ERCOT to change Texas energy prices to meet high demand amid winter storm

[UpInArms]

Source: KVUE

TEXAS, USA — With nearly 4 million Texans in need of power amid the winter storm that struck the state, demand for energy is exceptionally high. The demand has exceeded the supply that the state has to offer.

As a result, the Public Utility Commission of Texas held an emergency meeting on Monday where officials introduced an order that would adjust energy prices. The order said in part, "Energy prices should reflect scarcity of the supply. If customer load is being shed, scarcity is at its maximum, and the market price for the energy needed to serve that load should also be at its highest."

The order also stated that The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the organization that monitors Texas' power grid, should correct any past prices to reflect the current shortage of energy. However, there are caps in place in the order to make sure consumers are protected from skyrocketing prices.

Link to tweet

Read more: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/texas-ercot-power-outage-energy-demand-price-change/269-53ab63e2-8dcf-4485-8b9b-be6ad75316b4

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This is crazy

[jpak]

1. The Not-So-Invisible Hand at work

Maybe this will change some QOP minds in TX

But I doubt it.

[Deacon Blue]

3. They're Too Busy Bemoaning Green Energy to Notice

...based on shoddy and already debunked (by Bloomberg) reporting by the Wall Street Urinal...to notice the fleecing and gouging happening in real time right before their noses. Cold weather states in the mid- and upper mid- west are doing just fine with turbines, winterized with heated oil sumps and leading edges.

And ercot’s website says wind is generating more that anticipated, especially along the coast.

Oh the Invisible Hand of the Marketplace (Adam Smith uses that phrase exactly one time in the Wealth of Nations) reaching into the wallets of Texans to make sure energy companies are well-cared for. Life in the Reddest of States...

[Miguelito Loveless]

9. The first stories about the issue

were based on AP interviewing grid operators and uncritically reporting what they said. Which is kind of like reporting Exxon's explanation for an oil spill.

[DBoon]

10. One thing the invisible hand is very good at

and that is picking your pocket

[paleotn]

12. That's the hand...

that comes from behind, picking your pocket when you're not looking. It's related to pick pocketing.

[sweetloukillbot]

2. So, price gouging during an emergency? nt

[Deacon Blue]

4. A Violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act?

Oh yes, ever since Hurricane Ike, if not before. Unless the Public Utility Commission gives ercot, Chesapeake, Austin Energy et al. a pass. Can they? Hey, it’s oil (pronounced ‘awl’) n’ gas, so what they say goes. Maybe there’s a hell of a class action there, unless the Leg outlawed those, or the adhesive service contracts we all agree to require individual arbitration of every single consumer complaint (which is entirely OK with the US Supreme Court, even before the absurd D***p-shit rubber-stamped Federalist Society-approved appointments).

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

19. Hidden behind the verbiage, that's exactly what they're going to do--raise the rates a lot.

Yay, free market! "Now that you've been screwed by Mother Nature, we're going to make it a lot worse. And don't even think about asking the federal government for help, because, you know, socialism."

I'd like to feel sorry for Texans, but they keep electing these Repugs. No, I do feel sorry for Texans. The weather isn't their fault, but the people they put in charge of their state are.

BTW, this is an example of global warming. Usually the jet stream goes directly west to east across the U.S., but because the Pacific Ocean is heating up, it's creating a bubble of warm air which is pushing the jet stream north. It loops over northern Canada, where it grabs a chunk of freezing air and brings it our way. So I guess the citizens of South Park were right when they sang, "Blame Canada!"

[msongs]

5. greed nt

[Lonestarblue]

6. It's not like we have a choice to turn the heat off when it's 5 degrees outside.

This is nothing more than taking advantage of an extreme weather situation to make more money. People can just choose to go without heat if they don’t have the money to pay the higher costs. Truly obnoxious.

[durablend]

7. LOL "caps in place to protect consumers"

What, $25 per kwh? Y'all didn't really need heat, do you?

[DENVERPOPS]

13. I love it when the Electric companies

throw around terms like KWH, knowing full well that maybe one percent of their clients understand just how much that is.

I am old and have forgotten soooo much, but I think 25$ per KWH = turning on ten 100W bulbs for ONE hour. Probably, the furnace motors use much more than that AN HOUR.............And heaven forbid you have electric heat registers or an electric furnace in your house....

...get out your calculators, Texans. AND THEN get on the phone and everyone call your Texas legislators continuously for the rest of the month....................

[turbinetree]

8. And when they send the notices out they should have down in the letter/ bill

Greed Is Good..........see what happens when you sell off public utilities to private companies........

[OldBaldy1701E]

11. This is where

the Fed needs to jump in and take control of all the power generation in the state of Texas, and toss those greedy bastards out the door. Only allow materials and supplies from Federal sources and nothing from Texas itself. Do not let anyone from that state make one red cent from any aspect of this emergency. Then, once this emergency is over and things are back to the levels they were at, the Fed can leave and let the good people of Texas remember who kept them from freezing to death. And, if they decide not to remember this... well, the next time this happens, and it will... they can strap on those 'secesh' booties they so desperately want to wear.

[Trueblue Texan]

14. Well, they better not get too wild with their rates...

...cuz I’ve had less than 5 hours of power in the last 48 hours and I’m definitely not a happy camper. 😾. Plus my patients on oxygen concentrators couldn’t get any help from electrical suppliers or oxygen suppliers. NOT acceptable!

[UpInArms]

15. That is so wrong

My mother was on an oxygen concentrator ...

I always knew hat her oxygen bottles were a power loss backup

[elleng]

16. 'the market price for the energy needed to serve that load should also be at its highest."

NATURALLY!!!

BITE IT, suckers!

[JackHughes]

17. Price gouging

Bandits...

Like charging $50 for a bag of ice after a hurricane.

[lapfog_1]

18. shades of Enron

and the fake energy crises in California in early 2000s.

we wrongly recalled Grey Davies and installed the governator... who was going to "open the books"... only he found the books were already open and California had been scammed by Enron ( and others ).