$360M DOE grant to fund project that will connect ERCOT to US power grid

powering on

For the first time, Texas's ERCOT grid will be connected to other states' grids thanks to funding from the Department of Energy. Photo via Getty Images

Thanks to recently announced funding, the power grid for the territory served by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) will be connected to grids in other states.

Officials hope building a 320-mile transmission line that connects the ERCOT electric grid to electric grids in the Southeast will prevent power outages like the massive blackout that occurred in 2022 when a winter storm blasted Texas.

San Francisco-based Pattern Energy says its Southern Spirit project will cost more than $2.6 billion. Full-scale construction is supposed to get underway in 2028, and the project is set to go online in 2031.

The U.S. Department of Energy recently approved up to $360 million for the transmission project. The transmission line will stretch from Texas’ border with Louisiana to Mississippi. It’ll supply about 3,000 megawatts of electricity in either direction. That’s enough power for about 750,000 residential customers during ERCOT’s peak hours.

ERCOT’s more than 54,100 miles of transmission lines supply power to about 90 percent of Texans.

“The U.S. transmission network is the backbone of our nation’s electricity system. Though our grid has served U.S. energy needs for more than a century, our country’s needs are changing,” David Turk, under secretary at the Department of Energy, says in a news release.

“DOE’s approach to deploying near-term solutions and developing long-term planning tools will ensure our electric grid is more interconnected and resilient than ever before,” Turk adds, “while also supporting greater electricity demand.”

The other three projects that recently received funding from the DOE include:

Aroostook Renewable Project, which will construct a new substation in Haynesville, Maine, and a 111-mile transmission line connecting to a substation in Pittsfield, Maine.
Cimarron Link, a 400-mile HVDC transmission line from Texas County, Oklahoma to Tulsa, Oklahoma
Southline, which will construct a 108-mile transmission line between Hidalgo County, New Mexico, and Las Cruces, New Mexico. The DOE previously supported a 175-mile line from Hidalgo County, New Mexico, to Pima County, Arizona, in Southline Phase 1 on the first round of the Transmission Facilitation Program.

This month's funding completes the $2.5 billion in awards from the Transmission Facilitation Program which is administered through the Building a Better Grid Initiative that launched in January 2022. Its mission has been to develop nationally significant transmission lines, increase resilience by connecting regions of the country and improve access to clean energy sources, according to the DOE.

Earlier this year, ERCOT, which manages 90 percent of Texas’ power supply, forecasted a major spike in demand for electricity over the next five to seven years

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CenterPoint has committed to "the largest investment in Greater Houston infrastructure in the company's nearly 160-year history." Photo via Getty Images

CenterPoint Energy announces $5B expanded resiliency plan

doubling down

CenterPoint Energy disclosed that it's completed its core resiliency actions first phase of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative. The company also reports that it's outlined extra upcoming efforts.

Following the unprecedented outages of Hurricane Beryl, CenterPoint outlined its GHRI in August. As of last week, the first phase, which included more than 40 critical actions in total to strengthen the electric grid, has been completed ahead of schedule.

The company also announced a second phase of GHRI and approximately $5 billion in resiliency investment from 2026 to 2028, a figure that's around twice as much as initially promised.

"We have heard the call to action from our customers and elected officials, and we are responding with bold actions," says Jason Wells, CenterPoint president and CEO, in a statement. "Our defining goal, going forward, is this: to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country that can better withstand the extreme weather of the future. To achieve this ambition, we will undertake a historic level of resiliency actions and investment, because this is what the people of the Greater Houston area expect and deserve."

According to CenterPoint, the second phase will include system hardening, strategic undergrounding, self-healing grid technology, and further enhancements to the company's outage tracker.

CenterPoint outlined its recently completed efforts, including installing over 300 automation devices and more than 1,000 stronger poles, as well as removing hazardous vegetation from more than 2,000 miles of power lines. Next up, CenterPoint says it's near-term actions will include further grid strengthening, public communication improvements, and enhancements to local, community, and emergency partnerships. The details of this phase, which will take place between September 1 to June 1, will be released by September 30.

In the company's longer-term action plan, CenterPoint commits to $5 billion in upgrades from 2026 to 2028 — "the largest investment in Greater Houston infrastructure in the company's nearly 160-year history."

"The mission of this longer-term plan of action is to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country by investing in a smarter grid of the future that can better withstand a broad spectrum of risks," reads the statement. "The proposal, and the entire scope of these actions will be outlined in a new system resiliency plan that is expected to be filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas on or before January 31, 2025."

CenterPoint reports that lawmakers have received this information directly, and that the plan will be shaped by feedback from its customers, experts, and stakeholders, including elected officials and local agencies.

