Despite its high energy production, Texas has had more outages than any other state over the past five years due to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events and rapidly growing demand. Photo via Getty Images

Texas stands out among other states when it comes to energy production.

Even after mass rolling blackouts during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, the Lone Star State produced more electricity than any other state in 2022. However, it also exemplifies how challenging it can be to ensure grid reliability. The following summer, the state’s grid manager, the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), experienced ten occasions of record-breaking demand.

Despite its high energy production, Texas has had more outages than any other state over the past five years due to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events and rapidly growing demand, as the outages caused by Hurricane Beryl demonstrated.

A bigger storm is brewing

Electric demand is poised to increase exponentially over the next few years. Grid planners nationwide are doubling their five-year load forecast. Texas predicts it will need to provide nearly double the amount of power within six years. These projections anticipate increasing demand from buildings, transportation, manufacturing, data centers, AI and electrification, underscoring the daunting challenges utilities face in maintaining grid reliability and managing rising demand.

However, Texas can accelerate its journey to becoming a grid reliability success story by taking two impactful steps. First, it could do more to encourage the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) like residential solar and battery storage to better balance the prodigious amounts of remote grid-scale renewables that have been deployed over the past decade. More DERs mean more local energy resources that can support the grid, especially local distribution circuits that are prone to storm-related outages. Second, by combining DERs with modern demand-side management programs and technology, utilities can access and leverage these additional resources to help them manage peak demand in real time and avoid blackout scenarios.

Near-term strategies and long-term priorities

Increasing electrical capacity with utility-scale renewable energy and storage projects and making necessary electrical infrastructure updates are critical to meet projected demand. However, these projects are complex, resource-intensive and take years to complete. The need for robust demand-side management is more urgent than ever.

Texas needs rapidly deployable solutions now. That’s where demand-side management comes in. This strategy enables grid operators to keep the lights on by lowering peak demand rather than burning more fossil fuels to meet it or, worse, shutting everything off.

Demand response, a demand-side management program, is vital in balancing the grid by lowering electricity demand through load control devices to ensure grid stability. Programs typically involve residential energy consumers volunteering to let the grid operator reduce their energy consumption at a planned time or when the grid is under peak load, typically in exchange for a credit on their energy bill. ERCOT, for example, implements demand responseand rate structure programs to reduce strain on the grid and plans to increase these strategies in the future, especially during the months when extreme weather events are more likely and demand is highest.

The primary solution for meeting peak demand and preventing blackouts is for the utility to turn on expensive, highly polluting, gas-powered “peaker” plants. Unfortunately, there’s a push to add more of these plants to the grid in anticipation of increasing demand. Instead of desperately burning fossil fuels, we should get more out of our existing infrastructure through demand-side management.

Optimizing existing infrastructure

The effectiveness of demand response programs depends in part on energy customers' participation. Despite the financial incentive, customers may be reluctant to participate because they don’t want to relinquish control over their AC. Grid operators also need timely energy usage data from responsive load control technology to plan and react to demand fluctuations. Traditional load control switches don’t provide these benefits.

However, intelligent residential load management technology like smart panels can modernize demand response programs and maximize their effectiveness with real-time data and unprecedented responsiveness. They can encourage customer participation with a less intrusive approach – unlocking the ability for the customer to choose from multiple appliances to enroll. They can also provide notifications for upcoming demand response events, allowing the customer to plan for the event or even opt-out by appliance. In addition to their demand response benefits, smart panels empower homeowners to optimize their home energy and unlock extended runtime for home batteries during a blackout.

Utilities and government should also encourage the adoption of distributed energy resources like rooftop solar and home batteries. These resources can be combined with residential load management technology to drastically increase the effectiveness of demand response programs, granting utilities more grid-stabilizing resources to prevent blackouts.

Solar and storage play a key role

During the ten demand records in the summer of 2023, batteries discharging in the evening helped avoid blackouts, while solar and wind generation covered more than a third of ERCOT's daytime load demand, preventing power price spikes.

Rooftop solar panels generate electricity that can be stored in battery backup systems, providing reliable energy during outages or peak demand. Smart panels extend the runtime of these batteries through automated energy optimization, ensuring critical loads are prioritized and managed efficiently.

