Griddy customers moved to other electricity providers after ERCOT boots it from Texas market

By Neelam Bohra
February 26, 2021

Texans who receive their electricity from Griddy Energy are being shifted to other providers after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the power grid for most of Texas, revoked the company’s rights to operate because it missed required payments to ERCOT, according to a market notice.

In all, Texas electricity providers failed to make more than $2.1 billion in payments that were due to ERCOT, according to another market notice Friday. The state entity depends on transaction fees from providers to help operate the state’s electric grid. Those missed payments came after the costs for a megawatt hour of electricity jumped from an average of $35 to $9,000 during the height of last week’s devastating winter storm that contributed to the near-collapse of the state’s power grid.

Griddy made headlines for sending massive bills to customers. One woman in Chambers County filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Griddy of price gouging. In the lawsuit, her attorney claimed the company charged her more than $9,000 for the week of the storm in stark contrast to her normal $200 to $500 monthly bill.

Griddy passes wholesale electricity rates directly to customers, who in turn pay the company $10 a month. This differs from fixed-rate electricity plans which offer a consistent rate regardless of market conditions. Wholesale prices spiked during the storm because the winter weather temporarily knocked many power generators offline, shrinking supply and skyrocketing demand.

Read the full news article on The Texas Tribune