BP donates $200,000 to Houston school system's EV training program

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HCC's Transportation Center of Excellence Electric Vehicle training program received a donation of $200,000 from BP America. Photo courtesy of HCC

BP America agreed to donate a large sum to Houston Community College in order to support the future of the city's electric vehicle workforce.

During the Board of Trustees meeting, HCC's Transportation Center of Excellence Electric Vehicle training program received a donation of $200,000 from BP America. The program plans to use the funds for a safety and fundamentals course for more than 300 City of Houston’s and Harris County fleet department employees, which equips technicians to repair and maintain EVs.

“We are delighted to be at the forefront of this important education to equip Houstonians with the knowledge and skills to maintain electric vehicles,” Chancellor Margaret Ford Fisher says in a news release. “This generous donation is a win for the partners involved and for helping to ensure a sustainable future.”

The Transportation Center of Excellence's EV training program has already trained more than 100 fleet mechanics and automotive technicians. It began on April 1 at the HCC North Forest Campus Automotive Training Center. With state-of-the-art equipment for hands-on training and classroom instruction,instructors show technicians potential risks associated with the high-voltage elements of EVs.

"We are proud to support the HCC Transportation Center of Excellence - Electric Vehicle training program," Mark Crawford, senior vice president at BP America adds in the release. "This partnership aligns with BP's commitment to sustainable livelihoods and advancing the energy transition."

How can Houston's energy transition be built with the city's communities in mind? Through trust, public education, and intention, according to a panel of experts. Photo via Getty Images

Why it would be 'potentially catastrophic' not to include communities in the energy transition

overheard

As the energy sector transitions toward a more sustainable future, a Houston organization is driving forward the idea to do so with a community-based approach, as some experts discussed at a recent breakfast panel.

The Center for Houston's Future hosted a breakfast discussion on August 10, entitled "Building a Community-Based Approach to the Energy Transition," sponsored by BP Energy. The conversation covered various ways corporations, organizations, and individuals could work together to build this approach, including through education, upskilling, collaborations, and more.

Photo by Laura Goldberg/Center for Houston's Future on LinkedIn

The event kicked off with a keynote address from Brad Townsend, vice president of policy and outreach at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, who set the scene for the discussion.

“The energy transition offers an opportunity to build a thriving, just, and resilient net-zero economy that can benefit companies and communities alike" he says to the crowd. "It’s the chance to raise jobs standards and safely through local and federal policies, employ a practice change, cross-sector collaboration, and worker training.

“It's also an opportunity to diversify the workforce to better reflect local communities, including in Houston," he continues. "If we approach this engagement however as a box checking exercise or unwilling to really provide communities an opportunity to help shape projects, we’re destined to fail. Being genuinely open to feedback from communities and actively incorporating them into the decision-making process is foundational to generating the community buy-in that will be crucial to a successful energy transition.”

Here were some of the key takeaways from the event.

"When we talk about Houston we need to be cognizant that it is a huge geographical area, and you cannot speak to Houston as a monolith. You can't even speak to individual communities as single entities."

— Anne Bartlett, vice president of industry and community resources at Brazosport College.

"Our responsibility is to recognize and really understand our communities not just from labor market data perspective, but also by having conversations with people who know what’s happening on the ground," she continues. "Our charge is to recognize that yes, this is a regional opportunity but it really does need to be situationalized in our specific communities and recognize the strengths and the opportunities that are present in all of those."

"One of the opportunities and challenges that's part of this massive energy transition, which I think will not only bring about investments of billions of dollars but potentially trillions of dollars, is to utilize these significant investments as an opportunity to not only transform how we make, use, and transport energy, but also uplift these communities that are adjacent to the facilities where hydrogen and other resources will be will be produced."

— John Hall, president and CEO of Houston Advanced Research Center.

"We (need to) use this entire transformational effort to open the doors of opportunity for every community," he adds.

“While it is the right thing to do to bring in the full breath of diversity that we have, it's (also) absolutely necessary.”

— Mark Crawford, senior vice president at BP Energy.

"We're in in Houston. We are the most diverse city in the United States, and the United States is becoming more and more diverse," he explains.

"It is important to bring holistic solutions to communities. ... We can't do everything, but there are organizations working on the ground that are doing really great work. It's about companies going in and partnering with stakeholders on the ground who understand the communities so that we are bringing these wrap-around services."

— Crawford continues, noting that it's on companies like BP to tap into and support local entities.

