AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – The Texas attorney general said on Monday that he is suing electricity supplier Griddy for passing on huge bills to your customers during last month’s winter storm.
The lawsuit comes days after the Texas grid manager effectively shut down Griddy by revoking its access to the state’s electricity market.
Griddy charges $ 10 a month to give people a way to pay wholesale electricity prices, instead of a flat fee. But when temperatures plunged well below zero last month, wholesale prices soared and Griddy’s customers were left with very high electricity bills.
“Griddy deceived the Texans and hired them for services that, in a time of crisis, resulted in each Texan losing thousands of dollars,” said Attorney General Ken Paxton in a statement. “While the Texans struggled to survive this winter storm, Griddy made the suffering even worse by charging exorbitant amounts each day.”
The lawsuit accused Griddy of violating the Texas Deceptive Business Practices Act and seeks reimbursement for customers. The unusually strong winter storm covered much of Texas with snow, cutting off electricity for 4 million customers and leaving many struggling to find clean water.
Meanwhile, the Texas Electric Reliability Council, or ERCOT, transferred some 10,000 Griddy customers to other dealerships on Friday.
Griddy said in a statement that ERCOT “took our members and effectively closed Griddy”.
“We have always been transparent and customer-centered at each stage. We wanted to continue to fight for our members to receive relief and that has not changed, ”said the statement.