Expert on Houston’s energy advantage: Building affordability, reliability for all

Guest Column

To remain the world leader in energy, Houston must ensure that every household has access to affordable and dependable power. Photo via Getty Images

As the energy capital of the world, Houston has been at the forefront of innovation, powering industries and communities for generations. Many Houston families, however, are facing a reality that undermines our leadership: high energy bills and ongoing concerns about grid reliability.

Affordability and reliability are not just technical issues; they’re equity issues. To remain the world leader in energy, we must ensure that every household has access to affordable and dependable power.

Affordability: The First Step Toward Equity

According to the recent 2025 study by The Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute, nearly 80% of low- to moderate-income Houstonians scaled back on basic needs to cover electric bills. Rising costs mean some Houstonians are forced to choose between paying their utility bill or paying for groceries.

Additionally, Houston now has the highest poverty rate among America’s most populous cities. Energy should not be a privilege for only half of our city’s population. That’s why affordability needs to be at the center of Houston’s energy conversation.

Several practical solutions exist to help address this inequity:

  • We can increase transparency in electricity pricing and help families better understand their electricity facts labels to make smarter choices.
  • We can expand energy efficiency programs, like weatherizing homes and apartments, swapping out old light bulbs for LEDs, and adopting smart thermostats.
  • Incentives to help families invest in these changes can deliver long-term benefits for both them and apartment complex owners.

Many small changes, when combined, can add up to significant savings for families while reducing overall demand on the grid.

Reliability: A Shared Community Priority

The memories of Hurricane Beryl, Derecho, and Winter Storm Uri are still fresh in the minds of Texans. We saw firsthand the fragility of our grid and how devastating outages are to families, especially those without resources to handle extreme weather. Reliability of the grid is an issue of public health, economic stability, and community safety.

Houston has an opportunity to lead by embracing innovation. Grid modernization, from deploying microgrids to expanding battery storage, can provide stability when the system is under stress. Partnerships between utilities, businesses, and community organizations are key to building resilience. With Houston’s innovation ecosystem, we can pilot solutions here that other regions will look to replicate.

Energy Equity in Action

Reliable, affordable energy strengthens equity in tangible ways. When households spend less on utilities, they have more to invest in their children’s education or save for the future. When power is stable, schools remain open, businesses continue to operate, and communities thrive. Extending energy efficiency programs across all neighborhoods creates a fairer, more balanced system, breaking down inequities tied to income and geography.

Studies show that expanding urban green spaces such as community gardens and tree-planting programs can lower neighborhood temperatures, reduce energy use for cooling, and improve air quality in disadvantaged areas, directly reducing household utility burdens.

In Houston, for example, the median energy burden for low-income households is 7.1% of income, more than twice that of the general population, with over 20% of households having energy burdens above 6%.

Research also demonstrates that community solar programs and urban cooling investments deliver clean, affordable power, helping to mitigate heat stress and making them high-impact strategies for energy equity and climate resilience in vulnerable neighborhoods.

Public-Private Partnerships Make the Difference

The solutions to affordability and reliability challenges must come from cross-sector collaboration. For example, CenterPoint Energy offers incentives through its Residential and Hard-to-Reach Programs, which support contractors and community agencies in delivering energy efficiency upgrades, including weatherization, to low-income households in the greater Houston area.

Nonprofits like the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) received a $1.9 million Department of Energy grant to lead a weatherization program tailored for underserved communities in Harris County, helping to lower bills and improve housing safety

Meanwhile, the City of Houston’s Green Office Challenge and Better Buildings Initiative bring private-sector sponsors, nonprofits, and city leadership together to drive energy reductions across millions of square feet of commercial buildings, backed by training and financial incentives. Together, these partnerships can result in real impact that brings more equity and access to affordable energy.

