University of Houston names first group of Chevron-backed fellows

meet the chosen ones

The PhD and doctoral students will each receive a one-year $12,000 fellowship, along with mentoring from experts at UH and Chevron. Photo via UH.edu

The University of Houston has named eight graduate students to its first-ever cohort of UH-Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows.

The PhD and doctoral students will each receive a one-year $12,000 fellowship, along with mentoring from experts at UH and Chevron. Their work focuses on energy-related research in fields ranging from public policy to geophysics and math. The fellowship is funded by Chevron.

“The UH-Chevron Energy Fellowship program is an exciting opportunity for our graduate students to research the many critical areas that impact the energy industry, our communities and our global competitiveness,” Ramanan Krishnamoortil UH's Vice President for Energy and Innovation says in a statement.

“Today’s students not only recognize the importance of energy, but they are actively driving the push for affordable, reliable, sustainable and secure energy and making choices that clearly indicate that they are meaningfully contributing to the change,” he continues.

“We love that Chevron is sponsoring this group of fellows because it’s a fantastic way for us to get involved with the students who are working on some of the biggest problems we’ll face in society,” Chevron Technology Ventures President Jim Gable adds.

The 2023 UH-Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows are:

Kripa Adhikari, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Cullen College of Engineering. Her work focuses on thermal regulation in enhanced geothermal systems. She currently works under the mentorship of Professor Kalyana Babu Nakshatrala and previously worked as a civil engineer with the Nepal Reconstruction Authority.

Aparajita Datta, a researcher at UH Energy and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science. Her work focuses on the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a redistributive welfare policy designed to help households pay their energy bills. She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in India, and master’s degrees in energy management and public policy from UH. She also recently worked on a paper for UH about transportation emissions.

Chirag Goel, a Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering at UH. His work focuses on using High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) to optimize manufacturing processes, which he says can help achieve carbon-free economies by 2050. The work has uses in renewable energy generation, electric power transmission and advanced scientific applications.

Meghana Idamakanti, a third-year Ph.D. student in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her work focuses on using electrically heated steam methane for cleaner hydrogen production. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in India in 2020 and previously worked as a process engineering intern at Glochem Industries in India.

Erin Picton, an environmental engineering Ph.D. student in the Shaffer Lab at UH. Her work focuses on ways to increase the sustainability of lithium processing and reducing wasted water and energy. “I love the idea of taking waste and turning it into value,” she said in a statement. She has previously worked in collaboration with MIT and Greentown Labs, as chief sustainability officer of a Houston-based desalination startup; and as a visiting graduate researcher at Argonne National Lab and at INSA in Lyon, France.

Mohamad Sarhan, a Ph.D. student and a teaching assistant in the Department of Petroleum Engineering. His work focuses on seasonal hydrogen storage and the stability of storage candidates during hydrogen cycling. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from Cairo University

Swapnil Sharma, a Ph.D. student in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His work has been funded by the Department of Energy and focuses on thermal modeling of large-scale liquid hydrogen storage tanks. He works with Professor Vemuri Balakotaiah. He holds bachelor's and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). He also developed one of the world’s highest fiber-count optical fiber cables while working in India and founded CovRelief, which helped millions of Indians find resources about hospital beds, oxygen suppliers and more during the pandemic.

Larkin Spires, who's working on her doctoral research in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Her work focuses on a semi-empirical Brown and Korringa model for fluid substitution and the ties between geophysics and mathematics. She works under Professor John Castagna and holds a bachelor’s degree in math from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree in geophysics from UH.

Earlier this month Evolve Houston also announced its first-ever cohort of 13 microgrant recipients, whose work aims to make EVs and charging infrastructure more accessible in some of the city's more underserved neighborhoods.

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CenterPoint launches real-time tracker to map Houston’s power grid upgrades

resiliency plan

Houstonians can now track electronic infrastructure improvements via CenterPoint’s new Community Progress Tracker, part of the company’s ongoing Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative.

The tracker allows users to search by zip code and see completed work in real time, as well as updates on upcoming projects that highlight infrastructure improvements and efforts to strengthen the power grid in the face of extreme weather. Users can view icons on a map that track automation and intelligence projects, storm-resilient pole and equipment installations, undergrounding work and tree trimmings.

CenterPoint had installed 10,000 storm-resilient poles, cleared 1,600 miles of higher-risk vegetation, completed 99 miles of power line undergrounding and hardened 220 miles of power lines by the end of Q1 2026, according to the company.

For the rest of 2026, CenterPoint aims to install 35,000 stronger, storm-resilient poles, clear high-risk vegetation from 8,000 miles of power lines and harden 500 transmission structures against storms.

Via centerpointenergy.com

“We are proud of the progress made in 2025, which helped deliver more than 100 million fewer outage minutes when compared to 2024, and we are determined to make even more progress in 2026 as we work toward our defining goal: building the nation's most resilient coastal grid,” Nathan Brownell, CenterPoint's vice president of resilience and capital delivery, said in a news release. “To date, we are ahead of schedule in making critical 2026 GHRI improvements, and we will continue to build the stronger, smarter infrastructure necessary to further improve systemwide reliability and strengthen resiliency, reducing the likelihood and impact of outages for our customers.”