Houston-based renewable project developer has opened four solar parks in the south recently. Photo via edpr.com

Houston renewables developer powers up projects in southern region of the US

shine bright

Houston-based renewable energy developer EDP Renewables is making big moves in the Southern United States with its latest solar park projects.

EDPR celebrated the inauguration of Pearl River Solar Park in Scott County, Mississippi, that has an installed capacity of 210 megawatt peak, which produces enough power to meet the energy needs of more than 27,000 average Mississippi homes.

The project consists of 400,000 monofacial and bifacial tracking photovoltaic panels that will contribute clean, cost-competitive power to the state’s electric grid. Pearl River will provide more than $50 million in payments to local governments throughout its operating life, benefiting schools, health care facilities, fire departments, and other county services, as well as create hundreds of jobs, according to EDPR.

"We are thrilled to finally see Pearl River begin operations,” Sandhya Ganapathy, CEO of EDPR North America, says in a news release. “Solar power is a win-win in Mississippi, as it accelerates the deployment of clean energy to the grid and contributes to the state’s decarbonization objectives. The project will immediately go to work to provide Mississippi with a readily available clean energy resource.”

A second project is currently under development for Ragsdale Solar Park in Canton, Mississippi. The project is expected to provide over $36 million to local governments and $15 million to landowners over the course of its lifespan once it becomes operational.

Ragsdale is expected to generate 100 MW of energy, which is equivalent to the consumption of 15,000 average Mississippi homes. According to the company, once operational, it will create over 100 construction jobs and will create three permanent jobs.

In May, EDPR opened its Crooked Lake Solar Park near Blytheville in Mississippi County, Arkansas, which is a 175-megawatt project. The company says it will generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 30,000 Arkansas homes each year.

In April, EDPR completed Misenheimer Solar Park in Stanly County, North Carolina. The solar project has an installed capacity of 74 megawatts, which is one of the largest in the state. Misenheimer Solar Park will generate enough energy annually to power the equivalent of more than 12,000 North Carolina homes while providing economic and environmental benefits, according to EDPR.

Combining batteries with green energy is a fast-growing climate solution. Photo via Getty Images

Batteries and green energies like wind and solar combine for major climate solution across Texas, U.S.

team work

In the Arizona desert, a Danish company is building a massive solar farm that includes batteries that charge when the sun is shining and supply energy back to the electric grid when it's not.

Combining batteries with green energy is a fast-growing climate solution.

“Solar farms only produce when the sun shines, and the turbines only produce when the wind blows,” said Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper. “For us to maximize the availability of the green power, 24-7, we have to store some of it too.”

The United States is rapidly adding batteries, mostly lithium-ion type, to store energy at large scale. Increasingly, these are getting paired with solar and wind projects, like in Arizona. The agencies that run electric grids, utility companies and developers of renewable energies say combining technologies is essential for a green energy future.

Batteries allow renewables to replace fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal, while keeping a steady flow of power when sources like wind and solar are not producing. For example, when people are sleeping and thus using less electricity, the energy produced from wind blowing through the night can be stored in batteries — and used when demand is high during the day.

Juan Mendez, a resident of Tempe, Arizona, gets power from local utility Salt River Project, which is collaborating with Ørsted on the Eleven Mile Solar Center. As a state senator, Mendez pushed SRP to move to renewable energies.

He thinks the power company is still investing too much in gas and coal plants, including a major expansion planned for a natural gas plant in Coolidge, Arizona, near the solar center.

“This solar-plus-storage is a good step, but SRP needs to do more to provide clean energy and clean up our air and help address climate change," Mendez said.

The utility said it’s adding more renewables to its energy mix and recently pledged to zero out its emissions by 2050.

The U.S. has the second most electrical storage in the world, after China. In 2023, the U.S. added an estimated 7.5 gigawatts — 62% more than in 2022, according to the BloombergNEF and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy factbook. That amount can power 750,000 homes for a day and brings the total amount of installed capacity nationwide to nearly enough for 2 million homes for one day, according to BloombergNEF.

In the U.S., California leads in energy storage as it aggressively cuts greenhouse gas emissions. It has twice as much as any other state. Residential, commercial and utility-scale battery installations increased by 757% there over just four years, meaning there's now enough to power 6.6 million homes for up to four hours, according to the California Energy Commission.

That's partly because in 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission told utilities to buy energy storage with a target to be met by 2020. Since then, power companies have continued to add more batteries to help the state meet clean electricity requirements.

Southern California Edison is one utility adding thousands of hours of energy storage. It is putting in solar-plus-batteries to replace some power plants that burn natural gas and would typically supply electricity in the evening.

“If it’s just clean and not reliable, you really don’t have anything,” said William Walsh, vice president for energy procurement and management. “We need both.”

