"If your 12-month, fixed-rate contract ends and you don't go shop for a new fixed-rate plan, you may find yourself moved onto a variable rate plan."Īt least one state, Connecticut, has banned variable-rate power plans for residential customers.
"Many retail energy providers move customers automatically onto variable-rate plans after their fixed-rate contract term expires," Connelly reports. Indeed, some customers with variable-rate plans may not even know that they are being charged in that way, according to reporting by Christopher Connelly of NPR member station KERA in Dallas. Some residents said they were surprised to realize they were signed up for variable-rate plans. The replies poured in from customers of multiple companies, including Griddy and Reliant. "Variable rate plans are predatory as we all clearly are seeing now! Who did they target with those plans and what did they tell them?" "Tweet back at me please- What electric companies sold Texans variable rate plans?" he wrote in a Friday tweet. The top elected official for Dallas County, Judge Clay Jenkins, used Twitter to ask for help from his constituents.
Paxton is also investigating the prices charged by individual electricity providers during the storm, including prices charged by Griddy. His office is seeking documents from ERCOT, including communications between the council and electricity providers about "energy pricing and/or price increases" during the winter storm, as well as price-related complaints that the council received from customers. Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation. At the Saturday meeting, a group of nine bipartisan state legislators "focused on the need to quickly calculate the total cost of these energy bills and how the state can help reduce this burden," according to a statement released by the governor's office. It's still unclear how many Texans are facing huge bills. Switching electricity companies can take days, and in the meantime the price of electricity increased dramatically. As the storm moved in, the company took the extraordinary step of urging its customers to switch to a different electricity provider. One of the most popular wholesale plans in the state is offered by the company Griddy. Variable-rate plans are enticing to many people because the price of electricity is often low during normal weather conditions and because it theoretically allows people to use more electricity when the price is lower - for example, by running appliances overnight.īut when a winter storm caused Texas' grid to all but shut down last week, the wholesale price of electricity skyrocketed. Such plans charge different prices for electricity depending on how much demand there is. Residents with variable-rate power plans are being hit the hardest. Many residents face enormous bills for the electricity they used during the storm. But those who had power, even intermittently, are also paying a price - literally. Millions of Texas residents suffered last week when a winter storm caused a statewide electrical grid failure. Some Texas residents are facing enormous power bills after wholesale prices for electricity skyrocketed amid last week's massive grid failure.
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