Podcast
Energy Capital Podcast
Hosted by Josh Rhodes & Matt Boms · EN
The Texas power grid is being rebuilt in real time. Energy Capital covers the policy fights, market mechanics, and technical decisions shaping what comes next. Hosted by Josh Rhodes (UT Austin) and Matt Boms (TAEBA), with the policymakers, regulators, and researchers at the center of it. Produced by ClarityForge Studios.
Topics include ERCOT market operations, grid reliability, renewable integration, distributed energy resources, interconnection and transmission planning, regulatory economics, energy storage, demand response, and the Texas electricity market. New episodes weekly. on Texas energy and power grid issues, featuring interviews with energy professionals, academics, policymakers, and advocates. Produced by ClarityForge Studios.
www.texasenergyandpower.com
www.texasenergyandpower.com
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The Data Behind Texas Reliability with Max Kanter
Mar 400:36:06Tap to summarizeBehind 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 of the things I think is so interesting though about AI in particular though is Max Kanter (02:42.87)A lot of the earliest computer scientists, their goal from the very beginning was to create an artificial intelligence. That’s actually how they thought about computers, know, replicate the stuff that humans were doing. And so in some sense, the goals actually haven’t changed at all, right? I think over the decades, think the biggest thing that’s different is, really the size of the compute that’s being undertaken to actually accomplish it. And, know, one of the things, you know, thinking back to when I first started doing say academic computer science is so much. Max Kanter (03:12.45)of the forefront of the field was happening within universities. think nowadays when you think of, well, where’s the frontier AI research happening, know, oftentimes it’s thought of outside of universities. And I think that’s one of the biggest changes I’ve seen. And why is that? There might be many reasons, but think one of them is just the size of the compute and the cost of doing that. Joshua Rhodes (03:31.916)Yeah, that’s big implications of particularly like size of the compute. I mean for the electricity grid, right? Because you got to get a bunch of electricity to that. I apologize for throwing you a curveball right off. Yeah, totally. So, I’ve introduced grid status a bit. With someone who’s outside of energy, I think a lot of folks who listen to this podcast are kind of in energy. But if someone’s outside of energy, ask you what you do. Like how do you describe, you know, grid status? Max Kanter (03:41.998)that makes it more interesting. Max Kanter (03:56.514)Yeah. I would say grid status is the homepage for the electric grid. I think a lot of people, when they think about the grid, well, first they don’t actually think about it that much. You you plug something into an outlet, you get power, right? But behind the scenes, it’s actually the world’s most complex machine. And even though it’s this big machine, it’s not like you have one person operating it or one person putting power into it or one person regulating it. It’s actually very complex with a lot of different stakeholders. Max Kanter (04:24.82)And so, yeah, the role of grid status is to be, you if you have a question about the grid or you want to have an understanding about what’s going on, we want to be the first place people go. And so, yeah, we’re the homepage of the electric grid. Joshua Rhodes (04:36.27)That’s cool. Grid status started out as doing mostly data, Mostly hosting data and having data. Now there’s a lot more dashboards and other types of things. Can you just talk through a little bit, of like, if someone goes to the homepage of the electric grids, you say like, what are they going to find? Max Kanter (04:52.748)Yeah, I’d say that’s kind of the core product and technical question we’re trying to answer or solve, I should say. Right. And what are you going to find is, you know, the answer really is like, whatever is relevant for you. And we serve a lot of different types of users. Some people care a lot about, you know, what the fuel mix on the grid is. Some people care a lot about pricing. Some people care about forecasts and, know, grid operations for the coming days. And so our goal at GridSat is to show you what’s relevant. Max Kanter (05:22.088)And we’ve honed in on that over time. Joshua Rhodes...