BKV Energy is committed to being part of the solution by promoting practical, consumer-focused strategies that help families save money and use energy more efficiently. We offer a suite of programs designed to provide customers with financial benefits and alleviate the burden of rising electricity bills. Programs like BKV Energy’s demonstrate how utilities can ease financial strain for families while building stronger customer loyalty and trust. Expanding similar initiatives across Houston would not only lower household energy burdens but also set a new standard for how energy companies can invest directly in their communities.

By proactively addressing affordability, energy companies can help ensure that rising costs don’t disproportionately impact vulnerable households. These efforts also contribute to a more resilient and equitable energy future for Houston, where all residents can access reliable power without sacrificing financial stability.

Houston as a Blueprint

Houston has always been a city of leadership and innovation, whether pioneering the space race, driving advancements in medical research at the Texas Medical Center, or anchoring the global energy industry. Today, our challenge is just as urgent: affordability and reliability must become the cornerstones of our energy future. Houston has the expertise and the collaborative spirit to show how it can be done.

By scaling innovative solutions, Houston can make energy more equitable, strengthening our own community while setting a blueprint for the nation. As the energy capital of the world, it is both our responsibility and our opportunity to lead the way to a more equitable future for all.

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

Texans may still wonder whether the grid will keep them safe during a severe winter storm. Courtesy photo

Being prepared: Has the Texas grid been adequately winterized?

Being Prepared

Houstonians may feel anxious as the city and state experience freezing temperatures this winter. Every year since 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, Texans wonder whether the grid will keep them safe in the face of another. The record-breaking cold temperatures of Uri exposed a crucial vulnerability in the state’s power and water infrastructure.

According to ERCOT’s 6-day supply and demand forecast from January 3, 2025, it expected plenty of generation capacity to meet the needs of Texans during the most recent period of colder weather. So why did the grid fail so spectacularly in 2021?

  1. Demand for electricity surged as millions of people tried to heat their homes.
  2. ERCOT was simply not prepared despite previous winter storms of similar intensity to offer lessons in similarities.
  3. The state was highly dependent on un-winterized natural gas power plants for electricity.
  4. The Texas grid is isolated from other states.
  5. Failures of communication and coordination between ERCOT, state officials, utility companies, gas suppliers, electricity providers, and power plants contributed to the devastating outages.

The domino effect resulted in power outages for millions of Texans, the deaths of hundreds of Texans, billions of dollars in damages, with some households going nearly a week without heat, power, and water. This catastrophe highlighted the need for swift and sweeping upgrades and protections against future extreme weather events.

Texas State Legislature Responds

Texas lawmakers proactively introduced and passed legislation aimed at upgrading the state’s power infrastructure and preventing repeated failures within weeks of the storm. Senate Bill 3 (SB3) measures included:

  • Requirements to weatherize gas supply chain and pipeline facilities that sell electric energy within ERCOT.
  • The ability to impose penalties of up to $1 million for violation of these requirements.
  • Requirement for ERCOT to procure new power sources to ensure grid reliability during extreme heat and extreme cold.
  • Designation of specific natural gas facilities that are critical for power delivery during energy emergencies.
  • Development of an alert system that is to be activated when supply may not be able to meet demand.
  • Requirement for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, or PUCT, to establish an emergency wholesale electricity pricing program.

Texas Weatherization by Natural Gas Plants

In a Railroad Commission of Texas document published May 2024 and geared to gas supply chain and pipeline facilities, dozens of solutions were outlined with weatherization best practices and approaches in an effort to prevent another climate-affected crisis from severe winter weather.

Some solutions included:

  • Installation of insulation on critical components of a facility.
  • Construction of permanent or temporary windbreaks, housing, or barriers around critical equipment to reduce the impact of windchill.
  • Guidelines for the removal of ice and snow from critical equipment.
  • Instructions for the use of temporary heat systems on localized freezing problems like heating blankets, catalytic heaters, or fuel line heaters.

