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Energy Capital Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Josh Rhodes & Matt Boms
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
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- Today39 min
Turning renewable credits into project financing
A solar or wind farm in ERCOT can watch wholesale prices fall below zero, which makes a project hard to finance. Ever.green sells companies 5- to 10-year contracts for a project’s renewable energy certificates (RECs, credits for megawatt-hours of clean power), giving developers revenue they can take to the bank.A pending greenhouse gas protocol change would phase in hourly matching, counting clean power only in the hour and on the grid where a company uses it. Backers say that cuts double counting. Ever.green Chief Executive Cris Eugster says it would steer buyers away from long-term contracts on dirtier grids. We recorded an interview with him in October.On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Joshua Rhodes talks with Eugster, Ever.green’s co-founder and a former chief operating officer of CPS Energy, about how long-term contracts get clean projects built.The rest of the conversation:* Solar for schools: REC contracts at $25 to $35 each, against $2 to $3 on the spot market, lower the power bill for 15 Wayne County, W.V., schools enough to free up money for teachers.* How the deals work: Ever.green signs as the developer’s one counterparty and splits a project’s RECs among several companies, so no developer negotiates with five sets of corporate lawyers. “Contracted revenue is like gold,” Eugster says.* Keeping an old wind farm running: how REC revenue supports the repowered Ocotillo wind farm in Big Spring, Texas, while the owners sells power at merchant prices.* Proving the money mattered: Eugster says no one can prove a project wouldn’t have been built anyway, so Ever.green asks developers to attest its contract is material.* Gamers as buyers: how the platform SuperPower pooled player subscriptions behind the 110 MW Three W solar farm in Hill County, and Eugster’s hint that other industries will follow next year.* Who carries price risk: why Eugster says a fixed REC price lets corporate buyers back new projects without taking on the price swings of power purchase agreement.* Plus: the data center race and its emissions, CPS Energy’s 771 MW Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan efficiency program, ERCOT’s batch zero study, Eugster’s path from MIT and McKinsey to Houston City Hall, and nuclear.Chapters* 00:00 – Introduction and guest background* 01:44 – From MIT and McKinsey to Houston City Hall* 05:13 – CPS Energy’s STEP efficiency program* 07:22 – From NAES to founding Ever.green* 09:21 – Why clean energy needs to move faster* 11:06 – Why Texas builds energy faster* 12:31 – Turning RECs into project financing* 15:28 – Solar for schools and how the deals work* 20:32 – Gamers back a Texas solar farm* 24:29 – Keeping an old wind farm running* 26:26 – The 10 percent test for additionality* 29:16 – Hourly matching vs. backing dirtier grids* 32:44 – Data centers and the race for power* 37:16 – Nuclear and a growing marketResourcesPeople & Organizations* Joshua Rhodes (LinkedIn)* Webber Energy Group (Website - LinkedIn)* Energy Capital (Podcast - LinkedIn - YouTube)* Texas Energy & Power (Website)* Cris Eugster (LinkedIn)* Ever.green (Website - LinkedIn)* Michael Leggett (LinkedIn)* SuperPower (Website)Company & Industry News* Three W Solar project comes online in Texas* Video gamers
- 2 weeks ago44 min
Data centers have to earn rural Texas
In August, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered ERCOT to audit the data centers seeking to connect to the grid, pausing ERCOT’s batch zero study of the first cohort for a new process to connect large loads as a group. In September he told the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to halt data center permits.Rep. Drew Darby, the San Angelo Republican who chairs the House Energy Resources Committee, wants harder terms for those projects: data centers pay their own way, show they have tenants and financing, and earn support from the towns that host them. His 2025 bill, House Bill 3970, offered a faster path to the grid for large loads that bring their own generation or agree to cut use on ERCOT’s call. He faults the delay and says “the worst thing we could do is throw batch zero out.”On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Joshua Rhodes talks with Darby about large loads and the infrastructure rural Texas carries for the rest of the state.The rest of the conversation:* Dove Creek and speculative load: Darby says Beacon Data Centers left Dove Creek residents without answers on water, power and noise. One project shopped to five towns, he says, becomes 5 gigawatts of demand on paper.* The data center tax break: The 2013 sales tax exemption for data center equipment was pegged at $14.6 million for 2014-2015. The Senate Finance Committee projects $3.3 billion for 2028-2029. Darby would rework it rather than repeal it.* The 765-kilovolt review clock: Darby backs the new transmission lines but wants to add at least three more months to the Texas Public Utility Comission’s 180-day review. On one line, he says, 1,400-plus landowners were added to the review process late with no extra time.* Produced water: Oil wells bring up two to five barrels of brine per barrel of oil. Darby puts injection at 50 to 75 cents a barrel and treatment for reuse at about three times that. He counts three permits pending at TCEQ to discharge treated water into the Pecos River basin.