A Texas woman filed a class action suit this week to the sound of $ 1 billion in damages against Griddy, a Texas electricity retailer that the lawsuit claims was involved in illegal price fraud during the widespread outages that swept the state last week.
Houston resident Lisa Khoury filed the lawsuit on behalf of the countless Griddy customers who may be facing cluttered accounts following the winter storm that knocked out energy for countless residents across the state. Per Khoury’s suit, your monthly electricity bills up to this month have ranged between $ 200 to $ 250. For period bbetween February 1st and February 19, she alleges Griddy accused your $ 9,546.
Griddy, for those who don’t know, is a service that allows Texas residents to pay for what the company claims to be “wholesale fees”For electricity, instead of the fixed price that other suppliers may charge. In addition to these fees, Griddy also asks for a flat fee of around $ 10 per month for membership.
But these wholesale rates started to rise during the statewide outage that affected millions of Texans, according to the process. Although wholesale rates typically cover $ 50 per megawatt hour, Reuters points the state’s Public Service Commission raised the limit to $ 9,000 per megawatt-hour.
“Class action will be the most efficient and effective way for Griddy customers to come together and fight this predatory price,” said Derek Potts, a lawyer who represents Khoury in the case. “At this point, we don’t know how many people can be affected, but there are probably thousands of customers who have received these outrageous bills.”
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A guide on the FAQ page addresses some of the gouging claims made in the process:
The reason wholesale prices were so high was on Monday, February 15, the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUCT) cited its “total authority over ERCOT” to point out that ERCOT set prices at $ 9 / kWh until the grid could manage the outage after being devastated by the freezing winter storm.
Another page in the states of the Griddy website that the company intends to fight “for and alongside [its] equity and accountability ”, and will force state“ political appointees ”to confess why price increases were“ allowed to happen ”during what, no doubt, one of the worst power cuts in the country’s history.
In defense of Griddy here, the lawsuit alleges that the company sent an email to its customers on February 14– just before some of these sky-high prices are charged – warning that they should try to find a flat rate provider in the next few days. But Khoury says it was too little, too late. When she received the e-mail, the suit says, she and countless other Griddy customers were unable to make the switch, as most providers were not getting new customers during the storm.
When Khoury finally managed to switch providers on February 19, she has already accumulated thousands of dollars in charges. Other Griddy customers reported more than $ 5,000, despite suffering for days without energy or heat.