“There's a fundamental shift that needs to happen in the way that we're talking about these jobs to really encourage young people to take advantage of resources that are made available, because we can integrate that into the educational curriculum, but unless students and young people are willing to move in that direction it's not going to make a difference.”

— Townsend says on the panel, addressing the sentiment that young people are told job security comes only with a college degree. The panelists agree this isn't the case anymore, yet that message is still being conveyed.

“I think it's really important to pull back and recognize the opportunity that's in the K-12 space — not only with the children and making sure that they're aware that these careers even exist, but perhaps just as importantly with their parents.”

— Bartlett says, adding that these kids will be the ones in thes jobs in 10 or so years, so that message needs to start being conveyed now.

“All of these things cost money. There are dollars that are out there right now that we are not leveraging — there are dollars that are available through the Texas Workforce Commission, through Chambers of Commerce. So, we're not talking about having to reinvent the wheel and having to go to our industry partners with palms up, we're talking about leveraging the resources that are already out there in a wiser way.”

— Bartlett says about the feasibility of workforce development programs.

“It would be unfortunate — (and) it would be potentially catastrophic — if we see the trillions and trillions of dollars invested over the next 20 years, and we have left behind 25 percent or more of citizens.”

— Hall says, emphasizing how important working with communities — and hearing their concerns — is to this process.

He later adds that he's worked with community leaders, and he knows they are optimistic — as is he — about this process. “These are not peculiar human beings. They have the same hopes and dreams that we have, and if we will take the step to just reach out and connect and communicate with sincerity, then those barriers are easier to overcome.”

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Buoyed by $1.3B sales backlog, microgrid company ERock files for IPO

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Another energy company in Houston is going public amid a flurry of energy IPOs.

Houston-based ERock Inc., which specializes in utility-grade onsite microgrid systems for data centers and other customers, has filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to sell its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

The ERock filing follows the recent $1.9 billion IPO of Houston-based Fervo Energy, a provider of geothermal power that’s now valued at $7.7 billion.

Another Houston energy company, EagleRock Land, just went public in a $320 million IPO that values the company at $3 billion. EagleRock owns or controls about 236,000 acres in the Permian Basin, earning money from royalties, fees, easements, water services and other revenue streams tied to drilling on its land.

According to Barron’s, more than a dozen energy and energy-related companies in the U.S. have gone public since the beginning of 2025, with the bulk of the IPOs happening this year.

ERock’s SEC filing doesn’t identify the per-share pricing range for the IPO or the number of Class A shares to be offered. ERock is a portfolio company of Energy Impact Partners, a New York City-based venture capital and private equity firm that invests in energy companies.

The company previously did business as Enchanted Rock. ERock Inc., formed in January, will function as a holding company that controls predecessor company ER Holdings Ltd.

In 2025, ERock generated revenue of $183.1 million, up 42.5 percent from the previous year, according to the IPO filing. It recorded a net loss of $59 million last year.

As of March 31, ERock boasted a sales backlog of nearly $1.3 billion, up 779 percent on a year-over-year basis. The company attributes most of that increase to greater demand from data centers.

The company primarily serves the power needs of data centers, utilities, industrial facilities, and commercial buildings. Its biggest markets are Texas and California.

“Several U.S. markets, such as Texas and California, face especially acute reliability risks,” ERock says in the SEC filing. “Texas already shows rapid load-growth pressures tied to data centers and industrial expansion, while California faces grid congestion, long interconnection queues, and above-average vulnerability to extreme heat- and weather-driven outages.”

Since its founding in 2018, ERock has installed microgrid systems at more than 400 sites with a capacity of about 1,000 megawatts. Customers include ComEd, Foxconn, H-E-B, Microsoft and Walmart.

By the end of this year, the company plans to expand its production of microgrid systems to a capacity of about 1.2 gigawatts with the opening of its Hyperion facility in Houston.

John Carrington leads ERock as CEO. He joined ER Holdings last year as chairman and CEO. Carrington previously was CEO of Houston-based Stem, a public company that offers AI-enabled clean energy software and services. Earlier, he spent 16 years at General Electric.

Houston investment firm closes $105M energy venture fund

seeing green

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.

Houston energy expert asks: Who pays when AI outruns the power grid?

Guets Column

For most of the past 20 years, U.S. electricity policy relied on predictable trends in demand. Electricity use, in most regions, increased gradually, forecasts were stable, and utilities adjusted the system in small steps. Power plants, transmission lines, and substations were generally added to reflect shifts in load, rather than growth, and costs were recovered through modest adjustments to customer bills.