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Who Pays for Texas Grid Growth? - Roundtable Discussion
Feb 2500:38:58Tap to summarizeTexas’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 podcast. I’m your host, Makayla, and I’m joined by Josh Rhodes and Matt Bonds. We are at an interesting place in the energy transition. Energy costs are rising. Utilities are planning to spend trillions of dollars across the country to keep up with rising energy demand. And at the heart of these macro trends is us, the consumers, the payers of electricity bills. So that raises a question. How do we build the grid that we need today? Micalah Spenrath (00:34.868)and tomorrow without overbuilding it or pricing people out. I’d like to dig into what’s driving energy costs, where utilities are planning to spend those billions and trillions of dollars, and how we can modernize the grid in a way that’s reliable, efficient, and still affordable. So setting the stage, demand for energy is rising, outpacing traditional energy system planning frameworks and timelines, and utilities are in the middle. Challenge with meeting that demand and keeping costs. Micalah Spenrath (01:03.778)to consumers reasonable. So starting with the primary question, what is the primary driver of these increased energy costs in Texas or nationally? Joshua Rhodes (01:17.038)You know, there’s just this massive growth in electricity. There’s like a lot of things kind of coming together, kind of been kind of a perfect storm here, right? It’s like one across, you know, the US electricity growth has been flat. It’s been growing in Texas. Texas has been an exception to other places. I mean, really demand growth has been kind of flat, right? And managing a system that is just kind of going from day to day, not really changing is much different than managing a system that’s growing. The amount of inputs you need to that are just different. Joshua Rhodes (01:46.734)A lot of the utility spending and buying has been responding to storms or just replacing things kind of at the end of their life, but not really building for growth. And that’s just a different mindset. T...
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The New Rules Behind ERCOT Prices with Andrew Reimers
Feb 1800:54:59Tap to summarizeTexas 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 infrastructure decisions actually get made in Texas. In this episode, we walk through what planners know, what they are assuming, and where uncertainty is doing real work in the system. We discuss load forecast, transmission bottlenecks, and the trade-offs between moving quickly and maintaining reliability. You’ll walk away with a decision-useful lens for understanding how Texas is navigating growth right now, and where the biggest pressure points are likely to emerge next. Let’s get into it. Josh Rhodes (01:09.25)Andrew Imers, welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. Andrew Reimers (01:11.566)Happy to be here. Thanks for the introduction. You and I have, I think, known each other for like 13 years now. Josh Rhodes (01:17.154)Yeah, I it has been a while. I was wondering at a high level if you could just describe what Potomac Economics does relative to Earth. Andrew Reimers (01:24.098)Yeah. So, you you have ERCOT who is the independent system operator. So they are sort of a quasi government institution. They’re really a nonprofit institution with a charter through the state of Texas to manage the flow of electricity on the transmission network, and then also run various wholesale electricity markets. And, you know, there are several different flavors of that. The most important one for the conversation we’re going to have today is the real time market. Andrew Reimers (01:53.752)So that’s really where the physical scheduling of generation happens and everything ultimately is transacted according to the prices that come out of the real time market. That’s ERCOT where Potomac Economics comes in. This whole concept of an independent market monitor, if you kind of take it back historically, all of these power grids and deregulated electricity markets used to be like vertically integrated. Andrew Reimers (02:18.58)utility markets where you’d have retail customers that were in a monopoly all the way up to the firms that own the generation and stuff. and that model still exists in certain parts of America. Yeah, the Southeast parts of the Midwest are still kind of like this. The Rockies are like this, although that’s kind of an evolving situation. Yeah. Most of the rest of the US is what we call deregulated. That means that you have Josh Rhodes (02:30.328)like the Southeast. Andrew Reimers (02:44.204)divested the transmission system from the generation system. And there is no longer necessarily as strict of a monopoly on the retail side. And be that as it may, you still had a lot of legacy firms that had a lot of concentration in the market. So like in Texas, the big firms might be Luminant slash Vistra that historically could be traced back to Dallas Power and Light. And maybe you have NRG Reliant. Andrew Reimers (0...
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Stop Heating Texas Like It’s 1985 (with Kurt Heim)
Feb 1100:41:37Tap to summarizeEvery 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, manufacturing, policy, and grid reliability. Matt Boms (01:02.102)And he is exactly the right person to help us talk about how heat pumps can lower bills, strengthen the Texas grid and help us stop panicking every time winter shows up. So Kurt, you’re the star today. Welcome to the show and thanks so much for your time. Kurt Heim (01:20.108)Matt, thank you very much for having me. I’m a long time listener of the podcast and I’m really excited about the direction that you’re going in. I’m just really pleased to be here and get a chance to talk about ePumps. Matt Boms (01:32.91)Thanks so much, I appreciate that. So I want to kick us off. We’re coming off of this winter storm Fern and it feels like this anxiety cycle that we go through in Texas. You can trace this all the way back to Yuri and understandably Texans get nervous when they hear a winter storm is coming. We had a few since then, we had winter storm Heather that hit, now we have Fern. And I think just to tee this up, why do we still feel like the grid is on knife’s edge? Matt Boms (02:02.41)every time it gets cold in Texas. Kurt Heim (02:05.036)Yeah, that’s a good place to start. I am probably going to say that really Yuri was a shared experience in a searing event that touched a lot of people. I don’t know anybody that didn’t have some level of disruption in their life. Mild forms of it would have been that you lost your power for a few days, but you know, a lot of people had severe issues. My neighbor was one of them that lost power, but then had pipes burst in his Kurt Heim (02:34.026)ceiling in his attic. And so he had a major, you know, rehabilitation of his, of his house. So those things really make an impression in your mind when we watched it happen in front of us. And there were a lot of scary things that were talked about at the time. Like would we lose the grid? Would it lose functionality? And that was something that I think sticks in our mind going forward. So I think that’s why we still have some anxiety around it. Kurt Heim (02:59.434)I think for me, I try to use the anxiety to my benefit. Like, Hey, let’s prepare for it. Let’s get things in line to do it so that you can personally be more resilient. But I think that’s where it comes from, Matt. We just all had that very, very visceral experience with Yuri. Matt Boms (03:14.87)Yeah, it’s definitely a shared experience. And I know that the media pays a lot of attention now when a winter storm comes. And the question that I get asked the most is, you know, w...
