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 ...
Here is one area that I think should be price controlled by one State agency. All electricity created should be considered a necessity for life. All power plants should be under control of the States for construction and type of energy to create this power.
I believe that you are posting in the wrong forum. Fascists and Progressives are more welcome at DU and DailyKos
The rolling black-outs are a result of a policy of ERCOT which is a governing organization which is subject to oversight by the Texas PUC and the State legislature. IOW, we have a 501(c)(4) made up of energy industry professionals and what you propose is that this organization is disbanned and all electric utilities are under the control of unaccountable government bureaucrats and self-serving politicians. The high price of power is the direct result of the market responding to scarcity. That is the specialty of governments is to cause scarcity and you want to breed more of it?
Do you think that something that is "considered a necessity for life" should ultimately be placed in the hands of Progressives and Liberals who will continue to charge you $3000/MW so that the "disenfranchised" would not suffer the indignity of being in the dark or having to actually pay for the power they use? Government screws up everything they take control over, so you want to take a hiccup and turn it into a deadly cancer?
Our government flat-out tells you that under their policies energy "by necessity will sky-rocket" - and you want to invite this disaster in and control your life? Are you insane?
And if it is "necessary for life" why do you rely 100% on a failed and corrupt government? There are many outfits that will sell and even install this "necessity for life" in your home.
How many times do you have to put your hand on a hot stove to know that it will burn you? Infinite?
The free-market.
But in the end it should come down to real Americans paying less due to real competition. In PA we’re paying more with little competition and politicians have been handed money from the industry. Google it.
Today corporate America has undue control over politicians instead of us customers having control over corporate America.
That is the essence of the free market that many of us support, but is instead squelched by those who control the politicians. If you think not, ask only why manufacturers were given the right by the SCOTUS to set minimal retail prices.
Try to buy Titleist golf balls at a discount. Can’t do it. Manufacturer sets the price. Our “free market” is corrupted by big business and politicians on the take. .
It is the free market.
No. Grid operators have been set up as non-profit organizations and conform to rules laid down through legislation. There are also subsidies for wind farms that distort the market.
So your solution is to have no ‘grid operators’?
“too cheap to meter ...”
Interesting point...
We’re charged between 10-11 cents per KWH..provided by the city.
Until the government forces you to buy titlist, you got nothing to complain about.
If you don't like the set price, don't buy it.
Now health care, that's a whole other thing. Before O'Dumbo started making threaths of gumming takeover, I could afford health insurance. Now, in anticipation of his ineptitude, it doubled in price I can no longer afford it. But it's STILL my choice.
No government mandated grid operators. Leave it to the market and you will see either private grid operators or utility companies building their own grids.
A little off topic but yet not when we are discussing issues of non-competitive price fixing.
It is not representative of the free market when a manufacturer can force retailers to sell a product at a certain price point. That’s price fixing, and it is no different from a government price fixing.
The supposed conservative SCOTUS recently overturned 96 years of free market precedent in https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Leegin_Creative_Leather_Prods.,_Inc._v._PSKS,_Inc.
by claiming that a manufacturer can indeed set minimal pricing.
This is an example of corporatism muddling conservatism.
Thank you.
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