DeAndré Upshaw shows Griddy a $ 5,000 bill on his cell phone for his 900 square meter apartment in very cold weather in Dallas on Friday, February 19, 2021. Texas electricity company Griddy is selling unusual plans with tied prices The spot price for electricity in Texas Stromnetz warned its customers over the weekend that their bills would rise significantly during the storm and that they should switch providers.
Lola Gomez
By JOSEPH PISANI and JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press Writers
After the unusually freezing weather left millions of Texans without electricity, some face another crisis: sky-high electricity bills.
The rise in prices is hitting people who have chosen to pay wholesale prices for their electricity. This is usually cheaper than paying fixed prices in good weather, but can increase when there is high electricity demand. Many of those who have reported receiving large bills are customers of Griddy, an electricity company that operates only in Texas.
Among them is Susan Hosford from Denison, Texas. On a typical February day, she pays Griddy less than $ 2.50 for electricity. But the cost for a day rose to hundreds of dollars after the storm. In total, she was automatically billed $ 1,346.17 for the first two weeks of February, which was more than what was on her checking account, which resulted in her bank charging her overdraft fees and affecting other bills.
“This whole thing was a nightmare,” she said.
Here’s more about the rising utility bills:
WHAT ARE WHOLESALE ELECTRICITY PRICES?
The wholesale prices for electricity fluctuate depending on demand. With natural gas pipelines and wind turbines frozen in Texas, there was less electricity available, but demand for electricity was high, causing wholesale prices to rise, said Joshua Rhodes, an energy research associate at the University of Texas.
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