Growth in AI data centers has disrupted this model. A single facility can add as much electricity demand as a small town. That demand comes all at once, runs continuously, and has little tolerance for outages. If electricity service drops even briefly, computation stops, and services shut down. Ironically, data centers need reliable service, a point that their emergence is driving concern around for the rest of the grid.

What the numbers say

The International Energy Agency projects global electricity consumption from data centers to double by 2030, reaching roughly 945 TWh, nearly 3 percent of global electricity demand, with consumption growing about 15 percent per year this decade. McKinsey projects that U.S. data center demand alone could grow 20–25 percent per year, with global capacity demand more than tripling by 2030.

After years of roughly 0.5 percent annual demand growth, many forecasts now place total U.S. electricity demand growth closer to 2–3 percent per year through the mid-2030s, with much higher growth in specific regions. In Texas, some forecasters are saying electricity demand could double over the next five years, a staggering 10 percent per year growth rate. What sounds incremental on paper translates into a major challenge on the ground. Meeting this pace of growth is estimated to require $250–$300 billion per year in grid investment, about double what the system has been absorbing.

Where the system starts to strain

The strain appears first in the interconnection queue. It shows up as long waits, backlogs, and delays for connecting new loads and new generation.

Before new generators or large load customers can be connected, a study is required to assess their impact on the grid, whether it can physically handle the added load, and whether upgrades are required. With AI-driven data centers, utilities face far more connection requests than they can realistically support. In ERCOT, large-load interconnection requests exceed 200 gigawatts, most tied to data centers. That amount exceeds historical norms, and it is several times larger than what can be practically studied or built in the near term.

To be clear, public utility commissions are required to study these requests because they must manage system capabilities to ensure minimal disruption. This means engineers spend time evaluating projects that may never be built, while other more commercially viable projects may wait longer for approvals. This extends timelines and makes infrastructure planning less reliable.

Why policymakers are rethinking the rules

Utilities and their regulators must decide how much generation, transmission, and substation capacity to build years before it comes online. Those decisions are based on expected demand at the time projects are approved. When it comes to data centers, by the time infrastructure is completed, they may end up deploying newer, more efficient chips that use less power than originally assumed. This can result in grid infrastructure built for a higher load than what actually materializes, leaving excess capacity that still must be paid for through system-wide rates.

That’s the central dilemma. If utilities build too little capacity, the system operates with less reserve margin. During periods of grid stress, operators have fewer options, increasing the likelihood of curtailments or outages. However, if utilities build too much, customers may be asked to pay for infrastructure that is not fully used.

In response, policymakers are adjusting the rules. In some regions, regulators are moving toward bring-your-own-power approaches that require large data centers to supply or fund part of the capacity needed to serve them or reduce demand during system stress. At the federal level, permitting reforms tied to datacenter infrastructure increasingly treat electricity as a strategic economic input.

As Ken Medlock, senior director at the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies (CES), explains:

“Many of the planned data centers are now also adding behind-the-meter options to their development plans because they do not anticipate being able to manage their needs solely from the grid, and they certainly cannot do so with only intermittent power sources.”

Behind-the-meter (BTM) refers to power that a consumer controls on its side of the utility meter, such as on-site gas generation or a dedicated power plant. These resources allow data centers to keep operating during grid-related service. Most facilities remain connected to the grid, but the backup BTM generation serves as insurance for operating their core business.

This shifts responsibility. Utilities traditionally manage reliability across all customers by maintaining an operating reserve margin, or spare capacity. Increasingly, large-load customers manage part of their own electricity reliability needs, which changes how infrastructure is planned and how risk is distributed.

Bottom line

AI-driven load growth is arriving faster and in more concentrated places than the power system was built to accommodate. Utilities and regulators are being forced to make decisions sooner than planned about where to build, how fast to build, and which customers get priority when capacity is limited. The effects extend beyond data centers, showing up in system costs, reliability margins, competition for grid access, and pressure on communities and industries that depend on affordable and dependable power. The issue is not whether electricity can be generated, but how the costs and risks of rapid demand growth are distributed as the system tries to keep up. How regulators balance these decisions will determine who pays as AI demand outruns the power grid.

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Scott Nyquist is a senior advisor at McKinsey & Company and vice chairman, Houston Energy Transition Initiative of the Greater Houston Partnership. The views expressed herein are Nyquist's own and not those of McKinsey & Company or of the Greater Houston Partnership. This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.

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