In California, batteries proved their value in September 2022, as the West was experiencing a long heat wave that sent temperatures into the triple digits. Electricity demand reached the highest the state had ever seen on Sept. 6, 2022, as people cranked up air conditioners.

Walsh credits the batteries added to the grid between 2020 and 2022 with helping to avoid blackouts. Two years earlier, there were rolling electricity outages in California during a similar extreme heat wave.

Texas has the second-most battery storage after California. Last month, Schneider Electric announced it's teaming up with energy company ENGIE North America on solar and battery systems in Texas to get closer to the French multinational’s 100% renewable energy goal in the U.S. and Canada. Before the Inflation Reduction Act, a major climate law passed in 2022, the deal and the necessary $80 million investment would not have been possible, said Hans Royal, Schneider Electric's senior director for renewable energy and carbon advisory.

Royal is advising other global Fortune 500 companies it works with to get into the market.

“The industry needs that, the grid needs it," said Royal.

Back in Arizona, Ørsted’s Eleven Mile Solar Center covers 2,000 acres in rural Pinal County. It has 857,000 solar panels and more than 2,000 cubes that look like large shipping containers but contain battery modules. Ørsted also has large solar and storage projects in Texas and Alabama, and in Europe.

When the Arizona facility opens this summer, most power from the solar farm will go to Facebook owner Meta's data center in Mesa. The solar power not needed by Meta, in addition to the power stored in the batteries, will go to the local utility's customers. The new batteries can ensure power to roughly 65,000 homes during peak hours of demand.

“What I think is exciting is just how rapidly this market is moving," said Yayoi Sekine, head of energy storage at BloombergNEF. “There's so much pressure for the U.S. and different regions to decarbonize, and storage is one of the major technologies to enable that. There's a lot of momentum."

Rising temps could result in rolling brownouts this summer–unless we work together to reduce the strain on the electric grid. Photo via Shutterstock

NERC warns of summer energy shortfalls–what you can do now

THINGS ARE HEATING UP

The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) issued a warning with the 2023 Summer Reliability Assessment yesterday – energy shortages could be coming this summer for two-thirds of North America if temperatures spike higher than normal.

“Increased, rapid deployment of wind, solar and batteries have made a positive impact,” Mark Olson, NERC’s manager of reliability assessments says in the release. “However, generator retirements continue to increase the risks associated with extreme summer temperatures, which factors into potential supply shortages in the western two-thirds of North America if summer temperatures spike.”

For Texans, the combined risk of drought and higher-than-normal temperatures could stress ERCOT system resources, especially in the case of reduced wind. But before there’s a mad rush on generators, keep in mind, electricity consumers can take simple actions to minimize the possibility of widespread shortfalls.

Electricity demand begins rising daily around 2 P.M. in the summer and peaks in the final hours of daylight. These hours are generally not only the warmest hours of the day but also the busiest. People return from work to their homes, crank down the air conditioner, turn on TVs, run a load of wash, and prepare meals using multiple electric-powered appliances.

If everyone takes one or two small steps to avoid unnecessary stress on the grid in the hours after coming home from work, we can prevent energy shortfalls. Modify routines now to get into the habit of running the dishwasher overnight, using the washer and dryer before noon or after 8 pm and pulling the shades down in the bright afternoon hours of the day.

Try to delay powering up devices – including EVs – until after dark. Turn off and unplug items to avoid sapping electricity when items are not in use. And if you can bear it, nudge that thermostat up a couple of degrees.

Energy sustainability demands consistent collaboration and coordination from every consumer of energy. Let’s get in the habit of acting neighborly now with conservative electricity practices before we start seeing temperatures–of both the literal and figurative kind–flare.

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Rice researchers' quantum breakthrough could pave the way for next-gen superconductors

new findings

A new study from researchers at Rice University, published in Nature Communications, could lead to future advances in superconductors with the potential to transform energy use.

The study revealed that electrons in strange metals, which exhibit unusual resistance to electricity and behave strangely at low temperatures, become more entangled at a specific tipping point, shedding new light on these materials.

A team led by Rice’s Qimiao Si, the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy, used quantum Fisher information (QFI), a concept from quantum metrology, to measure how electron interactions evolve under extreme conditions. The research team also included Rice’s Yuan Fang, Yiming Wang, Mounica Mahankali and Lei Chen along with Haoyu Hu of the Donostia International Physics Center and Silke Paschen of the Vienna University of Technology. Their work showed that the quantum phenomenon of electron entanglement peaks at a quantum critical point, which is the transition between two states of matter.

