Rising electricity demand in Texas: the canary in the coalmine for the rest of the US? | Bonus Episode

The Energy Gang

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🗓️ 22 April 2024

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

Conversations from the Gulf Coast Power Association conference.

This bonus episode of the Energy Gang was recorded live during the spring meeting of the Gulf Coast Power Association in Houston, Texas. Host Ed Crooks is joined by Beth Garza, President of the Gulf Coast Power Association, Frank O'Sullivan, Managing Director for Clean Energy at S2G Ventures, and Ken Medlock, Senior Director at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University. The GCPA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting a strong energy industry in the Texas and Gulf Coast region.

First up Ed speaks with Beth about the increase in electricity demand in the region. Unlike most of the US, the Gulf of Mexico coastal region has already been seeing growth in demand for electricity over past couple of decades. But now there are signs that this growth is being kicked into a higher gear as a result of a wave of new data centers, manufacturing facilities and LNG plants. We discuss the challenges and opportunities in this new era.

Increasing strain on the Texas grid is one problem. The catastrophic consequences of Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, in part caused by failures in natural gas supply and gas-fired generation, exposed how the system was unprepared for such an event. Beth Garza discusses the changes that have been made in the three years since then, and how the industry can tackle the new challenges facing the grid.

Plus, Frank O’Sullivan and Ken Medlock join Ed on stage for a panel discussion on strategies for integrating new technologies as the demand for power rises. They debate the key trends in electricity demand growth, and the ability of Texas as a deregulated competitive market to respond to these new opportunities and difficulties.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to a special edition in the Energy Gang being recorded live at the Spring Meeting of the Gulf Coast Power Association.
0:18.0	I'm Ed Crooks. Thanks very much for the Gulf Coast Power Association for inviting us to be here today. It's a
0:24.6	great pleasure particularly for some reasons I'm going to get into in a moment.
0:29.2	I'm also joined here by a couple of guests to talk about some of the issues in the industry and
0:34.4	come of a key things we've been hearing about during this conference already and
0:39.0	we want to dig into a little bit further in our discussion. I'm joined by Frank O'Sullivan, who is the Managing Director for Clean Energy at S2G Ventures, which is a investment firm focusing on sustainability that's backed by the Walton family and also by
0:55.8	Ken Medlock who's the senior director at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University.
1:02.0	But before that discussion with Frank and Ken I talked to
1:05.0	Beth Garza who is the president of the Gold Coast Power Association. Beth, thanks
1:09.2	very much for joining us on the Energy Gang today. I'm happy to be here. And thanks very much for hosting us.
1:14.0	So I was wondering just for the benefit of our listeners,
1:17.1	perhaps who might not know the Gulf Coast Fire Association,
1:19.3	might not know that much about the industry
1:22.1	in this part of the United States.
1:23.4	Can you talk a little bit about what it is that your association does and what's going
1:28.5	on at this conference we're out here today?
1:30.5	Happy to.
1:31.5	The Gulf Coast Power Association has existed for we are in our 41st year.
1:37.0	We are at the hub of the industrial complex here in Houston and it sort of had its start as a part of that but as electricity markets have evolved and expanded.
1:48.0	The Gulf Coast Power Association is a non-profit member organization who provides conferences and other types of
1:58.6	networking and learning opportunities for our members from across the industry.
2:04.5	We are not an advocacy group in any stretch of the imagination.
	...

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