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Houston investment firm closes $105M energy venture fund

seeing green

Veriten has closed a $105 million venture fund to support the "future energy world." Photo via Pexels.

Houston-based investment firm Veriten has announced the initial close of its second flagship energy venture fund with more than $105 million in capital commitments.

Fund II will build on Veriten’s initial fund and aim to support “scalable technology solutions for energy, power and industrial applications,” according to a company news release.

"Our differentiated network, research-driven process, and first principles approach to investing are having an impact across multiple verticals including traditional energy, electrification, and industrial technology. Fund II builds on that platform,” John Sommers, partner, investments at Veriten, added in the release. “In this environment, the differentiator isn't capital – it's all about connectivity, deep sector expertise, and an economically-driven approach. As new technologies and approaches develop at breakneck speed, the need for more reliable, affordable energy and power continues to grow dramatically. The current backdrop accentuates the need for Veriten's solution."

Veriten is supported by over 50 strategic partnerships in the energy, power, industrial and technology sectors, including major players like Halliburton and Phillips 66.

"Veriten continues to build a differentiated platform at the intersection of energy, technology and industry expertise," Jeff Miller, chairman and CEO of Halliburton, said in the release. "We were early believers in the team and their ability to identify practical solutions to real challenges across the energy value chain. As all industries increasingly adopt digital tools, automation and AI-enabled technologies to improve performance and execution, we are proud to partner with Veriten again to help accelerate high-impact solutions across the broader energy landscape."

Veriten closed its debut fund, NexTen LP, of $85 million in committed capital in October 2023. It was launched in January 2022 by Maynard Holt, co-founder and former CEO of the energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

It has invested in Houston-based AI-powered electricity analytics provider Amperon and led a $12 million Seed 2 funding round for Houston-based Helix Technologies to scale manufacturing of its energy-efficient commercial HVAC add-on earlier this year. In the past year it has contributed to funding rounds for San Francisco-based Armada and Calgary-based Veerum.

Veriten also named Nick Morriss as its new managing director earlier this month. Morriss most recently served as vice president of business development at next-generation nuclear technology company Natura Resources and spent nearly 20 years at NOV Inc.

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Helix Earth is developing a retrofit technology that has the potential to cut HVAC energy use by up to 50 percent. Photo via Getty Images

Houston cleantech company closes $12M seed round

fresh funding

Houston-based Helix Earth Technologies has closed a $12 million Seed 2 funding round to scale manufacturing of its energy-efficient commercial HVAC add-on technology.

Veriten, a Houston-based energy investment firm, led the round. Rua Ventures, Carnrite Ventures, Skywriter LLC and Textbook Ventures also participated.

Helix Earth—which was founded based on NASA technology, spun out of Rice University and has been incubated at Greentown Labs—is developing high-efficiency retrofit dehumidification systems that aim to reduce the energy consumption of commercial HVAC units. The company reports that its technology can lead to "healthier indoor air, lower energy bills, reduced building maintenance, and more comfortable spaces for building owners and occupants."

"Building owners are dealing with rising energy costs, uncontrolled humidity, and aging infrastructure with no viable, cost-effective path forward. We are in the field today solving these problems for commercial customers, and this capital puts us on an aggressive path to scale,” Rawand Rasheed, Helix Earth co-founder and CEO, said in a news release.

“The strength of this round reinforces our team's conviction that we can transform innovation-starved sectors with transformational solutions that deliver order-of-magnitude improvements to owners and operators, for both their bottom line and the environment,” Rasheed added.

Maynard Holt, Veriten’s founder and CEO, said that the investment firm is tripling its investment in Helix Earth.

"The team has built breakthrough technology with real applicability across multiple industries,” Holt said in the release. “Their first product will have an immediate and measurable impact on our energy system, and they are already pursuing adjacent innovations to help heavy industries operate more efficiently and with less waste. This is a well-rounded team with a proven track record of strong execution and disciplined capital management.”

