Residents who have variable energy plans are the most affected, as such plans impose different prices for electricity depending on the size of demand, and the price increases with the increase in consumption demand.
Changing price plans tempt many people, because the price of electricity is often low during normal weather conditions, and residents are allowed to use more when the price is lower, so they turn on their electrical appliances at night to take advantage of the lower prices.
But when the winter storm caused the entire Texas electricity grid to shut down, the wholesale price of electricity skyrocketed.
Grady is presenting one of the most famous wholesale electricity sales plans in the state, but with the approaching storm, it took an unusual step, and urged its customers to switch to a different electricity provider, and this came too late, as it takes a few days to switch the electricity supplier, and in the meantime The price of electricity has skyrocketed.
A couple said, in a tweet on Twitter, that they are now required to pay an electricity bill of more than $ 5,000, although they tried to save energy as much as possible during the storm, and added that they did not use most of their home electrical appliances.
Another employee posted a bill she received from the electricity company, asking her to pay a similar amount, and commented sarcastically in her tweet: “What a wonderful time being a resident of Texas!”
Grady blames the Texas Electrical Reliability Board, which runs the vast majority of the state’s grid, and the Public Utilities Commission, and says the commission ordered the Reliability Board to allow price increases to show shortages of supply, which led to a crazy spike.
In a statement, the company said it intends to fight this “together with and for our customers, and for the sake of justice and accountability, to reveal why such price increases were allowed to occur when millions of Texas residents were without electricity.”
The average price for electricity in Texas during the winter is about 12 cents per kilowatt, according to the US Energy Information Administration. But utility regulators in Texas allowed that price to rise to $ 9 per kilowatt.
Gov. Greg Abbott held an emergency meeting, Saturday, to discuss the exorbitant energy bills, and said that the responsibility “to protect Texans from the sudden rise in energy bills resulting from severe winter weather and power cuts, rests with us.”
It remains unclear how many Texas residents face hefty bills, but nine state legislators from both parties focused during the meeting “on the need to quickly calculate the total cost of those energy bills and how the state can help relieve that burden,” according to a statement released. From the governor’s office.
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