- A watchdog from the Texas grid operator said it overloaded because millions were left without power.
- The Texas Electric Reliability Council is not regulated by the federal government.
- The report said energy prices were set at $ 9,000 per megawatt per hour, the highest possible price.
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Potomac Economics, an independent market monitor for the Texas Public Utility Commission, said the state’s grid operator massively overburdened residents as the state was rocked by a deep freeze and power outages in late February.
Excessive collections amounted to a total of $ 16 billion, according to the lawsuit. The report recommended that the Texas Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT) take steps to reverse the charges.
In its report, the monitor determined that, as Texas was dominated by several snowstorms, prices were inflated by 33 hours more than necessary.
“So the [independent market monitor] recommends that the Commission instruct ERCOT to correct prices in real time from 0:00 on February 18, 2021 to 09:00 on February 19, 2021, to remove the inappropriate price intervention that occurred during that period, “he said. the report, adding that ERCOT must retroactively reset prices to normal.
Bloomberg said the Texas Public Utility Commission, which regulates ERCOT, will discuss the monitor’s report at a meeting on Friday.
ERCOT, largely privatized and under its own regulatory system, allows wholesale energy prices to be determined by supply and demand.
The report indicated that, during the February storm, the Public Utility Commission instructed the utility to set energy prices at $ 9,000 per megawatt per hour, which is the highest possible price that operators are allowed to charge. change in the state of Texas.
In the weeks following the freeze and power failures, ERCOT, the Public Utility Commission and state leaders were involved in crises, as state lawmakers demanded new leadership and energy responses.
The chairman of the Public Utility Commission resigned and yesterday, former ERCOT CEO Bill Magness was removed from the grid board.
Seven of the fifteen ERCOT board members have resigned since the freeze, with five resigning after it was revealed that they did not reside in Texas.
The outages, which lasted extensively from February 10 to 17, when natural gas and energy operators were flooded by arctic temperatures and poor quality power grid infrastructure, which was not designed to withstand the winter.
Millions of Texans were left impotent and damaged by water, and at least 80 Texans died due to low temperatures and related causes.