We’ve had a lot of current and former electricity-industry regulators on the GT Power Hour, as well as several current and former company CEOs and other industry leaders. But few of the interviews were quite as revealing as the conversation we had this month with Pat Wood III.

Maybe it’s his Texas-raised demeanor or his experience as the top industry regulator in both his home state and FERC, which has authority over all but his home state. Whatever it is, Pat has a way with words (and images: he even provided the accompanying picture of his hearty azaleas, the storms’ impacts on which we discuss in depth during the episode as part of the explanation on what happened) - so much so that I felt it was worth the time and energy to transcribe a few of the highlights.

In which we dig into the causes of the Texas power outages in February 2021 and their potential consequences by sitting down with perhaps the one person in the world best equipped to discuss the situation: Pat Wood, who’s served as the top utility regulator both at FERC and the one state FERC doesn’t oversee, Texas. If you’re wondering what the likelihood is that Texas gets a capacity market, FERC oversight, a change in the pace of its power-generation transition or additional direct-current (DC) ties to neighboring grids, Pat’s got an answer.
But it’s also the one-year anniversary of the global pandemic, St. Patrick’s Day, Oscar’s nominees were announced - and don’t forget the return of March Madness! All receive their due attention, not to mention discussion of final requests, Cuban cigars, the famous Gruene Hall, BBQ, Mother Nature and the heartiness of azaleas.
There’s so much here, that (for the first time ever) we couldn’t keep it all to a single hour… Apparently everything is bigger in Texas - even podcasts!