* Rural representation: By Darby’s count, 17 House members represent the two-thirds of Texas west of Interstate 35. Harris County alone has 25.* After November: Darby credits the 76–74 House of 2009 with getting its work done because members worked together.* Plus: grid-enhancing technologies and HB 5200, which passed the House 128–0 and never got a Senate hearing, and how Tom Green County got its panhandle.Chapters* 00:00 - Welcome and Tom Green County’s panhandle* 03:10 - Why data centers lost public support* 05:12 - Making data centers pay their way* 08:04 - What cities miss about rural Texas* 12:24 - Keeping data center hookups moving* 15:40 - Dove Creek and projects on paper* 20:04 - What data centers owe host towns* 22:11 - More time for landowners on power lines* 29:34 - Getting more from existing power lines* 32:00 - Oilfield wastewater as new water* 38:27 - How much oilfield water Texas could use* 40:23 - The election and working across the aisleResourcesPeople & Organizations* Joshua Rhodes* Webber Energy Group (Website - LinkedIn)* IdeaSmiths (Website - LinkedIn)* Energy Capital (Podcast - LinkedIn - YouTube)* Drew DarbyCompany & Industry News* KBTX - Abbott pauses data center permits pending water and power review* KERA - Texas lawmakers question billions in tax breaks for data centers* San Angelo LIVE! - Darby reacts to Dove Creek data center TCEQ permit application* Texas Tribune - Pressure mounts to allow treated oilfield waste in Texas rivers and on rangel
- 2 weeks ago46 min
Texas energy heads into the 2027 session
House Bill 5200 would have had ERCOT evaluate grid-enhancing technologies (sensors, software and advanced conductors that raise an existing transmission line’s capacity). It passed the House 128-0 in 2025. The Senate never gave it a hearing.Its author, State Rep. Rafael Anchía (D-Dallas), says no senator would carry it, and he plans to refile it for the session that opens Jan. 12. Lawmakers return to a large-load queue topping 400 gigawatts, mostly data centers, and a data center freeze Gov. Greg Abbott ordered in August pending an audit.On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Joshua Rhodes talks with Anchía, who has represented House District 103 since 2005, about how a bill becomes Texas law and what the 2027 session holds for the grid.* How a Texas bill dies. About 1,200 of the 8,700 bills filed in 2025 reached the governor. Anchía calls the process “a mechanism designed to kill legislation” and tells advocates to build coalitions between sessions.* SB 6’s price of entry. The PUCT’s September rules under SB 6, the 2025 large-load interconnection law, requiring a $100,000 study fee and $50,000 per megawatt in security.* Predictable rules. Anchía, once skeptical of Texas’s competitive market, says it works when the rules stay predictable, and names what undercuts it: shifting tariffs, threats to re-regulate, and favoring one fuel over another.* Upgrades and new lines. He supports the 765-kilovolt lines the PUCT began approving in August. Utilities such as Oncor recover new-line costs more easily than upgrade costs, he says, so he wants grid-enhancing technologies made a condition of new builds.* Winter risk after Uri. Experts tell Anchía a severe winter storm worries them more than summer peaks. He wants proof the Railroad Commission’s 2022 gas weatherization rules hold through one.* The 2027 list. Anchía expects bills requiring data centers to disclose energy and water use and ending their taxpayer subsidies. He also wants a temporary fund, modeled on the old System Benefit Fund, for the Texans least able to absorb price shocks.* Plus: his two decades in the House, from deregulation through CREZ, his predictions for the Nov. 3 Texas House and statewide races, and what a change in control of Congress would mean for Texas energy.Abbott’s audit is still open, and its findings will reach a Legislature that Anchía expects to make targeted fixes to SB 6.Chapters* 00:00 – Meet Rep. Rafael Anchía* 00:58 – How a bill becomes law in Texas* 06:25 – When public input matters most* 08:33 – Why HB 5200 stalled in the Senate* 12:43 – 20 years of Texas energy policy* 16:46 – What still needs fixing after Winter Storm Uri* 19:18 – The data center rush and SB 6* 22:27 – Why the governor paused data centers* 26:05 – Steady rules vs. picking winners* 30:29 – Bigger power lines and getting more from the grid* 35:01 – Rewarding utilities for doing more with less* 37:51 – Priorities for the 2027 session* 40:14 – Election predictions for Texas* 44:02 – If Congress flips: what it means for Texas energy 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
- 4 weeks ago57 min
The case for lower utility profits
On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Joshua Rhodes talks with Ellis, now research director at MarketClear Utility Policy Research and an expert witness for consumer groups in rate cases. They discuss why the gap persists and how an auction could close it.Chapters00:00 – Introducing Mark Ellis00:57 – How utilities make money07:08 – From Sempra insider to utility critic12:53 – What makes a return fair17:56 – The math behind a 6 percent return22:39 – Lower returns and credit ratings28:08 – Walking through a $10 billion project33:15 – What utility stock prices reveal36:49 – Why regulators keep returns high42:12 – Letting investors bid: the MarketClear auction45:11 – Who would invest, and how much50:09 – How the utility business would change54:12 – Why utilities resist non-wires alternatives 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
- Sep 30, 202641 min
How far can batteries stretch Texas transmission?
