HOUSTON — The Gulf Coast Power Association’s membership has elected Beth Garza, a senior adviser for R Street Institute and long-time presence in the ERCOT market, to a two-year term as president.
Garza joined R Street after 11 years with Potomac Economics. She served as the ERCOT Independent Market Monitor’s deputy director or director for Potomac until 2019.
Her 35 years in the electric industry also have included leadership roles at ERCOT, NextEra Energy and Austin Energy, where she gained expertise in generation and transmission planning, system operations, regulatory affairs and market design. She has an engineering degree from the University of Missouri and is a registered professional engineer in Texas.
GCPA’s Board of Directors filled out its officers by selecting Brian Lloyd, vice president with Oncor, as vice president; Mark Egan, Energy Evolution Advisors’ founder, as treasurer; and Donna Benefield, senior vice president with NRG Energy, as secretary.
Outgoing President Mark Dreyfus made the announcement during the GCPA’s annual meeting Jan. 18. He said 2023 was a “fantastic” year with corporate memberships up from 137 to 153, its largest corporate membership on record. Individual memberships increased from 301 to 337. Registrations for meetings and conferences were up 28% over 2022 as the organization set attendance records for its annual spring and fall conferences and its MISO–SPP forum.
The attendance numbers resulted in strong financials for the organization. Total revenues exceeded $1.9 million, an increase of just over $400,000 from the prior year “because of the economic recovery and strong attendance memberships revenues,” and added $651,000 to the GCPA’s coffers.
The profits will be used to fund the organization’s scholarship program, which was resumed after the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the revamped program, GCPA will award ERCOT, MISO and SPP $20,000 each to go to outstanding students in their summer internship programs.
Dreyfus said the hunt continues for a new executive director with the experience and contacts “to really keep the organization moving forward.” Kim Casey announced her retirement last year; she was the fourth ED in GCPA’s history.