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Texas Got Tested, Grid Stayed Upright
Jan 3100:32:54Tap to summarizeTexas 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
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Is Texas Ready for Winter Now? (with Will McAdams)
Jan 2100:39:11Tap to summarizeIn 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 really exciting chapter in our state’s energy history and I am very excited to be joined by an amazing guest today. So thank you so much, Will, for joining. Will McAdams (00:22.156)What a privilege, all right. Matt Boms (00:24.088)Will is a former commissioner at the Public Utility Commission of Texas. One of the architects of Texas’s modern grid reforms after Winter Storm Uri. At the PUC, Will helped establish some of the most stringent power plant weatherization standards in the country. He also led the creation of the ADER pilot program, the first program in the U.S. to allow virtual power plants to provide reliability services to a major grid. Will also represented Texas at the Southwest Power Pool. Matt Boms (00:54.274)shaped regional energy reliability policy, and he also served in senior roles in the Texas legislature. Will is also an Army veteran, and I want to thank him for his service on the podcast here, and really just for your leadership, Will, in the state of Texas, and just to say thank you on all of us who work in the industry, because we are all following your footsteps, and just thank you for playing such a pivotal role in our energy policy. Will McAdams (01:17.784)Glad I could help Matt. Thanks. Matt Boms (01:19.714)So I wanted you to take us back in time here. You stepped into a role in probably the most dramatic grid event in Texas history. We’re coming up on the five year anniversary of Winter Storm Yuri. So if you could just reflect on that and what was going through your mind in the first few weeks when you were appointed commissioner. Will McAdams (01:39.554)Yeah, Will McAdams (01:40.034)the first thing I had to do was try to figure out what happened. And, you know, there was information for public consumption and then there was information that we needed just to figure out the mechanics of the disaster, the crisis, how it unfolded, the sequence, how one step led to another that resulted in such deep and long lasting outages, which resulted in loss of life and property damage and just devastating economic effects for the state. Will McAdams (02:09.695)And we did that. So that first week was just a series of calling in, you know, former colleagues, friends that I knew in the industry and just asking them point blank in front of a dry erase board, what happened? And at some brutally honest answers, a lot of it was very fresh for them. A lot of them were picking up the pieces to businesses, to facilities that were damaged by the crisis, power generators that were wrecked. Will McAdams (02:38.38)We really had to rebuild the system, rebuild how the system operated together and take a look at how to hold people accountable and how to check that this never happens again. Matt Boms (02:48.118)Yeah. And obviously we’ve got a lot of folks now asking questions at the five year anniversary of how are we better prepared now than we were five years ago. And I can’t t...
