Texas’s attorney general has launched an investigation into the blackout, calling for ERCOT and others to provide documents on the outages, pricing and emergency, saying they mismanaged the crisis.
ERCOT triggered the squeeze when it pushed up spot-market rates to $9,000 per megawatt-hour (MWh) over more than four days and levied huge fees for services. The service fees were 500 times the usual rate, according to industry executives.
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Why is that not price-gouging in an emergency?
About ERCOT, there are things we do not understand about this whole thing. Prices went up for electric companies during this, way up. One cooperative, largest in Texas, has just declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The cost was theirs to absorb. here is a podcast that helped shed light. An interview with someone in the industry. The host is a truth teller.
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/prattontexas/episodes/2021-02-18T13_34_25-08_00