In ERCOT’s new interconnection process for large loads, a data center can connect sooner as a provisional controllable load resource. That is, ERCOT can curtail power above an agreed firm level. A study from Base Power and Piq Energy shows batteries near the transmission lines to a data center could stand in for most of that curtailment.In the study, 80 megawatts of batteries would clear every transmission constraint created by a 100 MW data center near Burleson, Texas, on Oncor’s system. A battery beside a strained line relieves it about one-for-one, while curtailing a more distant data center may relieve half as much. Any battery near the line has that edge.On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Joshua Rhodes talks with Chase Dowling, head of market operations for Austin battery company Base Power. The business model is Base Power retains ownership of the batteries it installs for retail customers, and homeowners subscribe to the service.Dowling puts the batteries’ reach at “80 percent, 85 percent of all of the constraints.” The rare failures that sever part of the system, he says, still need new transmission or generation.* The limits: the battery fleet needed grows faster than the load, and West Texas lacks enough homes for large fleets. No market yet pays batteries to act as transmission.* Who pays: Dowling proposes that a data center facing curtailment fund a battery fleet near its constraints, and the host homes get outage protection.* Utility fleets: for El Paso Electric and CoServ, Base builds co-branded fleets and hands control to the utility. It now installs in Chicago, in PJM.* Backup: Dowling says a portable generator can stretch a Base battery through a multi-day outage like Winter Storm Uri.Dowling says the challenge now is getting ERCOT to model these fleets at the transmission substation, where planners can see them.Chapters00:00 – Chase Dowling and the new Base Power study01:01 – What Base Power has built since 202302:22 – Manufacturing home batteries as a grid resource05:10 – The homeowner value proposition07:50 – Base Core's generator port and extended backup11:43 – Deployment speed and what limits it14:43 – Regulated utilities and who controls the batteries16:28 – Lessons from Texas for PJM18:23 – Flexibility Without Curtailment: the paper's premise22:32 – Why location matters: 100 MW at Burleson Switch26:52 – How 80 MW of batteries hosts 100 MW of load28:47 – Bigger loads, the long tail, and the 80/20 rule35:13 – Batch Zero, curtailment risk, and who pays38:17 – Data center PR and how big this can getResourcesPeople & Organizations* Joshua Rhodes (LinkedIn)* Energy Capital (Podcast - LinkedIn - YouTube)* Chase Dowling (LinkedIn)* Base Power Company (Website - LinkedIn - Base Core)Company & Industry News* Base Power raises another US$1 billion in Series D financing for US residential BESS* Base Power brings cheap batteries to residents in power-starved PJM* Base Power to launch 100-MW home battery network for Texas utilityBooks, Articles & Filings Discussed* Piq Energy and Base Power - Flexibility Without Curtailment* ERCOT - Aggregate Distributed Energy Resource (ADER) pilot project* ERCOT - <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ercot.com/files/docs/2026/06/18/ERCOT-Tr
- Sep 16, 202646 min
Everything moving on the Texas grid
The PUCT approved the southernmost of three 765 kV paths into the Permian on September 13. It has not approved the center path: administrative law judges recommended denying it in August, and chairman Thomas Gleeson sent it back asking what the lines are needed for and what they would save customers.Michael Webber’s answer is that Texas has run this experiment. CREZ, the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone program finished around 2014, was primarily 345 kV and lowered costs, cut emissions and improved reliability. His case for 765 kV is right of way: more capacity per corridor means fewer corridors, and corridors are what landowners object to.The same answer runs through most of what is moving on the grid. On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Joshua Rhodes talks with Webber, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.* The case for AI: Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI leaders called for a global slowdown in September. Webber says nobody has explained what the technology is for. “The case has not been made strongly.”* Who is resisting, and why: degrowth politics on right and left, a youth movement against data centers, and law firms pushing associates toward AI while the partners who would have trained them work remote. Webber reads the water-and-noise objections as displaced anxiety about AI.* Where the gas goes: a bigger grid lets Texas sell gas at $8 to $15 rather than burn it at $3, and lets Houston draw West Texas solar instead of adding gas plants to its airshed.* Hormuz: about 20 percent of world oil moves through the strait, plus fertilizer and chip inputs. US diesel averaged $6.06 a gallon on September 11. Texas will be fine, Webber says; Bangladesh and Pakistan will not.* Affordability in November: electricity bills creep up through distribution costs, transformers and wildfire hardening, while fuel prices move by the day. Webber expects an anti-incumbent mood.