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More Power that's Faster and Fairer — Roundtable Discussion
Jan 800:27:03Tap to summarizeTexas 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.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 it all start? What’s your origin story? Josh, Micalah, whoever wants to kick us off. Micalah Spenrath (01:21.758)Mine was actually already previewed on LinkedIn. So I’ll give you the Spark Notes version. I actually did not intend to get into energy policy. It just happened kind of serendipitously. I went to grad school for engineering, dabbled in some law and policy courses and was really inspired. And then I got some guidance from a mentor who said you should really look into getting into policy. He didn’t specify which kind, but Micalah Spenrath (01:48.888)Considering I’m very interested in climate action and things like that, I figured energy would be a great place to plug in. So yeah, I got a job with Matt. And then that was years ago now, and I’ve just been getting such positive feedback from the community and the work is so rewarding and intellectually challenging. And yeah, why mess with a good thing? I think I’m going to keep this going for a while. Joshua Rhodes (02:16.376)Yeah, so I didn’t start out with the idea of getting into energy. Like I like science, I like STEM. My undergrad and master’s are actually in mathematics. It’s Stephen F. Austin in Texas A And really every time I kept getting out of school was like during an economic recession. And so there was like no jobs to be had. And it was kind of like, well, I’m pretty good at the school thing. So I guess I’ll just keep going. Cause I found that if you keep going to school, you don’t have to pay your loans back. Like they just keep going. Joshua Rhodes (02:44.332)And so I just kept going and going and going, but after I got to like the masters in math, was like, well, I just don’t want to do this for like the math stake anymore. So I switched to engineering to try to be a bit more applied when I came to the University of Texas. One of the first classes I took was a thermodynamics course. And it took the math that I had learned and like knew, and it put it in terms of real systems, how systems use energy, like how nothing’s a hundred percent efficient. There are no perpetual motion machines. Just kind of made it all make sense. Joshua Rhodes (03:13.638)And from then I started working with Dr. Michael Weber at the University of Texas who does a bunch of energy stuff and first got into like how buildings consume energy. Did my dissertation work, you know, based on that topic from like American recovery and reinvestment funds from ARA funds. And then when I graduated, kind of switched more to the supply side. So I’ve been doing more grid modeling and other types of stuff, but it’s just like, I’ve just always been fascinated with just how Joshua Rhodes (03:40.898)we do things and it’s like the energy side of things let me kind of put my interest in kind of how things work and the math side into like doing something good, doing something good for people, for society and all that. Here we are. Micalah Spenrath (03:54.296)sounds very similar to my story as well. And actually thermodynamics was one of my favorite classes in college. So I double click on thermodynamics, but we won’t dive too much into that. Joshua Rhodes (03:56.632)Yeah, absolutely. Joshua Rhodes (04:07.608)would love to actually, but we won’t. Man, that’s a rarity to hear to be honest with you. Matt Renison. Micalah Spenrath (04:12.238)All right, pitching it to Matt. Matt Boms (04:15.534)Well, it’s fun to hear how everyone kind of gets into energy through the back door. Like a lot of us didn’t necessarily intend to work in this industry, but here we are and we’re kind of neat in energy issues. came into it through economics, like trying to study local e...
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Flexibility Driving Reliability and Affordability with Matt Boms
Dec 1400:38:28Tap to summarizeThis 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!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 (01:03.768)You all, dear listener, come on, it’s the Energy Capital podcast. Y’all, dear listeners, have given me a place to stand, given me a voice, and I’m deeply, deeply grateful for that. Now, other folks are gonna have this place to stand to move the Earth. Stand with them, help them through this transition and expansion, and I know you’re gonna be really excited to hear what comes next. So today, again, this is a little different. Doug Lewin (01:31.2)and thrilled to introduce one of the new voices who will be carrying this work forward. That’s Matt Bombs. Matt is the executive director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance, TABAA for short. They do some great work in Texas and Matt has done some great work, particularly around distributed energy resources. He was part of that aggregated distributed energy resource task force that has had a lot of success in Texas. He’s also part of the advisory committee on the backup power package program I talk a lot about. He was instrumental Doug Lewin (02:00.138)in getting the Texas Energy Waste Advisory Committee established here in Texas. So he’s done a lot of great work. He is an expert in his own right. He is very interested and curious about all this stuff, just like I am. And I’m thrilled that he’s one of the people that is going to be stepping onto this platform. So what you’re here today is me interviewing Matt and Matt interviewing me. A little bit of a retrospective looking back. I hope you enjoy this episode and I hope you enjoy all the episodes going forward. Doug Lewin (02:28.364)I can’t wait to listen myself and I know you’re gonna like what comes next. So with that, thanks for listening and let’s jump in. Matt Boms (02:43.352)Hi everybody, I’m Matt Bombs and I’m here with Doug Lewin on the Energy Capital podcast. Doug, it’s great to have you here on the podcast that you built. And now that I’m hosting the podcast with a few of my very talented and brilliant colleagues, it’s just a great opportunity to pick your brain and to hear more from you. I really do want to hear more about your story and how you first got into energy. What was the key factor that really brought you into this industry and how did you first get started? Doug Lewin (03:11.522)Yeah, Matt, before I jump into that, just want to say how thrilled I am to be able to take this platform that I think really is reaching a lot of people that are really interested in Texas energy. Texas is such a dynamic place and you’re such an important part of that ecosystem. And I’m thrilled that you’re excited to step into this role, like you mentioned with some others. So, you know, we, often joke in the energy world about energy transition and energy expansion. This is both, it’s going to be an energy transition and an expansion. Doug Lewin (03:41.154)You know, with, new hosts coming in and there’ll be multiple of them that’ll allow more exploration. And I’m just so thrilled you’re in that mix. So thanks, Matt. So to answer your question, it’s something I’ve talked about a little bit on the pod over the years, but not a lot. And yeah, look, I can’t even like tell you like, Hey, there was this moment or this, you know, day or week or month or year where it would like all clicked and like, this is what, like what I want to do wi...