Helix Earth also closed a $5.6 million seed funding round in 2024, led by Veriten.

Last year, the company secured a $1.2 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant and won in the Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability contest at the 2025 SXSW Pitch Showcase. Rasheed was also named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Energy and Green Tech list for 2025.

Heading to CERAWeek? Here's where to find Houston energy leaders on the Agora track. Photo courtesy of CERAWeek

30+ CERAWeek events featuring Houston energy leaders

where to be

CERAWeek returns to Houston March 23-27, bringing more than 1,000 speakers, executives and energy innovators to Houston.

Under this year's theme, "Convergence and Competition: Energy, Technology and Geopolitics,” panels will tackle topics ranging from policy and global relations to the growing role of AI in the energy sector. Most of the innovation-themed events are organized under the Agora track and will feature many Houston-area startups, universities, companies and scientists. Panels will feature leaders from Fortune 500 companies and top U.S. government officials, scientists and founders pushing towards a more carbon-neutral future.

Here are some of the many events featuring Houston leaders on the Agora track you can't miss if you want to learn more about Houston energy innovation.

Monday, March 23rd


Scaling Innovation: Building the ecosystem for the next energy breakthroughs

Featuring: Georgina Campbell Flatter, CEO of Greentown Labs

This event is at 10:30 a.m. Find more info here

Vaulted Deep | The Subsurface as Waste and Carbon Infrastructure

Featuring: Julia Reichelstein, co-founder and CEO of Vaulted Deep

This event is at 11:30 a.m. Find more info here

Collaboration Spotlight | Collision Course: How Houston's Ion District turns proximity into innovation

Featuring: Adrian Tromel, chief innovation officer at Rice University; Rawand Rasheed, co-founder and CEO of Helix Earth Technologies; Marc Davidson, senior technical advisor at Veriten

This event is at 1:30 p.m. Find more info here.

Methane Reduction in Practice: Field learnings

Featuring: Matt Kolesar, chief environmental scientist at ExxonMobil

This event is at 2 p.m. Find more info here.

Time-to-AI: Shrinking the data-center clock

Featuring: Robert Ott, vice president of wholesale origination at NRG Energy; Andrew Johnston, business line director, data centers at SLB

This event is at 2:30 p.m. Find more info here.

Scaling CCUS: Which industries, regions and funding sources?

Featuring: Gino Thielens, vice president of renewables and energy efficiency at SLB; Ian McIntyre, senior vice president, 1PointFive

This event is at 3 p.m. Find more info here.

Democratization of AI: Redefining where work gets done

Featuring: Rob Crane, technology scouting and venturing manager at SLB

This event is at 3:30 p.m. Find more info here.

Tuesday, March 24th


Syzygy Plasmonics | Affordable, Globally Compliant SAF Using Abundant Biogas Feedstock

Featuring: Trevor Best, CEO and founder of Syzygy Plasmonics

This event is at noon. Find more info here.

Accelerating Idea to Impact: Carving new ways to innovation

Featuring: David Sholl, executive vice president for research at Rice University

This event is at 1 p.m. Find more info here.

NRG | From the Front Lines: A deep dive into grid reliability

Featuring: Matthew Pistner, senior vice president of generation at NRG Energy; Robert Patrick, vice president of development engineering and construction at NRG Energy

This event is at 1:30 p.m. Find more info here.

Energy Efficiency: The industrial advantage

Featuring: Jason Urso, CTO of Honeywell Industrial Automation

This event is at 1:30 p.m. Find more info here.

The CEO Blueprint | Strategy

Featuring: Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO and chairman of Baker Hughes

This event is at 2:55 p.m. Find more info here.

Occidental | Beyond the Technology: Turning direct air capture into CDR credits

Featuring: William Barrett, vice president of product development at 1PointFive

This event is at 3:30 p.m. Find more info here.

Wednesday, March 25th


Innovations in Sustainable Steel

Featuring: Laureen Meroueh, founder and CEO of Heartha Metals Inc.

