reality* 18:58 – Siting, community benefits and burdens* 20:37 – Pushback, bad actors, headlines* 22:03 – AI hype, narratives, who shapes perception* 24:12 – ADER, DER potential, batteriesResources:Guest & Company* Matt Boms - LinkedIn * Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance - LinkedIn * Joshua Rhodes - LinkedIn* Webber Energy Group* IdeaSmiths* Micalah Spenrath - LinkedInTranscript:Matt Boms (00:05.966)Hi everybody, welcome to the Energy Capital podcast. I’m Matt Boms and I’m here for our first round table today with Dr. Josh Rhodes and Michaelis Benrath. I’m gonna ask each of you to introduce themselves and then we’ll get started. Josh, you wanna kick us off? Joshua Rhodes (00:22.894)Sure, sounds good. Hey everybody, my name is Joshua Rhodes. I wear a bunch of different hats. I’m research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin where I study electricity system, the grid, just energy writ large, CTO of Ideasmus, as well as commissioner for Austin Energy. And yeah, just excited to be here. Micalah Spenrath (00:40.0)All right. Hi, everybody. My name is Micalah Spenrath. I also wear lot of hats, but my main and biggest hat is that I am a Deputy Director of Policy and Energy at the Houston Advanced Research Center, where I spearhead our legislative and regulatory engagement, specializing in energy policy. So happy to be here. Matt Boms (00:56.824)Well, I’m really excited to be with you both. And we’ve been tasked with this enormous responsibility of co-hosting this podcast. And I’m happy that we all have the chance today to talk. And I want to get into each of your backgrounds and ask each of you to just explain kind of how you got into the energy world, what inspired you to get into this topic and kind of how did

This episode is a little different. As I wrote on Friday: this is both a transition and an expansion. Several folks will be stepping up to use this platform and I couldn’t be more excited to hear what comes next.A platform, now with more places to standArchimedes said: “Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth.” This podcast will become a platform for more people to stand.The podcast is moving into a multi-host format, and one of those new voices is Matt Boms, Executive Director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA). Matt has been a leader on some of the most important energy work in Texas: distributed energy resources, affordability, energy waste reduction, grid flexibility, and much more.How I got “bit by the bug”Matt asked how I got into energy. The real answer is, slowly and then all at once.My early work in energy policy was at the Texas Legislature, in a stretch (2005 to 2009) when a lot was happening and the instincts to build and expand were strong. That period mattered because it shaped a belief I still hold today: Texas works best when we put pragmatism above ideology. Texas is a place to build and do big things.The next frontier is the grid edgeOne of the big themes in this conversation with Matt is that the “cheap electrons” story is true on the generation side, but bills keep climbing because transmission and distribution costs keep rising.So if we’re serious about affordability, we have to talk about the distribution grid, and the tools that can help us defer (or avoid) some of the costs associated with building out the grid. We’re still going to spend a lot but can we avoid some of it?That’s where distributed energy resources (DERs) come in, and where Texas has a real opportunity to lead.Matt and TAEBA recently looked at what DERs could do in Oncor’s territory. The numbers are big, but here’s the one that sticks: about $279 per family per year in savings. If you want a sense of how big a difference that would make for many Texans, check out my discussion with Margo Weisz of the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute:There are two core value buckets behind these savings:* Wholesale market value (DERs competing through aggregation, the work ERCOT is already moving through)* Transmission and distribution deferral or avoidance (often the larger, currently under-valued piece)If we get the policy design right, DERs can help lower system costs, enable load growth, and reduce the pressure that shows up on people’s bills.Final ThoughtsIf you’ve been listening for a while, let the new team (more announcements on that soon) know what topics you want them to cover next. The next chapter is going to be great. I can’t wait to listen!Energy Capital is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps* 00:00 – Introduction* 02:30 – Matt asks his first question!* 04:00 – Doug’s first energy experiences* 05:30 – * Beginner’s mind ** 07:00 – Politicization of energy, what brings us together, * 10:00 – The need to look for similarities first* 14:00 – How do we meet Texas’ rapid demand growth? (Here’s the slide I was referring to:)* 16:00 – How do we continue to grow the economy and electric demand?* 18:00 – Distributed energy resources * 20:00 – Matt’s work on demand side * 23:00 – Distributed batteries can last a lot longer than an hour or two!* 25:00 – The TAEBA study showing $2,000 savings per family in DFW from DERs. More on T&D cost avoidance and deferral here:* 29:00 – The potential for Texas leadership* 32:00 – What does Matt want to cover next?