According to Daniel Cohan, professor of environmental engineering at Rice University, power plants across Texas have installed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weatherization upgrades to their facilities. In ERCOT’s January 2022 winterization report, it stated that 321 out of 324 electricity generation units and transmission facilities fully passed the new regulations.

Is the Texas Grid Adequately Winterized?

Utilities, power generators, ERCOT, and the PUCT have all made changes to their operations and facilities since 2021 to be better prepared for extreme winter weather. Are these changes enough? Has the Texas grid officially been winterized?

This season, as winter weather tests Texans, residents may potentially experience localized outages. When tree branches cannot support the weight of the ice, they can snap and knock out power lines to neighborhoods across the state. In the instance of a downed power line, we must rely on regional utilities to act quickly to restore power.

The specific legislation enacted by the Texas state government in response to the 2021 disaster addressed to the relevant parties ensures that they have done their part to winterize the Texas grid.

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

Texans have been rightfully wary of the grid. Photo by Getty Images

ERCOT announces plan to improve Texas power grid reliability

a better grid

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently demanded aggressive action from state utility regulators to shore up the power grid.

Now, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, is revealing its plan to address improvements.

On Tuesday, July 13, ERCOT released a 60-item roadmap it said will be updated regularly through the end of the year. The council says it includes both existing and new initiatives.

Here are a few of the items, according to ERCOT:

  • Taking a more aggressive approach by bringing more generation online sooner if it's needed to balance supply and demand. The grid operator is also purchasing more reserve power, especially on days when the weather forecast is uncertain.
  • Requiring CEO certifications. After a rule change, all market participants who own or operate generation resources and/or transmission/distribution power lines will be required to submit a letter signed by their CEO twice a year certifying their companies have completed their weatherization preparations to protect the electric grid for the summer and winter seasons.
  • Adding new requirements for generation owners. ERCOT is proposing a new market rule that requires generators to provide operational updates more frequently.
  • Assessing on-site fuel supplies. ERCOT is reviewing the need for on-site fuel supplies for some generators.
  • Performing unannounced testing of generation resources. ERCOT says this testing helps verify that generators have provided accurate information about their availability.
  • Addressing transmission constraints in Rio Grande Valley. ERCOT and the PUC (Public Utility Commission) are initiating a process to address RGV transmission limitations and provide increased market access for resources in the Valley. ERCOT says this will improve reliability for customers during normal conditions and high-risk weather events.


ERCOT and grid woes continue to be top of mind for Texans. At least 220 generators were offline the week of June 14 when council officials called for Texans to conserve power.

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Continue reading on our news partner ABC13.

Texas has been deemed inefficient when it comes to energy. Photo courtesy of Thomas Miller/Breitling Energy

National report declares Texas dim when it comes to energy efficiency

Power Problems

For a state that's home to the "Energy Capital of the World," Texas falls flat when it comes to energy efficiency. WalletHub, a personal finance site, ranked the most and least energy-efficient states, and Texas was named No. 42 of the 48 states evaluated.

The states were scored on home and auto efficiency out of an available 100 points. Home efficiency was calculated based on the ratio of total residential energy consumption to annual degree days, the days of the year in each region that require buildings to engage heating or cooling. Auto efficiency was established by factoring in the annual miles driven per year, gallons of gasoline consumed, and population. At the top of the national ranking were New York, Vermont, Utah, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

Texas, with its hot climate and underdeveloped public transportation systems, scored only 33.34 total points on the report. The state ranked No. 35 on home energy efficiency and No. 42 for auto energy efficiency. Texans drive over 271 billion miles annually and use over 19 billion gallons of gas, the second worst and worst rankings, respectively, among the states considered for this study.

The Environmental Protection Agency's research tells a different story of Texas' sustainability. The EPA's Green Power Partnership named its 2018 top local governments, and Texas cities claimed three spots in the top five. Houston was ranked No. 1, followed by Dallas at No. 2 and Austin at No. 5. This ranking is based on the annual green power usage — Houstonians use almost 1.1 million kilowatt hours of wind and solar energies annually.

