ERCOT
Explained
Project Overview
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The goal of the ERCOT video series was to demystify how Texas’s main electric grid works and why it matters to everyday people. We produced a series of animated and explanatory videos that covered foundational topics like what ERCOT is, how the grid works, control room operations, transmission planning, financial transactions, and distributed generation and demand response, making complex grid mechanics accessible and relatable.
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This campaign treated the general public as the primary audience. Our strategy was to combine clear narration, intuitive motion and iconography, and human-centered scenarios so the grid stopped being a distant infrastructure concept and became something anyone could understand and engage with.
The Challenge
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The electric grid is one of the most critical systems we all rely on every day, yet most people understand very little about how it functions. Concepts like balancing supply and demand, transmission, and real-time market operations are abstract and full of technical jargon.
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Compounding this, ERCOT often enters the public conversation around extreme events, which can skew perceptions toward anxiety and misunderstanding. We needed to create content that built trust and understanding rather than fear or confusion.
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The real challenge was grounding a technically complex, region-wide system in everyday experiences without oversimplifying. The videos had to speak to a diverse audience that includes homeowners, renters, business owners, students, and anyone curious about where power comes from and how it stays on.
The Process
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We began by mapping out key grid concepts and identifying the simplest narrative threads that would help a non-expert audience follow along:
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Define the entity: Start with the basics of what ERCOT is – the independent organization that manages most of Texas’s electricity supply and keeps supply and demand balanced.
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Explain the mechanism: Use everyday analogies, for example comparing grid balancing to air traffic control, to make abstract ideas concrete.
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Visual storytelling: Design motion and iconography that break down process flows like generation → transmission → distribution into clear steps using consistent visual cues across videos.
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Human context: Always anchor the technical content in real life– power in your home, reliability during extreme weather, or how diverse energy sources contribute to grid resilience.
We developed a unified visual language for the series with a consistent color palette, typography, and motion style that reinforced accessibility and cohesion. Characters, scenes, and diagrams were crafted to represent diversity in age, background, and geography, helping people see themselves reflected in the content.
The Solution​
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The final video series delivered a clear, engaging walkthrough of how the ERCOT grid works and why it matters.
Highlights included:
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A foundational explainer on what ERCOT is that framed the grid as a system that serves millions of Texans and manages thousands of miles of transmission lines.
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A breakdown of how electricity gets from generation to your home, using simple analogies and clean animations to show the roles of different participants in the system.
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Topic-specific videos on control operations, planning, market functions, and modern grid challenges that layered understanding without overwhelming the viewer.
Supportive social graphics and short clips made these videos easily shareable across platforms and encouraged further exploration. Each asset maintained a design consistency so viewers could connect the dots across topics and feel confident in their understanding.
Conclusion
What worked best was visual clarity and narrative simplicity. By finding everyday entry points, like comparing the grid to familiar systems and pairing that with accessible motion design, the videos lowered the barrier to understanding. Viewers reported feeling more informed and less intimidated by the subject matter.
The consistent design system also allowed us to maintain brand continuity across several distinct topics in the series.
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If I were to expand or refine the project, I would explore interactive or personalized experiences – for example, short quizzes or micro-modules that tailor explanations to a viewer’s prior knowledge. I would also build in more localized context or real-world case examples, particularly for regions within Texas with unique grid challenges, to deepen relevance.
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Overall, the campaign demonstrated that thoughtfully designed educational content can turn a subject as complex as grid operations into something approachable, engaging, and widely understood.