As Texas deep freeze subsides, some households now face electricity bills as high as $10,000
“The last thing an awful lot of people need right now is a higher electric bill — and that’s unfortunately something a lot of people will get stuck with."
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NBC: As Texas deep freeze subsides, some households now face electricity bills as high as $10,000
- Thread starter Saucycarpdog
- Start date
- News
Well both because Texas allows it. But basically Griddy's thing is that you buy electricity at wholesale prices which is usually cheaper than other providers. The catch is you're at the mercy of the market. So when wholesale prices are allowed to skyrocket in a disaster, you get this.
Most other electricity providers, you pay a fixed rate for the term of your contract.
time based pricing models exist in other areas as well but I believe there are limitations elsewhere. Surge pricing to this extreme I'm not sure. It certainly wouldn't be possible without the deregulated market in Texas.
I didn't know it worked like that there... Surreal...
Thanks for the explanation
As a customer you can choose which power company you sign up for. They tell you your rate and if it's locked or market pricing. The customers chose the ability for Griddy to give cheaper energy most of the time and neglected the off chance that the market would have done this. At the same time the US has rules for exploitation these events, and that's obviously what happened here, it didn't go from $50 to $100, it went to $1000 and beyond, what Gamestop stock was supposed to do.
except griddy is literally blaming the state regulatory commission for forcing them to charge this much
www.griddy.com
Griddy | Griddy Update: Why energy prices were sky high this week | Texas Energy
The market is supposed to set the prices, not political appointees.
www.griddy.com
i'm not looking forward to getting the bill. but i'm just gonna say, right fucking now, if it's anything close to that number in the OP, i ain't paying that shit
Electricity deregulation has pretty much been a colossal failure everywhere it has been implemented.
Gonna be honest, not what I expected to see the company come out with after the earlier report of the natural gas folks high five-ing the temp bump in their profits.except griddy is literally blaming the state regulatory commission for forcing them to charge this much
Griddy | Griddy Update: Why energy prices were sky high this week | Texas Energy
The market is supposed to set the prices, not political appointees.
Of course. This is necessary utility. It's dumb that that is being treated like shoes or any other consumer product.
No, this is why we should legislate against allowing the market to dictate the cost of fundamental necessities such as electricity.
This is basically it. Who needs a retail power company hedging and building reserves? I can handle market pricing. It's a sure thing! Oops the hand of the market is now inside my rectum and what the fuck is it doing there? Where have my below retail rates gone?
It's not like people were forced into this. People literally went to a company and signed up for this fucking deal thinking it was cheaper.
To be fair, Griddy is pretty visible with their advertising talking about the wonders of their cheaper prices. Of course people would be intrigued by that. And given these companies are mostly the same just basically with different signup incentives, I'm sure many didn't understand what could happen.
Yes but let's not dismiss that the officials in the state have been preaching about the evils of regulations for years. Not to mention, the kind of people that sign up for something like this will likely be disapportinately poorer folks, desperately trying to save every buck they can.
I don't think we need to blame anybody here when I don't think anybody could have predicted $2000 a day electric bills. Even Griddy themselves are saying it's actually not their fault and the fault of politicians, seemingly.
Edit: To be clear, I'm not saying you are necessarily blaming folks, I'm just countering the narrative I'm seeing that it's their own fault, so they should deal with it. When the system and leaders in Texas have been preying on people long enough for them to think something like this would be a good idea. Then you have the more desperate people without much of a choice.
I feel like someone should go to prison for this. Not entirely sure who, but yeah. Somebody needs to serve some jail time for this.
You guys pay WHAT for electricity??? :o
I'm never ever complaining again about the regulated service on my country.
I'm never ever complaining again about the regulated service on my country.
This is about a specific wholesale company. They mostly do business in DFW and have like under 20k customers I think. Maybe under 30k.
Texans would rather pay 10k on electricity than submit to the feds. 🦅
I live in upstate NY, but like 2 times a year I get someone coming to my house trying to get me to change electricity providers. They are like "sign 3 papers, you'll save money!!" I always turn them away because I see door to door salesmen as sketchy and my electric bills are fine but I wonder if they are selling a scheme like this.
LOL.
Wall Street denigrates tanked the global economy in 2008 and nothing happened. Heck they were rewarded mostly. Sadly, nothing will happen here.
