PUCT wiped out the pricing thresholds on the coldest morning, so previously there was no pricing basis for customers to anticipate such sky high rates.* It was ERCOT’s job to logically start sharing the grid ahead of the emergency mode that left substantial markets unable to roll power.

If everybody had to go dark for thirty minutes starting Sunday during the day, then requests to conserve might have been taken more seriously and maybe we wouldn’t have reached life or death pricing to turn up more power.

Everyday customers shouldn’t be expected to cover the costs of criminally negligent energy companies after they caused a preventable disaster.

*http://www.puc.texas.gov/agency/resources/pubs/news/2021/PUCTX-REL-COLD21-021521-EMERGorder-FIN.pdf