Load management technology, like smart panels, enhances the effectiveness of DERs. In rolling blackouts, homeowners with battery storage can rely on smart panels to manage energy use, keeping essential appliances operational and extending stored energy usability. Smart panels allow utilities to effectively manage peak demand, enabling load flexibility and preventing grid overburdening. These technologies and an effective demand response strategy can help Texans optimize the existing energy capacity and infrastructure.

A more resilient energy future

Texas can turn its energy challenges into opportunities by embracing advanced energy management technologies and robust demand-side strategies. Smart panels and distributed energy resources like solar and battery storage offer a promising path to a resilient and efficient grid. As Texans navigate increasing electricity demands and extreme weather events, these innovations provide hope for a future where reliable energy is accessible to all, ensuring grid stability and enhancing the quality of life across the state.

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Kelly Warner is the CEO of Lumin, a responsive energy management solutions company.

This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.
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CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Top stories: Houston's most-read health tech news of 2024

year in review

Editor's note: As the year comes to a close, InnovationMap is looking back at the year's top stories in Houston innovation. In the health tech category on InnovationMap, top stories included startup funding raised, IPO plans, FDA clearance, and more. Be sure to click through to read the full story.

New report ranks Houston top market for life sciences

Houston lands in the No. 7 spot for growth in the granting of degrees in biological and biomedical sciences. Photo by Natalie Harms/InnovationMap

Thanks in large part to producing hundreds of college-trained professionals, Houston’s life sciences industry ranks among the top U.S. markets for talent in 2024.

In a report published by commercial real estate services company CBRE, Houston lands in the No. 7 spot for growth in the granting of degrees in biological and biomedical sciences. From 2017 to 2022, Houston notched a growth rate of 32.4 percent in this category.

In 2022, the University of Houston led the higher education pack in the region, graduating 746 people with a bachelor’s degree or above in biological or biomedical sciences, according to the report. Continue reading.

Houston innovator raises pre-seed funding for health care staffing platform

Ayoade Joy Ademuyewo founded Lokum last year to create a solution to better connecting medical specialists with health care facilities nationwide. Photo courtesy of Lokum

A Houston health care innovator is celebrating an oversubscribed round of pre-seed funding to improve on her startup's unique staffing platform.

Ayoade Joy Ademuyewo founded Lokum last year to create a solution to better connecting medical specialists with health care facilities nationwide. The new platform, which cuts out the middleman and lowers staffing costs, raised $700,000 in pre-seed funding that will go toward further development of the technology.

"Healthcare organizations spend $26 billion annually to support a crippling dependence on third-party agencies for connecting with clinical staff," Ademuyewo says in a news release. "Technological solutions that are pointed precisely to streamline and strengthen the relationships between highly specialized clinicians and their future employers are vital to alleviating this detrimental dependance, and central to our mission." Continue reading.

Houston regenerative medicine company to IPO, move toward more human trials

FibroBiologics will IPO this week. Photo via Getty Images

Want a piece of one of Houston’s most promising biotech companies? On January 31, FibroBiologics will begin the trading of its common stock on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

While most labs in the realm of regenerative medicine are focused on stem cells, FibroBiologics has bet on fibroblasts as the secret to treating myriad ailments. Fibroblasts, the most common type of cell in the body, are the primary cells that compose connective tissue.

Interested investors can find a prospectus to peruse before taking the leap. FibroBiologics filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 7, 2023. In September, FibroBiologics CEO Pete O’Heeron told InnovationMap, “I think what we're going to see is that fibroblasts are going to end up winning... They're just a better overall cell than the stem cells.” Continue reading.

Houston organizations identify promising life science cos. at annual event

The Rice Alliance and BioHouston acknowledged innovations from a dozen promising health tech companies. Photo via Rice University

For the 13th year, the Texas Life Science Forum hosted by BioHouston and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship celebrated innovative companies from around the world that are creating new treatments and solutions to today's biggest health care challenges.

This week, over 40 companies presenting their innovations across cancer, cardiovascular disease, biotechnology, and more. Nearly 700 venture capitalists, corporate innovation groups, angel networks, industry leaders, academics, service providers, and others attended the event on November 7 at Rice's BioScience Research Collaborative in the Texas Medical Center.

