Welcome to the fourth episode of Rock Talk: From the Ground Up. I’m your host and co-owner of Texas Rock Milling, Trey McCarty.
In this podcast, we dig deep into the foundations of growth, creativity, and the opportunity of South Texas. Our goal, as always, is to hear from inspiring people who are shaping the future of San Antonio from the ground up.
Today’s guest is someone who keeps the lights on, literally! When the Texas heat is breaking records and new homes are going up faster than ever, he’s one of the people making sure the grid doesn’t tap out.
Guillermo “Memo” Rico is the Reliability Policy Manager at CPS Energy in San Antonio. If you’ve ever wondered how a growing city like this keeps the power flowing through chaos, development, and triple-digit summers, then Memo is your guy.
In this episode, you’ll hear some logistics of the ever-growing San Antonio grid, how batteries can help pick up the slack in grid demand, ways consumers can get smart about their energy usage, and more!
Interesting Takeaways:
- Texas is home to several large data centers and AI centers. This rapid (and ongoing) growth has increased ERCOT’s projected growth of power demand over the next 5 years significantly—from 100 gigawatts to 150 gigawatts.
- “Increasing the demand by 33%—it’s not something we can clap our hands and say, ‘Here’s more power!’ We need to think strategically about the future.”
- Power is one of the first things you should consider when starting a new build, as it takes about 1-2 years to plan for.
- ALWAYS call 811 before you dig. Rocks and other barriers may have prevented the line from being run where you would expect, and the last thing you want to do is hit a power line with your shovel.
- “In moments of dire necessity, it takes a collaborative effort from everyone to provide a little bit of help to stabilize the grid.”
Today’s Guest:
Guillermo “Memo” Rico is the Reliability Policy Manager at CPS Energy in San Antonio. He previously spent three years in reliability engineering, solely dedicated to outages and uncovering how circuits behaved in day-to-day operations. If you enjoyed his insights, you can connect with Guillermo on LinkedIn or learn more about CPS Energy on their website.