This event is at 9 a.m. Find more info here.

Rice University | The Science of Geologic Carbon Storage

Featuring: Sahar Bakhshian, assistant professor, earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice University

This event is at 9:30 a.m. Find more info here.

Sparking Innovation: The impact of interdisciplinary collaboration

Featuring: Marie Contou Carrere, executive director of the Rice Sustainability Institute; Sandy Guitar, executive director of TEX-E

This event is at 10 a.m. Find more info here.

Models of Innovation, Models of Capital

Featuring: Bobby Tudor, chair of Houston Energy Transition Initiative and chairman of the board for Greentown Labs

This event is at 10:30 a.m. Find more info here.

Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition

This event is at noon. Find more info here. Learn more about the competing teams here.

Baker Hughes | Meeting Industrial and AI-Driven Energy Demand with Flexible, Reliable and Sustainable Power Solutions

Featuring: Daniele Marcucci, industrial power generation product director at Baker Hughes; Florent Rousset, geothermal leader, new energies at Baker Hughes

This event is at noon. Find more info here.

Thursday, March 26th


Mission-driven Minds: How space exploration inspires the next generation of energy innovators

Featuring: Trina Sadberry, head of brand & engagement in the United States at Equinor; Laura Dandridge, corporate affairs advisor at Chevron; Jack Fischer, chief integration officer at Intuitive Machines; Ginger Kerrick Davis, chief strategy officer at Barrios Technology

This event is at 9 a.m. Find more info here.

Rice University | Nature-based Solutions: A focus on biochar and enhanced rock weathering

Featuring: Carrie Masiello, director of the sustainability institute at Rice University; Mark Torres, associate professor, earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice University

This event is at 9:30 a.m. Find more info here.

Growing Direct Air Capture

Featuring: Anthony Cottone, resident and general manager at 1PointFive

This event is at 9:30 a.m. Find more info here.

Occidental | Advancement and Growth Opportunities for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Featuring: Vishal Gupta, president and general manager of EOR Ventures at Occidental

This event is at 9:30 a.m. Find more info here.

Geothermal: Charting progress on technological advancements

Featuring: Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, trustee professor, earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice University; Florent Rousset, geothermal leader, new energies at Baker Hughes

This event is at 10 a.m. Find more info here.

Newfound Materials | Bridging the Synthesis Gap in AI-Driven Materials Innovation

Featuring: Matt McDermott, founder and CEO of Newfound Materials

This event is at 10 a.m. Find more info here.

Hertha Metals | The Future of Steel Production: Going beyond the blast furnace

Featuring: Laureen Meroueh, founder and CEO of Heartha Metals Inc.

This event is at 11 a.m. Find more info here.

Advanced Materials with Low-Carbon Intensity

Featuring: Matteo Pasquali, director of the Rice Carbon Hub

This event is at 11:30 a.m. Find more info here.

Lessons from the Lab: Common pitfalls of hard tech startups

Featuring: Jeremy Pitts, managing director of Activate Houston

This event is at 11:30 a.m. Find more info here.

TotalEnergies | Accelerating Direct Air Capture

Featuring: Isabelle Betremieux, head of R&T CO2 capture department at TotalEnergies

This event is at 1 p.m. Find more info here.

Spotlight: "NextGen" energy leaders of the future

Featuring: Renu Khator, chancellor and president of the University of Houston

This event is at 3 p.m. Find more info here.

Solidec | On-site, On-demand Production of Essential Chemicals

Featuring: Ryan DuChanois, co-founder and CEO of Solidec

This event is at 3:30 p.m. Find more info here.

Helix Earth's technology has the potential to cut AC energy use by up to 50 percent. Photo by Sergei A/Pexels

Houston cleantech startup Helix Earth lands $1.2M NSF grant

federal funding

Renewable equipment manufacturer Helix Earth Technologies is one of three Houston-based companies to secure federal funding through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant program in recent months.

