After the Storm, Who Will Pay the Cost of the Electricity?

[gdr_11]

Glad I did not switch to Griddy. but I hear the power conoanies have asked the state to pass along the huge eletric costs to all of us.

Texas Power Retailers to Customers in Face of Freeze: Please, Leave Us

(Bloomberg) — Some retail power companies in Texas are making an unusual plea to their customers amid a deep freeze that has sent electricity prices…

financialpost.com

 

[Lonesome Dove]

You mean the costs they created?

 

[Aus_Schwaben]

I doubt most of us know what they needed to do to prepare the system for winter but obviously the (the power companies) do because it comes out they did not winterize in order to save money.
Lack of preparation on their part does not constitute a failure on the consumers. If they had spent a little more money to winterize, a lot of this would not have happened.

Make the companies pay for it themselves. When they take a stock hit and/or dividends, perhaps they will elect a board and get managers to prevent this in the future.

Especially since the privatization of the power system was supposed to save the consumers money. Like the new meters the customers had to pay for with all of the bells and whistles. It cost the consumers to buy them and save the companies the cost of having meter readers. Plus, it turns out that in many places, many of the bells and whistles do not work.

Reminds me of the fires in California because the Pacific Graft and Extortion, excuse me, Pacific Gas and Electric failed to keep the power lines clear of undergrowth and contributed to (if not caused all) of the fires in California.

 

[oldag]

And that is why I used a fixed rate plan.

 

[Texas45]

We will see increased rates.
But I also use flat rate plan so the inevitable increase will be less impactful I believe. My F/R bill is 166 a mo. Before I got on the FR plan I would see 3 plus in summer months.


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[4kids2dogs&RV]

I will be practicing rolling blackouts when it comes time to pay my electric bill next month

 

[dsgrey]

And that is why I used a fixed rate plan.

Read the details. Usually states it's based on the base wholesale rate of X and that can (usually doesn't) change. The rate went from $25mwh to $9000mwh this week and our fabulous state had an emergency meeting Monday night to allow them to charge us what the market demands.

So the actual power plants are gouging during a disaster which is against the law in Texas. But our state government sanctioned the gouging.

 

[EZ-E]

We had Griddy for a couple years when we lived in Houston. The 1st summer we had 1 month in August that energy prices jumped really high. We had a $600 bill that month. But most the months before & after, our bill was less than $100 for 2000'sqft house.

 

[sidebite252]

Wow, I guess I’ll see how iron clad my locked rate with Reliant is. Supposed to be locked for 4 more years? I bet they find a way out of it?

ERCOT to raise Texas energy prices, blaming high demand from winter storm

Your bills, that will already be higher because of the bitter cold, will stay that way beyond winter.

www.wfaa.com

 

[oldag]

Read the details. Usually states it's based on the base wholesale rate of X and that can (usually doesn't) change. The rate went from $25mwh to $9000mwh this week and our fabulous state had an emergency meeting Monday night to allow them to charge us what the market demands.

So the actual power plants are gouging during a disaster which is against the law in Texas. But our state government sanctioned the gouging.

Your price may change only to reflect actual changes in
TDSP charges, changes to the Electric Reliability Council
of Texas or Texas Regional Entity administrative fees
charged to loads, or changes resulting from federal, state
or local laws or regulatory actions that impose new or
modified fees or costs on Discount Power that are beyond
our control.

 

[BBL]

Read the details. Usually states it's based on the base wholesale rate of X and that can (usually doesn't) change. The rate went from $25mwh to $9000mwh this week and our fabulous state had an emergency meeting Monday night to allow them to charge us what the market demands.

So the actual power plants are gouging during a disaster which is against the law in Texas. But our state government sanctioned the gouging.

Do you think Paxton has enough ballz to look into this and say "no"? Just because some puked (PUCoT) assholes agreed to rape us doesn't mean that the government should stand by idly and watch.

 

[Texas45]

Mine is an average based on previous yrs usage. May change some due to rate but I wont feel it as bad as others.
Gets reevaluated each yr. June iirc.


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[cygunner]

Would bet ERCOT was sending power off-grid to other buyers out of state while we were freezing our butts off.

 

[oldag]

Would bet ERCOT was sending power off-grid to other buyers out of state while we were freezing our butts off.

Nope. Not this time.

We were importing at the DC ties. I never saw any exporting this week.

 

[Renegade]

We will see increased rates.
But I also use flat rate plan so the inevitable increase will be less impactful I believe. My F/R bill is 166 a mo. Before I got on the FR plan I would see 3 plus in summer months.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am in a co-op, they put this out today:

We have had members inquiring about a rumor that our rates will be increasing during this time. Our rates have not increased since 2015 and WILL NOT increase due to this weather event.

 

[servis]

I am in a co-op, they put this out today:

We have had members inquiring about a rumor that our rates will be increasing during this time. Our rates have not increased since 2015 and WILL NOT increase due to this weather event.

Co-op member here also. I was told rate would not increase. However, the fuel surcharge is not fixed. I could not get an answer when asking what the fuel surcharge may go to. The young lady did not mislead, stated that she did not know.

 

[Texasjack]

I worked for an energy company that was involved in the electric pricing scandal in California in the early 2000's. There is an amazing shell game played by the energy producers, suppliers, and brokers, and there's nothing like a good crisis to use as leverage to suck more money out of the consumer's pockets. In the case of that company I mentioned, they shut down turbines for maintenance during a peak use period. Then they transferred electricity from 3 states away, taking a profit at each transfer. The complexity of regulation makes it fertile ground for such abuse.

 

[Brains]

Once we have a cost effective energy storage medium (and LiFePO4 are not it), that is when solar/wind will make sense. Until then you can't reliably control power generation in relationship to demand. People are hopefully realizing fossil fuels are what actually worked through this event.

 

[IXLR8]

Dinorwig Power Station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This is how the British store 9.1/GwH using only water.

 

[Vaquero]

How much would you have paid for electricity when you didn't have it and couldn't get it?