Texas residents shocked by electricity bills
After enduring a wretched week of Arctic storms, hunger and cold, several Texans were handed another pain point — massive electricity bills.
Houston resident David Astrein, 36, a human resources director at a manufacturing company, said he has been charged $2,738.66 so far this month versus $129.85 in January for a 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment. He and his wife stopped using their dishwasher, washer and dryer, and turned on as few lights as possible at night. They kept the heat on for their 5-month-old son.
Astrein is one of a swath of consumers facing sky-high payments in the aftermath of the storm — many took to social media to show electricity bills ranging as high as $8,000. According to their screen shots, most are customers of Griddy Energy, a power supplier with a unique business model.
The Macquarie Energy-backed company charges electricity based on real-time prices in wholesale power markets, therefore exposing consumers to the full swings. Griddy saw the problem developing and even urged its retail customers last weekend to switch to another provider. By Sunday, 20% managed to do so. But not Astrein.
“We were stuck with Griddy and those astronomical prices,” he said by phone. “The failure in Texas as a whole to plan for this adequately is now a financial emergency for all of these customers on a program like Griddy.”
But for some Griddy watchers, the furor comes as scant surprise after the scorching summer of 2019 also resulted in eye-watering bills. The phenomenon is unique to Texas, where the retail power industry is entirely deregulated.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott convened an emergency meeting for Saturday to address the latest spike. He said he’s working with members of the Legislature to develop solutions to “ensure Texans are not on the hook for unreasonable spikes in their energy bills,” according to a statement.
In a Feb. 18 blog post, Griddy said the prices were sky high because the Public Utility Commission of Texas forced wholesale prices to $9 a kilowatt-hour, about 300 times more than normal.