Posted on 02/12/2011 11:49:58 AM PST by dragnet2
DALLAS — Customers who are not locked into a contract with their retail electric provider could end up with much higher bills after rolling blackouts in many parts of the state on Wednesday.
"The people on variable rate plans are probably going to see the worst of it," said Tom Smith, state director of the watchdog group Public Citizen, Inc. "Their bills are going to go up to reflect the very high prices that were paid on Wednesday morning."
Electricity gets bought and sold daily.
Retail providers like TXU buy extra wholesale electricity from power plants scattered around Texas.
On most days, Smith said, providers pay about $45 per megawatt hour. The Electric Reliability Counci of Texas said a single megawatt can power 200 homes during extreme temperatures.
But during the rolling blackouts on Wednesday morning, the price of wholesale electricity skyrocketed. Power plants charged providers the maximum: $3,000 a megawatt hour.
That's 66 times higher than usual.
Customers without contracts are billed based on the fluctuating market prices. That means next month's bill could be big.
Does that mean $50 to $100 more? Smith said it's hard to tell.
"How much will depend on how cold the rest of February is."
It will also hinge on whether the state faces more rolling blackouts.
Customers who are locked into a contract will see a much smaller increase in their next contract, though it will likely be unidentifiable, experts said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wfaa.com ...
I do not know the situation in PA so I cannot comment on the specific causes of your rate increases. In the long run, market control of energy production under reasonable (cost benefit considerations) environmental constraints will result in lower rates and improved service. The problem with deregulation is that politicians have put onerous constraints on the industry. In Texas, environmentalists and politicians persuaded the utility commission to cancel plans to build coal fired plants and substitute wind power with far flung transmission lines. Political control is the cause of the blackouts, not market forces.
I'm sure I'll take a bit of a hit on the rate for this past month. But with gas heat our electric usage is nothing compared to August.
My variable rate is tied to the price of gas. In general, the amount of shale gas coming onto the market has saved me a lot over the last few years.
I'll accept the hit this month.
Texas has a free market utility system. Customers pay lower rates because they don't award idle plants. No idle plants, no backups. You are posting from emotion rather than from facts.
Who sets this maximum?
Finally some one that posts the truth!
The free market.
I would guess, you have no choice in the matter.
I should have said, I won’t grumble about it, at least not out loud.
I gambled a while ago and talked my wife into accepting the risk. It has been good for us, even if we pay double rates this month.
The jug eared Kenyan has been denying Texas permits for coal burning power plants. This falls under sabotage by a traitor.
Stop drilling for oil and natural gas, close coal mines and coal generating plants, mothball nuclear plant construction projects, build windmills which freeze and solar generated electricity panels which go to sleep at the most critical time....this seems to be the so-called “green” plan and what does it get us....big, no that should be enormous, energy bills. How’s that “hope and change” working out? It is like being in a nightmare dream and not being able to wake up.
I've read that the blackouts were due to wind power plants not producing much electrical power during the freeze. If this winter was a harbinger of a new little ice age, we'd better get cracking on new nuke plants pronto!
None of this is a mistake....Like our lawless borders, and destruction of our economy... it's all by design
1. Some plants were not properly winterized leading to shutdowns.
2. More plants have maintenance outages in the winter.
3. NG plants did not get their supplies due to diverting to higher usage residential customers trying to keep their houses warm.
Reduced electrical output meant less power to NG pumping reducing NG supplies.
You guess wrong.
Recent Blackouts in Texas were caused by multiple plants knocked offline due to the cold, combined with multiple plants down for scheduled maintenance, due to the typically low peak demand.
But a heck of a lot of space heaters get pulled out and plugged in when a place like Houston gets to the mid 20’s.
Do you have a link to any information on that? I didn't see those.
Reduced electrical output meant less power to NG pumping reducing NG supplies.
Nearly all of out Natural Gas supply is Natural Gas powered. Only a few location use electric drive compression.
You would think that the power execs would be a little bit smarter on how they handle this. Charging folks $3000 per hour might be allowed, but if the result of doing so is that the commission reduces the maximum to $100 or $200 per KWH, aren’t you cutting off your nose to spite your face?
But I guess top management at these power companies is just like top management everywhere, including government. Not the brightest bulbs.
I thought this scam was ended with Enron?
Texas has the most deregulated, free market electric power grid in the nation.And they were the only state without electricity when needed most. Also, unless things have changed, not all of Texas is deregulated.
Only, they aren't charging folks $3000 per (kw) hour.
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