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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsElectricity retailer Griddy's unusual plea to Texas customers: Leave now before you get a big bill
Some retail power companies in Texas are making an unusual plea to their customers amid a deep freeze that has sent electricity prices skyrocketing: Please, leave us.
Power supplier, Griddy, told all 29,000 of its customers that they should switch to another provider as spot electricity prices soared to as high as $9,000 a megawatt-hour. Griddys customers are fully exposed to the real-time swings in wholesale power markets, so those who dont leave soon will face extraordinarily high electricity bills.
We made the unprecedented decision to tell our customers whom we worked really hard to get that they are better off in the near term with another provider, said Michael Fallquist, chief executive officer of Griddy. We want whats right by our consumers, so we are encouraging them to leave. We believe that transparency and that honesty will bring them back once prices return to normal.
Texas is home to the most competitive electricity market in America. Homeowners and businesses churn power providers there like credit cards. In the face of such cutthroat competition, retail power providers in the region have grown accustomed to offering new customers incredibly low rates, incentives and, at least in Griddys case, unusual plans that allow customers to pay wholesale power prices as opposed to fixed ones.
The ruthless nature of the business has power traders speculating over which firms might have been caught short this week in the most dramatic run-up in spot power prices theyve ever seen.
Not all companies are asking customers to leave. Others are just pleading for them to cut back.
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2021/02/16/electricity-retailer-griddys-unusual-plea-to-texas-customers-leave-now-before-you-get-a-big-bill/
gay texan
(2,480 posts)Shit like "griddy" needs to be illegal
Chainfire
(17,665 posts)Blue Owl
(50,532 posts)TwilightZone
(25,505 posts)Griddy isn't the one making the money. The companies they bought electricity from are.
Blue Owl
(50,532 posts)TwilightZone
(25,505 posts)of the housing crisis.
Thankfully, Griddy is a small company with a relatively small customer base (for comparison, our provider Oncor has 3.7 million), and they're one of the only companies (possibly, the only one) offering direct-rate plans. I think they'll either settle with the customers for a fraction of what they owe (and likely get bailed out by the state) or the state will cover the bills over a set amount.
We'll see what Abbott comes up with - not holding my breath.