* 32:00 – The under-discussed part of the Texas Energy Fund: the Texas Backup Power Package Program for critical facilities* 36:00 – Matt’s thank you, Doug’s excitement to stop talking and start listening!ResourcesGuest & Company* Matt Boms - LinkedIn* Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) - LinkedInCompany & Industry News* The Value of Integrating Distributed Energy Resources in Texas’ Oncor Territory* New Study Finds Oncor Customers Could Save $8.5 Billion With DERs* Texas Energy Fund, Backup Power Package ProgramTranscriptDoug Lewin (00:04.526)Welcome back to the Energy Capital podcast. I’m your host, Doug Lewin. Today’s episode is a little different. The platform is expanding into a multi-host format. I’m really excited about these changes. I cannot wait to be a listener to this podcast and hear where it’s going. I’ve been working with your new hosts and there are several on the issues and topics and speakers they’re going to be inviting and I could not be more excited. Doug Lewin (00:33.504)about where this is gonna go. I put out a post this morning at the Texas Energy and Power newsletter called It’s a Transition and an Expansion. And that is exactly what it is. Change can be hard, but change can also be really good. And this is an opportunity for a lot of folks to use the platform that I have helped to build. There’s a famous quote from Archimedes where he says, give me a place to stand and I’ll move the earth. Doug Lewin (01:

Everyone’s talking about the cost of power lately. But the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute has been studying, talking, writing, and working to do something about it, for over a decade. In recent research, TEPRI found that 65 percent of low and moderate income Texans are cutting back on essential energy use, often turning off AC in extreme heat. But their demand reductions aren’t necessarily saving them much money or supporting the grid. Affordability is now a very high salience issue and there’s no one better to help us understand than TEPRI Executive Director, Margo Weisz. She talked about energy burden and affordability in Texas and the clearest paths to ratepayer relief.TEPRI’s latest research shows bills increasing sharply over the last five years and again in the next five years: TEPRI Releases ERCOT Electricity Affordability Outlook: Forecasting Residential Electricity Prices and Burdens (2025-2030)Energy burden is rising sharplyEnergy burden is the share of income spent on electricity. In Texas:* ~4.5 million households are low or moderate income.* Their average electricity burden for a low income Texan is nearing 7% — that is, they pay 7% of their income for their power costs alone — and expected to be 9% by 2030.* TEPRI’s modeling shows about a 29 percent increase in the cost of power over the last five years, with another 29 percent projected for the next 5 years.* The biggest increases are coming from transmission and distribution utilities.Wages are not keeping pace, leaving an average affordability gap of roughly $850 per year.Because of this, households are taking risky steps — or getting shut offAs TEPRI’s survey shows, they are turning off or limiting AC in dangerous heat, skipping essentials to pay the bill, and accumulating arrears until shutoff notices arrive. And 12% were actually shut off. But Texas does not track disconnects so we don’t know if this survey matches actual shut-offs.These actions point to system-level strain. They increase health risks and make reconnection more expensive for everyone.Efficiency and distributed energy are long term solutionsEfficiency is the fastest, cheapest way to cut bills and peak demand. Weatherization and efficient HVAC could reduce load and permanently lower costs for the households who feel the most pain.Distributed energy goes one step further. Community solar, batteries, and virtual power plants at homes and apartments can lower bills, reduce peak load and improve resilience. Final ThoughtsEnergy burden is the lived reality of the Texas grid. Millions of Texans are paying nearly 9 percent of their income for electricity, and many are already taking unsafe steps to stay connected.But we have real options. Smarter enrollment for bill help. Scalable efficiency. Community solar and virtual power plants that lower costs and support ERCOT.If this work matters to you, share it with someone who cares about Texas energy, and consider subscribing so we can keep tracking what works and where Texas can lead.Timestamps* 00:00 – Intro and why energy burden matters* 02:00 – Margo’s background and TEPRI’s mission* 04:00 – “energy limiting behaviors” often aren’t saving much money* 05:00 – Community Voices Energy Survey and behaviors* 06:30 – How Bandera Electric Co-op is helping their customers* 08:30 – Texas does not track disconnect data* 10:00 – “Sexy energy efficiency” and heat pumps; the split incentive problem* 12:00 – TEPRI’s approach to applied research* 13:30 – Defining and measuring energy burden* 17:00 – the potential for energy abundance and what that means for low-income Texans * 19:00 – Texas rates are lower but rising faster than the national average. Why?* 22:00 – How do we allocate costs for socialized grid upgrades and storm recovery? (SB 6 implementation)* 27:00 – What’s going to happen to bills in the next 5 years?* 30:00 – Where some downward pressure for prices could come from* 32:00 – What do we do about all this?