An Interview with Former ERCOT Independent Market Monitor Beth Garza

For the second episode of the Energy Capital Podcast, I spoke with Beth Garza the former Independent Market Monitor (IMM) for ERCOT and current Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute.

Throughout the episode, Beth did a great job breaking down complex concepts to make them more easy to understand. We talked about the challenges of the changing supply and demand mix, and how the societal trauma Texans experienced during Uri complicates these problems even more.

Beth emphasized the need to increase ERCOT’s interconnections to other grids, the legal challenges to doing so, and how increased interconnection could have helped mitigate past outages. We also talked about who will need to help with the integration of demand side resources and how it can be done. Beth also provided listeners with a helpful explanation of real-time co-optimization, an incredibly important ERCOT initiative that’s necessary for a well functioning electric market.

Beth and I delved into the dangers of an unwinterized, barely regulated gas system in Texas and how its current set-up undercuts market competition and shortchanges consumers. 

Of course, given her background as the IMM, we talked about market design and some of the controversial proposals to alter it, including the Performance Credit Mechanism (PCM) and ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service (ECRS). We wrapped up our conversation with a discussion of ways the energy industry needs to shift its approach to communicating with the public.

Listen to the episode here.