The predicament that Texas finds itself in is a direct result of the deregulation craze that swept the nations utilities starting back in the 80’s. This was all done under the guise of reducing the cost to the consumer. As usual the results, catastrophically the opposite. When the the electric utilities operated under the benevolent monopoly model it worked mush better than what’s in place today.
Actually, the normal price delivered is well under 10 cents a kilowatt hour to a home on any contract on the official Texas “Power To Choose” site, which defaults to flat fees per kilowatt hour.
You pick your term and it gives you the options.
Until two weeks ago, the prices for annual or even three year contracts were under 9 cents a kilowatt hour.
Those rates are much less than people pay in other states, by the way.
Just to put it in perspective, those with locked in rates are fine which is the majority of consumers. My bill actually went down $10 this month. I owe $91.35. The people that got hit mainly were from a company called Griddy. They(the consumers) were buying wholesale electricity so it was about 1/2 most of the time with some variance. It is also charged weekly which is why bills went out so fast. The wholesale price went clearly out of control. It was a cheap way to pay electricity but the gamble did not pay off.