Woodlands-based company signs deal to develop 200 MW battery storage project

power deal

The Woodlands-based Plus Power announced this month that it has entered into a 20-year energy storage agreement with Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), one of the largest public energy providers in the U.S.

Through the agreement, Plus Power and TVA will develop the Crawfish Creek Energy Storage project, a 200-megawatt / 800-megawatt-hour utility-scale battery energy storage facility in Jackson County, Alabama.

Construction on Crawfish Creek Energy Storage is expected to begin in 2028, and commercial operation is planned for the summer of 2029. The project will store electricity when demand is low and release it during peak periods, helping improve grid reliability, affordability, and energy security, according to a news release.

"Battery storage is essential to protecting the reliable, affordable electricity our region depends on to power next-generation technologies," Monika Beckner, TVA vice president, power supply & fuels, said in the release. "Projects like Crawfish Creek strengthen the Valley's energy security, improve our ability to manage extreme conditions, and help unleash American energy."

TVA selected Plus Power for the project in 2025 via a request for proposal to supply new capacity resources needed across the region. Plus Power currently owns and operates nine facilities that provide enhanced power reliability to Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts and Texas, totaling 1,650 megawatts/4,150 megawatt-hours. With this deal, Plus Power is entering its seventh state market and expanding into the Southeast.

"Plus Power is proud to support energy resilience in Jackson County and the Tennessee Valley, a key region for America's military, aerospace, and nuclear innovation," Brian Duncan, chief commercial officer at Plus Power, said in a news release. "Battery energy storage systems are flexible and millisecond-fast, making Crawfish Creek uniquely suited to meet the region's evolving needs. We are excited to partner with TVA to deliver a resource that supports economic expansion while strengthening American energy dominance and security.”

Profit for Houston-based oil companies declined in Q1, but only on paper

Money Matters

Profit for the two largest oil companies in the U.S. tumbled during the first quarter, a three-month period in which the price of crude and gasoline rocketed higher. It's a setback on paper only, however, the result of financial hedges that backfired after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February.

Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported quarterly results on Friday, May 1, with adjusted profits for both companies topping Wall Street expectations. The shares of both companies, up sharply this week, ticked higher before the opening bell.

With energy prices depressed at the start of the year, Exxon Mobil and Chevron had arranged hedges to offset volatility, a standard practice in the industry. Companies and investors through hedges lock in a price in advance to protect themselves from futures swings. That can provide them with some predictability on costs.

In the aftermath of an attack by the U.S. and Israel on Iran, however, the physical delivery of oil became impossible with the Strait of Hormuz essentially closed. Exxon and Chevron cannot book gains on those hedges until the crude is physically delivered.

The near closure of the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran is a flashpoint in the war and the source of much of the economic pain being felt globally. About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the strait on a typical day, but the passage has been choked off since the war began in late February.

Exxon earned $4.18 billion, or $1 per share, for the period ended March 31. A year earlier it earned $7.7 billion, or $1.76 per share. The company lost almost $4 billion in the quarter on what it called “unfavorable estimated timing effects” of its hedges.

Removing such one-time impacts, Exxon earned $1.16 per share, 9 cents better than Wall Street projections, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research predicted. Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales.

Revenue totaled $85.14 billion, breezing past Wall Street's expectation of $81.49 billion.

First-quarter net production was 4.6 million oil-equivalent barrels per day. That’s down from 5 million oil-equivalent barrels per day in the previous quarter.

“If you look at the unprecedented disruption in the world’s supply of oil and natural gas, the market hasn’t seen the full impact of that yet," CEO Darren Woods said during a conference call. "So there’s more to come if the strait remains closed, why haven’t we seen those impacts manifest themselves fully in the market yet? Well, I think we all know there was a lot of water and a lot of oil in transit on the water, a lot of inventory on the water.”

Chevron reported a first-quarter profit of $2.21 billion, or $1.11 per share. It earned $3.5 billion, or $2 per share, a year earlier.

The company said that its quarter included a $360 million net loss related to a legal reserve and that foreign currency effects lowered earnings by $223 million.

Chevron's adjusted profit was $1.41 per share, easily beating the 92 cents per share Wall Street was calling for. Like Exxon, Chevron does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales.

The company's revenue totaled $48.61 billion, also better than expected.

Exxon and Chevron are among the big drillers reporting earnings this week. On Tuesday BP said that its first-quarter profit more than doubled.

The oil companies' results come at a time when gasoline prices in the U.S. hit new multiyear highs, a point of increasing agitation for travelers, households and also businesses that are particularly sensitive to higher energy prices.

The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hit $4.39 on Friday, according to motor club AAA, up more than 8% this week.

Inflation in the U.S. rose sharply in March, fueled by the largest jump in gas prices in six decades, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. The surge in gas prices has squeezed the budgets of lower- and middle-income families, making it more difficult to pay for necessities.

But it’s disrupting businesses as well, particularly those sensitive to higher fuel costs. Airlines worldwide have begun canceling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up ticket prices.

Oil prices eased on May 1, helping to steady the relatively few stock markets open worldwide on the May Day holiday.

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