The company—which was founded based on NASA technology, spun out of Rice University and has been incubated at Greentown Labs—has received approximately $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation to develop its high-efficiency retrofit dehumidification systems that aim to reduce the energy consumption of commercial AC units. The company reports that its technology has the potential to cut AC energy use by up to 50 percent.

"This award validates our vision and propels our impact forward with valuable research funding and the prestige of the NSF stamp of approval," Rawand Rasheed, Helix CEO and founder, shared in a LinkedIn post. "This award is a reflection our exceptional team's grit, expertise, and collaborative spirit ... This is just the beginning as we continue pushing for a sustainable future."

Two other Houston-area companies also landed $1.2 million in NSF SBIR Phase II funding during the same period:

  • Resilitix Intelligence, a disaster AI startup that was founded shortly after Hurricane Harvey, that works to "reduce the human and economic toll of disasters" by providing local and state organizations and emergency response teams with near-real-time, AI-driven insights to improve response speed, save lives and accelerate recovery
  • Conroe-based Fluxworks Inc., founded in 2021 at Texas A&M, which provides magnetic gear technology for the space industry that has the potential to significantly enhance in-space manufacturing and unlock new capabilities for industries by allowing advanced research and manufacturing in microgravity

The three grants officially rolled out in early September 2025 and are expected to run through August 2027, according to the NSF. The SBIR Phase II grants support in-depth research and development of ideas that showed potential for commercialization after receiving Phase I grants from government agencies.

However, congressional authority for the program, often called "America's seed fund," expired on September 30, 2025, and has stalled since the recent government shutdown. Government agencies cannot issue new grants until Congress agrees on a path forward. According to SBIR.gov, "if no further action is taken by Congress, federal agencies may not be able to award funding under SBIR/STTR programs and SBIR/STTR solicitations may be delayed, cancelled, or rescinded."

Helix Earth was one of the winners of SXSW's 2025 pitch competition. Photo by Sergei A/Pexels

Houston clean-tech co. with NASA ties wins big at SXSW 2025

And the winner is...

Houston had a strong showing at the 2025 SXSW Pitch showcase in Austin, with two local startups claiming top prizes, including a novel clean-tech startup.

Clean-tech company Helix Earth, which spun out of Rice University and was incubated at Greentown Labs, won in the Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability contest.

"We faced impressive competition from a well-chosen set of finalists, and we're honored to be chosen as the winners. One of the judges even commented, ‘Who knew you could make air conditioning sexy,’” Brad Husick, Helix's co-founder and chief business officer, said in a release.

Helix Earth was launched in 2022 and is known for its space capsule air filtration system that was co-developed for NASA. The commercial air conditioner add-on technology, now in a pilot phase, has been used to retrofit HVAC systems for commercial buildings and can save up to 50 percent of the net energy, cutting down on emissions and operating costs, according to the company. Its co-founder and CEO Rawand Rasheed was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Energy and Green Tech list for 2025.

“This win validates our mission to drive sustainable innovation in commercial air conditioning and beyond. We are excited about the future of Helix Earth and the impact we will have in reducing energy consumption and emissions," Rasheed said in a statement.

Little Place Labs, a Houston space data startup, also walked away a winner in the Security, GovTech & Space competition. The company uses advanced AI and machine learning to deliver near-real-time space analytics for both ground and space-based applications. Its software aims to help first responders, mission planners and decision-makers detect anomalies and make informed decisions quickly. It was co-founded in 2020 at Oxford by Houstonian and CEO Bosco Lai and Gaurav Bajaj and participated in the 2023 AWS Space Accelerator.

"This all started with a simple mission: To deliver real-time space insights to help first responders, mission planners, and decision-makers act before problems arise,” Little Place Labs wrote on LinkedIn. "Today, that mission feels even stronger."

One of SWSX's marquee events, the pitch competition, held March 8-10, featured 45 finalists, selected from 589 applicants, in nine categories.

