[ad_1]
The Texas utility manager on Friday dismissed calls to correct the $ 16 billion overloads that arose during power outages caused by last month’s winter storm.
Arthur D’Andrea, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission, suggested at a commission meeting on Friday that the error would be too difficult to correct, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
“It is almost impossible to decipher this kind of egg,” he said, according to the outlet.
D’Andrea added that any action designed to help clients could have unintended consequences due to private transactions out of sight, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“You think you are protecting the consumer and it turns out you are bankrupting a co-op or a city,” D’Andrea said.
The comments come after third-party market monitor Potomac Economics, which the state hired, concluded that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) overcharged $ 16 billion for electricity during the winter storm.
During the storm, ERCOT implemented controlled power outages throughout the state to prevent damage to the power grid. Bill Magness, CEO of ERCOT told the Texas Tribune last month that the decision was made to prevent the network from going down.
ERCOT has set prices at a cap of $ 9,000 per megawatt hour during blackouts. However, the monitor said prices should have been reset after the controlled blackouts ended.
Texas is still grappling with the fallout from the winter storm that resulted in dozens of deaths, and ERCOT’s handling of the situation has since come under scrutiny.
[ad_2]
Source link