* 35:00 – Bill assistance and the future of LIHEAP* 36:00 – Scaling efficiency and demand response in Texas* 39:00 – Virtual power plants in low-income communities* 41:00 – Enlightened self interest: helping those in need helps everyone* 43:00 – Margo’s closing thoughtsResourcesGuest & Company* Margo Weisz – LinkedIn* Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute (TEPRI) - LinkedIn Company & Industry News* TEPRI New Report: “ERCOT Electricity Forecast Outlook”* TEPRI Receives Outstanding Non-Profit Award at Texas Energy Summit* TEPRI 10-Year Anniversary Celebration and Future of Energy in Texas * Community Voices Energy Survey* E4-TX Geo-Eligibility Tool* Low Income Energy Assistance Program on TX System Benefits ChargeRelated Podcasts by Doug* Why Your Utility Bill Keeps Rising YouTube* Creating a Distributed Battery Network with Zach Dell YouTube* How Data Centers Can Strengthen the Texas Grid with Astrid Atkinson YouTubeRelated Substack Posts by Doug* The Affordability Crisis Deepens: Reading & Podcast Picks, August 31, 202

Thanksgiving Week RepostThis episode originally aired in June 2024. We’re resurfacing it because the core idea discussed here were timely then and even more timely now.We’ve also refreshed the audio, with improved mixing and mastering for a clearer, smoother listen.Crusoe has scaled dramatically since this conversation, including major new funding and new projects in Texas. With so much energy news focused on problems, it felt right this week to highlight solutions in action.When most people see flares in the Permian, they wonder why all that energy is being wasted. Crusoe’s co-founders figured out how to put that wasted energy to good use. They started with cryptocurrency mining and have steadily moved to AI data centers. Over the last few years, they have found themselves perfectly positioned to grow as the AI boom took hold. They’ve recently completed the 8th building at Stargate in Abilene for Open AI and Oracle. They’re also building facilities for Google near Amarillo. In this conversation from May 2024, Crusoe Co-Founder, President, and COO Cully Cavness and I talked about the rapidly growing size of data centers, the flexibility of different kinds of data centers, and how large loads can increase grid reliability. This was one of the earlier podcasts on these topics and I think it holds up really well. For those looking for more on the topic, here are some other Energy Capital Podcasts covering similar ground:What Has Changed Since ThenWhen this episode first aired in mid-2024, Crusoe was already shifting from “flare mitigation plus computing” to a broader energy-first AI infrastructure model.In the time since:* Crusoe has become one of the most aggressive builders of AI data centers in the country. It is now described as an “AI factory company” with a vertically integrated cloud platform built around stranded and low-cost energy.* Abilene, Texas moved from concept to centerpiece. Crusoe is building a 1.2 gigawatt data center at the Lancium Clean Campus outside Abilene — Stargate — as the first phase of a planned 5 GW campus. * The company’s capital and pipeline exploded. Since 2024, Crusoe has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to scale “clean energy data centers,” then a further $1.3 billion in Series E financing, bringing total funding close to $4 billion and valuing the company around $10 billion.In other words, the approach Cully describes in this episode has scaled — rapidly. Why The Core Idea Still Matters For TexasThe heart of the episode is simple:* Methane mitigation is still some of the lowest-hanging fruit in climate policy. Crusoe’s digital flare mitigation aims for 99 percent plus combustion efficiency, cutting the climate impact of flaring while turning waste into power.* Curtailment and congestion are still big problems in West Texas. A “go to the energy” model lets data centers soak up low-priced or stranded wind and solar instead of forcing renewable operators to shut down when prices go negative.* AI loads can be designed to help rather than hurt the grid. Some training workloads can be paused or shifted toward hours when renewables are plentiful. That kind of flexibility is exactly what ERCOT needs as large loads and renewables grow together.Texas sits at the center of all three issues. We flare and vent more than we should. We waste clean power when transmission is full. We are a magnet for AI and industrial loads.Crusoe’s solutions help with all of these challenges. Final ThoughtsThis episode is worth revisiting because it offers a concrete picture of one possible future for Texas: fewer wasted molecules, less wasted renewable power, and more large loads designed with the grid in mind.If you listen again with today’s headlines in mind, I would be interested to hear what stands out for you. If you know someone working in oil and gas, renewables, or AI infrastructure in Texas, feel free to share it with them.We will not get every siting decision right. But we do have choices about whether AI growth deepens our problems or helps solve them.Energy Capital is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps* 00:00 – Introduction* 01:30 – Cully’s background and the origin story of Crusoe* 08:00 – How digital flare mitigation works and why it cuts methane emissions* 15:00 – Digital renewables optimization, negative pricing, & stranded wind power* 21:00 – Data center and AI demand growth and what it means for the grid* 28:00– Flexibility of AI workloads and how data centers can act as flexible loads* 38:00 – Efficiency gains in AI chips and power density in modern racks* 41:00 – Location-based versus market-based carbon accounting* 43:00 – “Tally’s Law” and what it tells us about the energy transition* 50:00 – Policy and regulatory changes that could accelerate this kind of solutionShow NotesHost, Guest, & Company• Cully Cavness - LinkedIn, Twitter/X• Crusoe Energy - Crusoe Careers Page - LinkedIn, Twitter/X• Doug Lewin - LinkedIn, Twitter(X), Bluesky, & YouTubeMentions in the Podcast:•