* Scarcity and abundance: US electricity demand was flat for 20 years and is growing again. Webber wants data centers treated as a way through scarcity, not its cause.* Plus: why the headline numbers frightened everyone inside six months, what the next six months hold, and why the grid needs helicopter pilots.Chapters* 00:00 – Introduction* 01:03 – Where Texas is building fast, and where it is not* 02:19 – Why the data center mood flipped* 05:18 – The AI slowdown letter* 08:45 – Why younger workers are pushing back on AI* 12:32 – Junior lawyers, junior engineers, and mastering the fundamentals* 16:42 – Whether energy for AI is a social good* 19:26 – The case the hyperscalers have not made* 21:51 – The argument for 765 kV* 26:34 – West Texas solar and Houston's peak* 28:54 – Hormuz, molecules, and what Texas exports* 33:00 – Affordability heading into November* 39:05 – Scarcity, abundance, and a drama-free summer* 42:02 – What the next six months holdResourcesPeople & Organizations* Joshua Rhodes (LinkedIn)* Webber Energy Group (Website - LinkedIn)* IdeaSmiths (Website - LinkedIn)* Energy Capital (LinkedIn - YouTube)* Michael Webber (Website - LinkedIn - X)* LBJ School of Public Affairs (Faculty page)* Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering (Faculty page)* Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center (Website)Company & Industry News* Regulators approve controversial s
- Aug 26, 202640 min
The Texas Energy Fund's first co-op loan
Rayburn Electric Cooperative broke ground in June on a 570 MW gas plant in Sherman, backed by a $411 million Texas Energy Fund loan at 3 percent, the fund’s seventh generation loan and first to a cooperative.Rayburn is also putting batteries in members’ houses. Both run on the same logic: Rayburn generates the power and owns the transmission, so it earns on both. An independent power producer earns on energy alone.On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Matt Boms talks with Christian Nagel, senior director of power supply and production at Rayburn.* Home batteries as a transmission asset. Texas allocates transmission costs on four summer peaks, so discharging batteries then cuts Rayburn’s bill, worth more, Nagel says, than the energy.* Telling real load from speculative. Rayburn screened data centers with its own questionnaire before ERCOT standardized one. Abbott’s audit has since pushed ERCOT’s Batch Zero study past April 2027.* Plus: the 12CP fight and what comes after gas.Whether Rayburn is a model or a special case turns on rules the PUCT has not written.Chapters00:00 – Introduction01:36 – Wind development and the landowner conversation06:02 – The video that went viral08:17 – Using your service to open doors10:23 – The Atlantic Council years12:19 – Her graduate research on energy and national security14:44 – From Annapolis to flying Growlers19:54 – Grounded, and the move to cryptologic warfare23:59 – Why veterans run down their own service30:08 – Advice for veterans trying to get into energy32:56 – How to plug into Project Vanguard34:49 – Closing thoughts 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
- Aug 12, 202644 min
What the Sierra Club wants from the Texas grid
Last month the Public Utility Commission of Texas held public hearings on plans to build giant 765 kilovolt transmission lines. The controversial plan drew complaints from influential voices, including Senate Business and Commerce Chairman Charles Schwertner, who asked commissioners to deny the pending applications for the lines in a letter. Cyrus Reed sat through the roughly 15 hours of testimony, and we recorded with him the morning Schwertner’s thoughts came out.On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Joshua Rhodes talks with Reed, legislative and conservation director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter, about what it means to run an environmental group in a state with no renewable mandate, and about nearly everything happening on the Texas grid this summer.Chapters:00:00 – Introduction and guest background00:46 – What it means to be an environmental group in Texas02:50 – How property rights and an energy-only market built out renewables06:54 – The Lone Star Chapter's platform for the 90th Legislature08:48 – County authority, HB 40, and codes instead of bans10:46 – How load growth, 765 kV, and data centers got tangled together15:43 – ERCOT versus SPP, and who carries the risk17:11 – Schwertner's letter and what the PUCT could actually do20:47 – How a CCN works, and the 180-day clock23:07 – A bigger grid and more oil and gas extraction25:37 – What a fairer routing process would look like29:18 – Batch Zero, the large load queue, and the disclosure problem33:19 – Mitigation fees and community benefit agreements36:02 – Behind-the-meter gas and the minor source permit threshold38:33 – The Green Tea Coalition, unlikely allies, and the 2027 platform 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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About Energy Capital Podcast
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
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