“Our findings reveal that strange metals exhibit a unique entanglement pattern, which offers a new lens to understand their exotic behavior,” Si said in a news release. “By leveraging quantum information theory, we are uncovering deep quantum correlations that were previously inaccessible.”

The researchers examined a theoretical framework known as the Kondo lattice, which explains how magnetic moments interact with surrounding electrons. At a critical transition point, these interactions intensify to the extent that the quasiparticles—key to understanding electrical behavior—disappear. Using QFI, the team traced this loss of quasiparticles to the growing entanglement of electron spins, which peaks precisely at the quantum critical point.

In terms of future use, the materials share a close connection with high-temperature superconductors, which have the potential to transmit electricity without energy loss, according to the researchers. By unblocking their properties, researchers believe this could revolutionize power grids and make energy transmission more efficient.

The team also found that quantum information tools can be applied to other “exotic materials” and quantum technologies.

“By integrating quantum information science with condensed matter physics, we are pivoting in a new direction in materials research,” Si said in the release.

Oxy subsidiary granted landmark EPA permits for carbon capture facility

making progress

Houston’s Occidental Petroleum Corp., or Oxy, and its subsidiary 1PointFive announced that the U.S Environmental Protection Agency approved its Class VI permits to sequester carbon dioxide captured from its STRATOS Direct Air Capture (DAC) facility near Odessa. These are the first such permits issued for a DAC project, according to a news release.

The $1.3 billion STRATOS project, which 1PointFive is developing through a joint venture with investment manager BlackRock, is designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of CO2 annually and is expected to begin commercial operations this year. DAC technology pulls CO2 from the air at any location, not just where carbon dioxide is emitted. Major companies, such as Microsoft and AT&T, have secured carbon removal credit agreements through the project.

The permits are issued under the Safe Drinking Water Act's Underground Injection Control program. The captured CO2 will be stored in geologic formations more than a mile underground, meeting the EPA’s review standards.

“This is a significant milestone for the company as we are continuing to develop vital infrastructure that will help the United States achieve energy security,” Vicki Hollub, Oxy president and CEO, said in a news release.“The permits are a catalyst to unlock value from carbon dioxide and advance Direct Air Capture technology as a solution to help organizations address their emissions or produce vital resources and fuels.”

Additionally, Oxy and 1PointFive announced the signing of a 25-year offtake agreement for 2.3 million metric tons of CO2 per year from CF Industries’ upcoming Bluepoint low-carbon ammonia facility in Ascension Parish, Louisiana.

The captured CO2 will be transported to and stored at 1PointFive’s Pelican Sequestration Hub, which is currently under development. Eventually, 1PointFive’s Pelican hub in Louisiana will include infrastructure to safely and economically sequester industrial emissions in underground geologic formations, similar to the STRATOS project.

“CF Industries’ and its partners' confidence in our Pelican Sequestration Hub is a validation of our expertise managing carbon dioxide and how we collaborate with industrial organizations to become their commercial sequestration partner,” Jeff Alvarez, President of 1PointFive Sequestration, said in a news release.

1PointFive is storing up to 20 million tons of CO2 per year, according to the company.

“By working together, we can unlock the potential of American manufacturing and energy production, while advancing industries that deliver high-quality jobs and economic growth,” Alvarez said in a news release.

Houston energy-focused AI platform raises $5M in Mercury-led seed round

fresh funding

Houston-based Collide, a provider of generative artificial intelligence for the energy sector, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Houston’s Mercury Fund.

Other investors in the seed round include Bryan Sheffield, founder of Austin-based Parsley Energy, which was acquired by Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources in 2021; Billy Quinn, founder and managing partner of Dallas-based private equity firm Pearl Energy Investments; and David Albin, co-founder and former managing partner of Dallas-based private equity firm NGP Capital Partners.

“(Collide) co-founders Collin McLelland and Chuck Yates bring a unique understanding of the oil and gas industry,” Blair Garrou, managing partner at Mercury, said in a news release. “Their backgrounds, combined with Collide’s proprietary knowledge base, create a significant and strategic moat for the platform.”

Collide, founded in 2022, says the funding will enable the company to accelerate the development of its GenAI platform. GenAI creates digital content such as images, videos, text, and music.

Originally launched by Houston media organization Digital Wildcatters as “a professional network and digital community for technical discussions and knowledge sharing,” the company says it will now shift its focus to rolling out its enterprise-level, AI-enabled solution.

Collide explains that its platform gathers and synthesizes data from trusted sources to deliver industry insights for oil and gas professionals. Unlike platforms such as OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot, Collide’s platform “uniquely accesses a comprehensive, industry-specific knowledge base, including technical papers, internal processes, and a curated Q&A database tailored to energy professionals,” the company said.

Collide says its approximately 6,000 platform users span 122 countries.

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