Just like in previous years, the event ended with the announcement of the 10 companies that were deemed "most promising" based on their pitches and technologies. Of the 10 companies named, six are headquartered in Houston and an additional two startups on the list have a presence here. Continue reading.

FDA greenlights Houston surgery robotics company's unique technology

EndoQuest Robotics secured an Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA for its clinical study. Photo via Getty Images

A Houston surgical robotics company has gotten a Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA to go forward with human trials.

This news allows EndoQuest Robotics to begin its Prospective Assessment of a Robotic-Assisted Device in Gastrointestinal Medicine (PARADIGM) study, which will be conducted at leading United States health care facilities, including Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston), Mayo Clinic (Scottsdale), Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland), AdventHealth (Orlando), and HCA Healthcare (Houston). The study will include surgeries on 50 subjects, who will hopefully begin to enroll in January.

“The foundational thesis is we're trying to make sure that the world's largest medical center is also the world's largest med tech innovation center,” Eduardo Fonseca, interim CEO of EndoQuest Robotics, tells InnovationMap. Continue reading.

Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta nominated as ambassador to Italy

foreign affairs

Houston billionaire and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has been nominated to serve as the United States ambassador to Italy, according to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

On Saturday, Trump sent the following statement via Truth Social Post:

"I am pleased to announce that Tilman J. Fertitta has been nominated to serve as the United States Ambassador to Italy. Tilman is an accomplished businessman, who has founded and built one of our Country's premier entertainment and real estate companies, employing approximately 50,000 Americans. Tilman has a long history of giving back to the community through numerous philanthropic initiatives, which include children's charities, Law Enforcement, and the medical community. Additionally, Tilman is the longest serving Chairman of the Board of Regents for the University of Houston. He also owns the Houston Rockets Basketball Team. Congratulations to Tilman, and his remarkable family!"

Fertitta, 67, also is the chairman, CEO, and president of Landry's Inc. and the chairman of the University of Houston's board of regents.

"It is an honor to be nominated to serve my country as ambassador to Italy and I look forward to the process ahead. Italy is such an extraordinary country with its wonderful people, culture, and history and its strategic importance to The United States of America," Fertitta said.

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Read the full story on CultureMap's news partner, ABC13.com.

Houston biotech biz to merge with public co., set local HQ

big deal

Houston-based Tvardi Therapeutics and Cara Therapeutics announced the companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement to combine in an all-stock transaction. Once completed, Houston will house the headquarters.

Tvardi is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development of novel, oral, and small molecule therapies that target STAT3 to treat fibrosis-driven diseases. Tvardi will merge with a wholly owned subsidiary of Cara.

Once complete, the pre-merger Cara Therapeutics stockholders are expected to own approximately 17 percent of the combined company and pre-merger Tvardi Therapeutics investors are expected to own 83 percent of the combined company. Prior to adjustment from the issuance of the shares in the recently completed Tvardi financing and assuming Cara, which went public in 2014, has net cash at closing of between $22.9 million and $23.1 million with the percentage of the combined company that pre-merger Cara stockholders and pre-merger Tvardi stockholders will own upon the closing of the merger, which is subject to further adjustment if Cara’s net cash balance falls outside of the range.

“As we approach meaningful value inflection points next year, including two Phase 2 readouts of our lead program in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, followed by the readout in our hepatocellular carcinoma program, this merger, the recently completed financing, and becoming a publicly traded company give us access to the critical funding required to further advance our promising pipeline programs that address significant unmet needs,” Imran Alibhai, CEO of Tvardi Therapeutics, says in a news release.

Also, Tvardi has completed an approximately $28 million private financing from a syndicate of new and existing institutional investors. With the cash from both companies at closing and the proceeds of this financing, the post-merger company plans to have cash to fund its operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the second half of 2026.

“I am grateful to the Cara Board, leadership team, and shareholders who share our vision of Tvardi that is well-positioned to introduce effective, new treatment options to patients suffering from serious, chronic, fibrosis-driven diseases,” Alibhai continues.

In 2021, Tvardi emerged from stealth and closed a $74 million series B funding round led by New York-based Slate Path Capital, Florida-based Palkon Capital, Denver-based ArrowMark Partners, and New York-based 683 Capital, with continued support and participation by existing investors, including Houston-based Sporos Bioventures.