"$5,152 Power Bill? Texas winter storm Hell only gets worse."

[sarcasmo]

Snip< “I paid $450 for one day. I was in shock,” Scott-Amos told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “It made no sense because we have a gas heater, a gas fireplace, and we have been keeping the temperature around the house at 65 degrees. "





Snip< “I don’t have that type of money,” she said. “I now owe Griddy $2,869.11. This is going to put me in debt, this is going to mess up my credit. Are they going to cut me off? In the middle of this ongoing crisis?”



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/5-152-power-bill-texas-winter-storm-hell-only-gets-worse/ar-BB1dLKDE

[Irish_Dem]

1. Federal regulations might have helped prevent price gouging?

[lagomorph777]

3. Freedom ain't free.

In this case, it cost $5,152.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. This

Texans are about to get a lesson in the free market.

[Lock him up.]

6. SOCIALISM!111!!

[mr_lebowski]

2. Yee-hah! Free Market, y'all! Supply and Demand! Enjoy! (nt)

[msongs]

5. one wonders how they got their bill so fast for just the past few days nt

[Mariana]

10. Some providers have it set up so you can check online

and keep it updated pretty well.

[Massacure]

13. Smart meters

There has been an effort in many utilities to install smart meters, which allow two way communication between the meter and the utilities information technology systems. Utilities will ping the meter every couple of minutes, and the meter will respond back indicating whether or not it is energized and/or a a reading of how much electricity has flown through it. Some utilities allow customers to view this data as soon as it is received, particularly if the customer is on time-of-day pricing.

Smart meters increase reliability and reduce costs. Utilities do not need to send out people to physically read meters nor do they need to send out techs to connect/disconnect meters (whether that be for non-payment or other reasons). Additionally, data fed into demand management systems and outage management systems are analyzed and allow utilities to more quickly identify the cause of outages and to conduct corrective maintenance before small issues become big ones.

[lindysalsagal]

15. USPS only messes up the mail regular people send. Bills won't be affected...

[KY_EnviroGuy]

7. Cue the Texas politicians calling Washington for emergency utility bill relief.

Texas, most of America has this thingy call the Public Service Commission that you may want to look at.

KY.............

[Dustlawyer]

8. Griddy charges wholesale energy prices to their customers.

They sent all of the customers notice to switch companies away from them as the wholesale price went to $9,000 a KW hour. Deregulation means they do not have to have price controls and the free market just slapped them.

[Mariana]

11. It sounds like they've tried to do right by their customers.

I know this company makes its money from the monthly fee, not from selling the electricity for more than they paid for it.

[Hortensis]

14. Yes.

[SidDithers]

20. $9,000 / MW hour....

but your point is correct.



Sid

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

9. AS ALWAYS - elections have consequences. You wanted lassez faire capitalists free to run rampant -

you got it!

[Johnny2X2X]

12. Flint

This is starting to look like aspects of the Flint water crisis. Wealthy insiders wanted to make more money on the water of Flints so their lackeys in charge made it so.

[lindysalsagal]

16. NO WAY should the U.S. pay those fictitious bills!

This is insane.

[intheflow]

17. Texas utilities and/or the state need to dismiss these charges.

People should not have their utilities jump in price by thousands of dollars because the industry had no disaster preparedness plan in place. That's an unreasonable penalty to place on consumers, and honestly, it would cheaper for them to dismiss this debt to avoid the cost of litigation from individuals and advocacy groups.

[sarcasmo]

18. I'm sure there will be a lawsuit over this price gouging.

[Mr.Bill]

19. Our Communist Marxist Socialist government in California

does not allow utility bills to affect your credit.

[Liberal In Texas]

21. Having Griddy is like having an Adjustable Rate Mortgage. Neither are a good idea.

Cheaper while the rates are low, but when something happens, boy howdy.

These things, like reverse mortgages, should be illegal.