“Everyone hates data centers.”That was the subject line on the email newsletter from Heatmap Daily the day before I sat down with Dr. Varun Sivaram, co-founder and CEO of Emerald AI. Communities see huge new loads coming onto the grid, hear about billions in new infrastructure, and worry that their bills will go up.It doesn’t have to work that way.Varun argues there are two paths. On the villain path, AI data centers drive up power bills and increase the likelihood of outages. On the hero path, they become flexible grid assets that help us use existing capacity better, absorb much of the cost of new grid infrastructure, and help residential and small commercial customers pay for distributed batteries, heat pumps, and more.Texas and ERCOT are at that fork in the road.Two futures for AI data centersVarun calls this a “critical juncture.” If ratepayers have to pay more and grid reliability takes a hit, communities start pushing projects away and the U.S. falls behind in the global AI raceThe alternative is the hero path, where data centers show up as flexible partners:Data centers in this hero path are going to contribute to grid reliability and help us to avoid rolling blackouts. I think we can get there, but we’re not on that path right now and folks are right to worry. And this is the moment where we switch from the villain to the hero.Texas has a chance to innovate — both technologically and with policy. Regulatory innovation is as important as technological innovation — maybe more so.Turning AI load into flexibilityEmerald AI is a software layer that makes AI workloads flexible. Varun breaks it down into four kinds of flexibility:* Temporal. Once you know what can move, you can shift it in time. Training a big model at 6 p.m., when ERCOT is tight, is very different than running it at 2 a.m. when prices are low and resources are abundant.* Spatial. Many jobs can move across locations. If a Texas node is stressed and another region is fine, traffic can be shifted without changing the user experience.* Resource. Some tasks truly need instant answers, others can wait minutes, hours, or days. Emerald deploys and optimizes onsite resources when necessary.* Adjacent. Data centers can purchase flexibility — putting money into the pockets of residential and small commercial customers — from distributed batteries, HVAC systems, and other controllable equipment. Put together, these layers make a data center behave less like a rigid block of demand and more like a flexible grid asset when conditions require it.The Energy Capital Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.ERCOT’s stakes and the Texas choiceVarun shared a conversation with ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas. Vegas said he did not just want a tool that jumps in during emergencies. He wanted something that keeps the grid from getting to an emergency. Don’t want for the flashing red lights; have data centers contribute flexibility when the lights are flashing yellow.That is the heart of the hero path.ERCOT was already dealing with intense load growth from industrial projects, crypto-miners, traditional data centers, increasing population, hotter temperatures, and now AI data centers. Texans will not accept anything less than high reliability and lower bills. If the PUC and ERCOT treat AI as inflexible, we will need to build a lot more capacity and infrastructure than we might otherwise need.If we require and reward flexibility, we can serve more load at lower cost, then add new infrastructure when truly needed.Final ThoughtsThe hardware and software inside AI data centers means they are already some of the most controllable loads connected to the system. With the right tools, incentives, and market structures, AI factories can act as shock absorbers instead of stress multipliers.Texas leads on gas. Texas leads on wind. Texas leads on solar and storage. We can also lead on making AI an ally to the grid, not a villain. That will take work but it is possible. It’s a choice we can make.If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with a friend or colleague or family member or neighbor. The more Texans engage with these decisions, the better chance we have for a grid that is reliable, affordable, and cleaner for everyone.Energy Capital is produced by ClarityForge Studios.Timestamps:* 00:00 – Intro, Varun bio, Emerald AI* 02:15 – The villain and hero paths for AI data centers* 05:30 – Phoenix pilot as a tangible example of the hero path* 09:00 – California simulation of 2020 outages* 10:00 – Possibility of doing a pilot in ERCOT, Pablo Vegas’s comments* 12:00 – What exactly does EmeraldAI do?* 14:00 – Breaking down four flexibilities: temporal, spatial, onsite resource flexibility, adjacent* 20:00 – Emerald AI’s focus is on onsite flexibility* 24:00 – Real-world stress test results* 27:00 – What excites Varun about AI* 32:00 – How AI can help lower power bills: the central tenet of the her