Two other Houston companies were finalists this year:
  • Trez, a Latino-focused fintech company that uses AI and voice-command payroll through WhatsApp to provide culturally relevant payroll and streamline financial operations for Latino business owners.
  • Tempesst Droneworx, a veteran-owned software company that's Harbinger software providing real-time contextual intelligence for early warning detection, reducing time to decision and speeding time to action.

Jesse Martinez, founder of invincible, and Anu Puvvada of KPMG were two judges representing Houston.

According to SXSW, 647 companies have participated in SXSW Pitch over the years, with over 93 percent receiving funding and acquisitions totaling nearly $23.2 billion. See the full list of 2025 winners here.

Three young professionals have made the cut for this year's Forbes Under 30 list in the Energy and Green Tech list for 2025. Photos via Forbes

Under 30: Houston innovators snag spots on Forbes list of top young energy professionals

A handful of Houstonians have been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Energy and Green Tech list for 2025.

Kip Daujotas is an investment associate at Aramco Ventures, a $7.5 billion venture capital arm of the world's largest energy company. Houston is the Americas headquarters for Saudi Aramco. Since its inception in 2012, Aramco Ventures has invested in more than 100 tech startups. Daujotas joined the team over two years ago after studying for an MBA at Yale University. He led Aramco’s first direct air capture (DAC) investment — in Los Alamos, New Mexico-based Spiritus.

Also representing the corporate side of the industry, Wenting Gao immigrated from Beijing to obtain an economics degree from Harvard University, then got a job at consulting giant McKinsey, where she recently became the firm’s youngest partner. Gao works on bringing sustainability strategies to energy and materials companies as well as investors. Her areas of expertise include battery materials, waste, biofuels, and low-carbon products.

Last but not least, Houston entrepreneur Rawand Rasheed is co-founder and CEO of Houston-based Helix Earth. He co-founded the startup after earning a doctoral degree from Rice University and co-inventing Helix’s core technology while at NASA, first as a graduate research fellow and then as an engineer. The core technology, a space capsule air filtration system, has been applied to retrofitting HVAC systems for commercial buildings.

Each year, Forbes 30 Under 30 recognizes 600 honorees in 20 categories. The 2025 honorees were selected from more than 10,000 nominees by Forbes staff and a panel of independent judges based on factors such as funding, revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness, and potential.

Specifically, the Energy & Green Tech category recognizes young entrepreneurs driving innovation that’s aimed at creating a cleaner, greener future.

“Gen Z is one of the fastest-growing groups of entrepreneurs and creators, who are reshaping the way the world conducts business, and our Under 30 class of 2025 proves that you can never begin your career journey too early,” says Alexandra York, editor of Forbes Under 30. “With the expansion across AI, technology, social media, and other industries, the honorees on this year’s list are pushing the boundaries and building their brands beyond traditional scopes.”

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Energy expert: Why Houston's 100-degree days matter more than 5 years ago

guest column

If you are a Houston native or have lived in the city since the 1980s, you likely remember when a 100-degree day was so rare it made the local news. There were heat advisory warnings, with special attention to the midday hours, because the heat exposure carried with it risks like dehydration, heat stroke and extreme exposure to UV rays.

In this new era for our city and state, 100-degree days are becoming more common. Our local weather forecasters still report on the occurrence, but we are no longer able to restrict our activities as heavily.

The climate has changed rapidly, and Texans are navigating our collective response to the increased heat that has serious implications for our health, energy supply, economy and regional life.

Houston Has Always Been Hot, But This Heat is Different

Houston has expanded exponentially in the last few decades, doubling its population from roughly 1.4 million in 1976 to 2.4 million today. When we account for the growth in the surrounding suburbs, the population boom nearly quintuples.

