“Going from C.A.R.E. to R.A.C.E., and Being Prepared for Dunkelflaute!” Featuring Brad Jones & Bill Flores, ERCOT

We are amped up for this week's feature session on power with ERCOT. With us today is Brad Jones, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, and our good friend and former COBT guest Bill Flores, Vice-Chair and Independent Board Member. As a brief introduction, Brad has a 30+ year career in the electricity industry optimizing electricity businesses as well as designing electricity markets and operating electricity grids across North America. Bill previously served as a U.S. Congressman for ten years and has also served in board governance and senior leadership positions for public and private entities. Our conversation had massive scope and depth and it was a pleasure to host them both.

As you may or may not know, Brad stepped up to serve as Interim CEO in 2021 and has since helped to make significant strides in several initiatives for ERCOT. In our discussion, we touch on the changes Brad and the team have made in the past year, background on ERCOT and correlated legislation, the challenge of managing multiple power sources, transitioning priorities from "C.A.R.E" to "R.A.C.E.," transmission planning, the benefits of running a business in Texas, managing electricity in Texas versus other states or countries (today we learned "Dunkelflaute" is the German word for dark and calm, meaning no sun and no wind), and what the next ten years might look like for power. You can find ERCOT's current 60-step road map to improving grid reliability.

The Veriten team had a brief lead-in to start the show: Mike Bradley pointed out a few OFS announcements regarding Russia over the weekend and shared tidbits from Aramco's year-end presentation and conference call. Colin Fenton touched on a few regulatory news items including the SEC's climate disclosure proposal and letters from Congress to the CEOs of energy companies. Todd Scruggs presented background data on ERCOT (courtesy of Orennia) to prepare us for our power discussion.

It was fantastic to visit with Brad and Bill. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did! Thanks to you all.