According to the WalletHub report, each American household spends at least $2,000 annually on utilities and another $1,968 on gasoline and oil, which is up $59 from last year. New technologies and energy-efficient measures can reduce household utility costs by up to 25 percent, and a fuel-efficient car could save drivers over $700 annually, says WalletHub. The report's experts advised in properly weatherproofing homes; smart technology, such as thermostats; solar panels; and more.

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This story originally appeared on CultureMap.

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Rice Business Plan Competition names startup teams for 2026 event

ready, set, pitch

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has announced the 42 student-led teams that will compete in the 26th annual Rice Business Plan Competition this spring.

The highly competitive event, known as one of the world’s largest and richest intercollegiate student startup challenges, will take place April 9-11 on Rice's campus and at the Ion. Teams in this year's competition represent 39 universities from four countries, including one team from Rice and two from the University of Texas at Austin.

Graduate student-led teams from colleges or universities around the world will present their plans before more than 300 angel, venture capital and corporate investors to compete for more than $1 million in prizes. Top teams were awarded $2 million in investment and cash prizes at the 2025 event.

The 2026 invitees include:

  • Alchemll, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
  • Altaris MedTech, University of Arkansas
  • Armada Therapeutics, Dartmouth College
  • Arrow Analytics, Texas A&M University
  • Aura Life Science, Northwestern University
  • BeamFeed, City University of New York
  • BiliRoo, University of Michigan
  • BioLegacy, Seattle University
  • BlueHealer, Johns Hopkins University
  • BRCĒ, Michigan State University
  • ChargeBay, University of Miami
  • Cocoa Potash, Case Western Reserve
  • Cosnetix, Yale University
  • Cottage Core, Kent State University
  • Crack'd Up, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • Curbon, Princeton University
  • DialySafe, Rice University
  • Foregger Energy Systems, Babson College
  • Forge, University of California, Berkeley
  • Grapheon, University of Pittsburgh
  • GUIDEAIR Labs, University of Washington
  • Hydrastack, University of Chicago
  • Imagine Devices, University of Texas at Austin
  • Innowind Energy Solutions, University of Waterloo (Canada)
  • JanuTech, University of Washington
  • Laetech, University of Toronto (Canada)
  • Lectra Technologies, MIT
  • Legion Platforms, Arizona State University
  • Lucy, University of Pennsylvania
  • NerView Surgical, McMaster University (Canada)
  • Panoptica Technologies, Georgia Tech University
  • PowerHouse, MIT
  • Quantum Power Systems, University of Texas at Austin
  • Routora, University of Notre Dame
  • Sentivity.ai, Virginia Tech
  • Shinra Energy, Harvard University
  • Solid Air Dynamics, RWTH Aachen (Germany)
  • Spine Biotics, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  • The Good Company, Michigan Tech
  • UNCHAIN, Lehigh University
  • VivoFlux, University of Rochester
  • Vocadian, University of Oxford (UK)

This year's group joins more than 910 RBPC alums that have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital, according to Rice.

The University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems, which is developing the first stem cell-driven human “mini gut,” took home the largest investment sum of $902,000 last year. The company also claimed the first-place prize.

Houston suburb ranks as No. 3 best place to retire in Texas

Rankings & Reports

Texas retirees on the hunt for the right place to settle down and enjoy their blissful retirement years will find their haven in the Houston suburb of Pasadena, which just ranked as the third-best city to retire statewide.

A new study conducted by the research team at RetirementLiving.com, "The Best Cities to Retire in Texas," compared the affordability, safety, livability, and healthcare access for seniors across 31 Texas cities with at least 90,000 residents.

Wichita Falls, about 140 miles northwest of Dallas, claimed the top spot as the No. 1 best place to retire in Texas.

The senior living experts said Pasadena has the best healthcare access for seniors in the entire state, and it ranked as the No. 8 most affordable city on the list.

