No argument there, but as I understand it the consumers who got hit were those who purchased their power via firms like Griddy who just passed through their wholesale costs of power.
When the wholesale spot market prices spiked Griddy had no option but to pass them on to the consumer. These are the bills that the federal government will end up paying.
The companies actually generating power may have made bank selling any excess but they couldn't have soaked their main customers since they were under contract.
“No argument there, but as I understand it the consumers who got hit were those who purchased their power via firms like Griddy who just passed through their wholesale costs of power.”
You are right they got skewered since they were not under contract and had no other options other than freezing. It was their cal, to play the market, but the situation they ended up in was unfortunate.
When the wholesale spot market prices spiked Griddy had no option but to pass them on to the consumer. These are the bills that the federal government will end up paying.”
Unfortunately I think you are right. While I think that those who want to play the game should be able to cover their bets I doubt it will happen here. They wanted the lowest cost option and that doesn’t include designing and implementing costs to avoid a once in a decade or more event. Those Griddynusers expected the rest of society to cover reliability so they could save money.
“The companies actually generating power may have made bank selling any excess but they couldn’t have soaked their main customers since they were under contract.”
True to some extent. But in ERCOT there are plenty of merchant plants, peakers etc, that have no customers. They are just there to sell on peak to the market with no obligation to a captive rate base - same reason people can sign up for Griddy and roll the dice. They still got paid, The entities delivering the power under contract had to pay it. They will increase costs in the future to make that up so in the end the customers will pay.