Houston and the surrounding suburbs now total nearly 7 million people, a huge population increase that brings greater demand for energy. This demand impacts our infrastructure, energy availability, consumer costs, workforce productivity and water supply significantly. With these additions comes more asphalt and fewer trees. With less tree cover and green space, heat gets trapped, increasing temperatures in the city.

We are not just inheriting rising temperatures; we are also building hotter cities.

100-Degree Days and The Texas Grid

I have written before about our grid capacity, changes facing Texas, and the strain that we have seen on the grid. While redundancies in the Texas grid are improving, the pace of this change continues to pose challenges for our area.

The extreme heat has now made air conditioning mandatory for a greater percentage of days during the calendar year. AC units (large and small) are no longer cycling on and off as they are designed to run; instead, most systems are running continuously to meet the needs of Texans.

Daily activities and devices, including remote work, the AI boom, physical exercise, children’s playtime, charging multiple devices, and streaming entertainment, require much more cooling than in previous generations, producing a much larger demand on the grid.

Additionally, the way Houstonians live at home has also changed. Homes across America are much larger on average than they were in the 1980’s. Also, with the rise of remote work, there is a greater need for all-day electricity in each individual household. These factors, combined with the exponential increase in the number of devices and appliances used in households, significantly affect energy demand in our region.

Of course, we’re also seeing massive usage of electricity from large business users (warehouses, data centers, and more), including empty office buildings as return-to-office is slower than expected post-pandemic.

Heat is Not the Only Culprit

As Houston is a coastal city, we not only have to contend with 100-degree temperatures, but humidity also adds an extra layer of complexity to our climate. Thanks to the humidity, temperatures stay elevated for longer periods, meaning everything is retaining heat at a higher rate and for longer than ever before.

The heat never really leaves us anymore, as we don’t have cooler nights to help balance these very hot days. The compounding effect of extreme temperatures and high humidity makes energy demand higher in our region than in places like the New Mexico desert.

Economic Impact on Our Region

Extreme heat hits Texans’ wallets long before a weather alert ever pops up. When temperatures stay above 100 degrees for days at a time, air conditioners are basically working overtime, which sends electricity bills climbing.

And the harder those systems run, the more wear and tear homeowners end up dealing with, usually at the worst possible time, like the middle of July when a boom of AC units decide to quit at once. Meanwhile, roads, transformers and other infrastructure are all under more stress than they were originally built for.

There’s also a much bigger ripple effect that people don’t always think about. When it’s dangerously hot outside, construction crews, energy workers, landscapers, and other outdoor industries simply can’t operate the same way, which slows productivity and raises safety concerns.

Cities are also spending more money on cooling centers and heat-related emergency response, and over time, all of those rising costs have a way of showing up somewhere, whether that’s insurance rates, utility costs or the price communities pay to keep up with extreme weather.

The Opportunity for Houston

Texas is becoming a real-time test case for what happens when extreme heat, rapid growth, and massive energy demand all hit at once. While problematic, it also creates a huge opportunity for Houston and the Texas energy sector to lead. If there’s any place equipped to determine what the future of energy resilience looks like, it’s the city that already powers so much of the world’s energy conversation.

And the solution isn’t just “create more electricity.” It’s about building a smarter, more flexible system overall with better grid technology, battery storage, stronger infrastructure, more efficient building, and energy systems that can handle these extreme weather swings without everything feeling stressed at once. The reality is that a lot of what Texas figures out over the next few years could become the blueprint for other cities and states across the country.

Houston is already testing some of these smarter resilience strategies, such as microgrids, stronger substations, and more flexible energy systems designed to keep critical facilities running during major storms or outages. The goal is simple: build a grid that can take a hit without everything feeling strained all at once.

Going Forward

Hotter days are here to stay. We can’t stop our lives amid the extreme heat, so we have to find ways to adapt and we have to do it quickly. If there’s one thing Texas has always done well, however, it’s innovate under pressure. The communities, companies and energy leaders that move fastest now won’t just be responding to the future, they’ll be helping define it.