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How Much Are Texans' Power Bills Going Up? with TEPRI's Margo Weisz
Dec 1000:44:46Tap to summarizeEveryone’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, 2025 * An Expensive and Unnecessary Capacity Market* Energy Inflation* Texas Has Never Had a Summer Blackout — Here’s Why That May ChangeTranscriptDoug Lewin (00:05.548)Welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. I’m your host, Doug Lewin. And my guest this week is Margo Weisz. She is the executive director of the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute or TEPRI. Everybody these days is talking about affordability, and rightfully so. Affordability played a very important role in the recent elections in New Jersey, Virginia, and Georgia. And we are seeing increasing numbers of Americans and of Texans that are struggling to pay their bills, that are making that terrible choice between food, medicine, and their power bills. As high as 30 and sometimes 40% of Texans making those choices. TEPRI has done incredible work with their Community Energy Voices survey, where they surveyed 6,500 low-income Texans and found that more than 60% of them were engaged in energy-limiting behaviors. Translation of energy-limiting behaviors is, in some cases, particularly with medically vulnerable populations, extremely medically risky. This is a problem we’ve got to solve together. And as I talked about with Margo, who’s just a fantastic leader in this space in Texas, the solutions actually can help across the grid. One of the things TEPRI is working on is distributed energy resources at multifamily facilities. And one of the things we talked about there is how all of us benefit from implementing those kinds of solutions. It’s what I’ve referred to—I didn’t come up with this term; I’ve heard it in a lot of different places—but enlightened self-interest. If we are getting solar and storage and energy efficiency out widely, particularly to low-income Texans, that strengthens the grid for all of us whil...
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Replay: Using Wasted Energy to Power AI with Crusoe's Cully Cavness
Nov 2600:56:11Tap to summarizeThanksgiving 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.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:• Tally’s Law and the Energy Transition by Cully Cavness• The Extraction State by Charles Blanchard (book)• AI, Data Centers & Energy, Interview w/ Michael Terrell - Redefining Energy Podcast• AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand - Report from Goldman Sachs• Nuclear? Perhaps! - Interview with Jigar Shah on the Volts Podcast• Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group at the Texas Public Utility CommissionRelated Energy Capital Podcast episodes:• The Energy Capital Podcast with Former PUC Commissioner Will McAdams• “The Name of the Game is Flexibility,” a Conversation with ERCOT’s Pablo VegasTranscriptDoug LewinCully Cavness, welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast.Cully CavnessThank you so much for having me.Doug LewinReally looking forward to this conversation. Crusoe is really a fascinating company. You guys are doing some really innovative, interesting, and different things. So why don’t we start with you, Cully? Tell us a little bit about your background and about Crusoe. Explain to the audience a little bit who you guys are as a company, if you would.Cully CavnessGreat. I’m excited to be here and share a little bit about what we’re doing at Crusoe, where we came from, where we’re going. In terms of my personal background, I grew up in Denver, Colorado. I went to Middlebury College in Vermont to study and I studied geology and economics thinking I was gonna go into oil and gas. But at Middlebury, anybody who’s familiar with the school will know that the climate conversation was a huge theme and a huge focus in that student body. And it made a big impact on me.And so I actually, right after I graduated from college, I was awarded a Thomas Watson Fellowship, which is a program where you’re sort of banished from your home country for a year and you get to go study whatever subject you really want to study for that year. And I wanted to think about this sort of morality of energy and the balance between energy and the economy and the environment. And so I was really fortunate to be able to go to Iceland where I worked with a lot of geothermal power and hydro producers. I went to China where I was much closer to coal. And then I went to Spain. I worked with wind and solar developers for the CFO of a large renewables group there. And then I went to Argentina and I worked wi...
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