"Taking care of one’s health can be stressful for seniors," the report said. "Harris County, where [Pasadena is] located, has 281.1 primary care physicians per 1,000 seniors — that’s almost 50-fold the statewide ratio of 5.9 per 1,000."

Pasadena ranked 10th overall for its livability, and ranked 25th for safety, the report added.

Meanwhile, Houston proper ranked as the No. 31 best place to retire in Texas, but its livability score was the 7th best statewide.

Seven of the Lone Star State's top 10 best retirement locales are located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: Carrollton (No. 2), Plano (No. 4), Garland (No. 5), Richardson (No. 6), Arlington (No. 7), Grand Prairie (No. 8), and Irving (No. 9). McAllen, a South Texas border town, rounded out the top 10.

RetirementLiving said Carrollton has one of the lowest property and violent crime rates per capita in Texas, and it ranked as the No. 5 safest city on the list. About 17 percent of the city's population is aged 65 or older, which is higher than the statewide average of just 14 percent.

The top 10 best place to retire in Texas in 2026 are:

  • No. 1 – Wichita Falls
  • No. 2 – Carrollton
  • No. 3 – Pasadena
  • No. 4 – Plano
  • No. 5 – Garland
  • No. 6 – Richardson
  • No. 7 – Arlington
  • No. 8 – Grand Prairie
  • No. 9 – Irving
  • No. 10 – McAllen
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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Rice University lands $18M to revolutionize lymphatic disease detection

fresh funding

An arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $18 million to scientists at Rice University for research that has the potential to revolutionize how lymphatic diseases are detected and help increase survivability.

The lymphatic system is the network of vessels all over the body that help eliminate waste, absorb fat and maintain fluid balance. Diseases in this system are often difficult to detect early due to the small size of the vessels and the invasiveness of biopsy testing. Though survival rates of lymph disease have skyrocketed in the United States over the last five years, it still claims around 200,000 people in the country annually.

Early detection of complex lymphatic anomalies (CLAs) and lymphedema is essential in increasing successful treatment rates. That’s where Rice University’s SynthX Center, directed by Han Xiao and Lei Li, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, comes in.

Aided by researchers from Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the center is pioneering two technologies: the Visual Imaging System for Tracing and Analyzing Lymphatics with Photoacoustics (VISTA-LYMPH) and Digital Plasmonic Nanobubble Detection for Protein (DIAMOND-P).

Simply put, VISTA-LYMPH uses photoacoustic tomography (PAT), a combination of light and sound, to more accurately map the tiny vessels of the lymphatic system. The process is more effective than diagnostic tools that use only light or sound, independent of one another. The research award is through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics and pHenotyping Technologies (LIGHT) program, part of the U.S. HHS, which saw the potential of VISTA-LYMPH in animal tests that produced finely detailed diagnostic maps.

“Thanks to ARPA-H’s award, we will build the most advanced PAT system to image the body’s lymphatic network with unprecedented resolution and speed, enabling earlier and more accurate diagnosis,” Li said in a news release.

Meanwhile, DIAMOND-P could replace the older, less exact immunoassay. It uses laser-heated vapors of plasmonic nanoparticles to detect viruses without having to separate or amplify, and at room temperature, greatly simplifying the process. This is an important part of greater diagnosis because even with VISTA-LYMPH’s greater imaging accuracy, many lymphatic diseases still do not appear. Detecting biological markers is still necessary.

According to Rice, the efforts will help address lymphatic disorders, including Gorham-Stout disease, kaposiform lymphangiomatosis and generalized lymphatic anomaly. They also could help manage conditions associated with lymphatic dysfunction, including cancer metastasis, cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration.

“By validating VISTA-LYMPH and DIAMOND-P in both preclinical and clinical settings, the team aims to establish a comprehensive diagnostic pipeline for lymphatic diseases and potentially beyond,” Xiao added in the release.

The ARPA-H award funds the project for up to five years.

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