———

Sam Luna is director at BKV Energy, where he oversees brand and go-to-market strategy, customer experience, marketing execution, and more.

Houston lands 27 Fortune 500 headquarters, led by energy heavyweights

HQ leader

Houston is a giant among U.S. hubs for corporate headquarters.

The 2026 Fortune 500 lists 27 companies based in the Houston area, with many energy companies claiming top spots. Houston ties with Chicago for the second-most Fortune 500 headquarters, preceded only by New York City (53). Dallas-Fort Worth is home to 23 Fortune 500 headquarters.

Texas leads the nation for Fortune 500 headquarters (57), with California in the No. 2 spot and New York at No. 3.

“Texas is the undisputed headquarters of headquarters,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news release. “The world’s leading businesses invest with confidence in Texas because of our welcoming business climate, predictable regulatory environment, and skilled and growing workforce. People and businesses are choosing Texas because Texas works.”

The 2026 Fortune 500 ranks the largest U.S. corporations based on revenue in fiscal year 2025.

Here’s a rundown of the 27 Fortune 500 companies based in the Houston area.

  • No. 9 ExxonMobil
  • No. 21 Chevron
  • No. 29 Phillips 66
  • No.55 Sysco
  • No. 75 ConocoPhillips
  • No. 89 Enterprise Products Partners
  • No. 103 Plains GP Holdings
  • No. 133 Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • No. 149 NRG Energy
  • No. 157 Quanta Services
  • No. 164 Baker Hughes
  • No. 173 Occidental Petroleum
  • No. 179 Waste Management
  • No. 201 EOG Resources
  • No. 204 Group 1 Automotive
  • No. 207 Halliburton
  • No. 223 Cheniere Energy
  • No. 236 Corebridge Financial
  • No. 262 Targa Resources
  • No. 266 Kinder Morgan
  • No. 388 Westlake
  • No. 435 CenterPoint Energy
  • No. 438 APA
  • No. 440 Comfort Systems USA
  • No. 455 NOV
  • No. 488 KBR
  • No. 496 Coterra Energy. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based Devon Energy and Houston-based Coterra Energy merged in early May, with the combined company retaining the Devon Energy name and the Houston headquarters.

The Greater Houston Partnership notes the Houston area soon will welcome its 28th Fortune 500 company. Expand Energy (formerly Chesapeake Energy), appearing at No. 362 on the 2026 list, says it’s moving its headquarters from Oklahoma City to Spring this year.

As the natural gas producer prepares to relocate to Texas, it’s hunting for a new leader. Nick Dell’Osso stepped down as president and CEO earlier this year. Board Chairman Michael Wichterich is interim president and CEO.

Dell’Osso became president and CEO of Oklahoma City-based Gulfport Energy effective May 28.

ERCOT braces for record-breaking power demand this summer

hot temps, high demand

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages about 90 percent of the state’s power, is waving a warning flag: The ERCOT grid may set a new record for peak demand this summer.

Based on expectations for a hotter summer this year than last year, ERCOT predicts power demand will hit a peak of more than 92.2 gigawatts this summer — enough power for roughly 18.4 million homes.

“Given the potential for extreme heat combined with significant load growth, ERCOT may surpass its current all-time summer peak,” the organization says in its 2026 summertime forecast.

Further taxing the ERCOT grid are power-hungry data centers and cryptocurrency-mining facilities.

Last year’s peak summer demand for ERCOT reached 83.7 megawatts on Aug. 18, and all-time peak demand of 85.5 gigawatts was recorded on Aug. 10, 2023.

Fortunately, ERCOT believes the grid is in good shape to withstand this summer’s heat: It found a 0.09 percent chance of a grid emergency in June and a 0.21 percent chance in July.

More generation of electricity from solar and wind is helping ERCOT meet stepped-up demand prompted by population growth, and the significant power needs of data centers and cryptocurrency-mining facilities.

About 27 million Texas customers depend on power from ERCOT’s grid.

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