Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Griddy Energy will forgive the more than $ 29 million that customers owe in unpaid bills.
Paxton, who sued the energy company earlier this month, said he wanted to “hold them accountable” in last month’s historic winter storm that left millions of Texans without power during freezing temperatures.
While people struggled to survive the storm, Griddy “debited huge amounts from customer accounts,” Paxton said in a statement Tuesday. He filed a lawsuit against the company under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, but dropped the case in exchange for the company working in good faith to resolve the unpaid bills.
“I have ensured that Griddy’s proposed bankruptcy plan takes a major step forward by offering exemptions to approximately 24,000 former customers who owe $ 29.1 million to unpaid electricity bills,” the attorney general said.
“Griddy and my office are engaged in ongoing good faith negotiations to address additional relief for Griddy customers who have already paid their storm-related energy bills.”
Griddy – which offers its customers $ 9.99 a month in wholesale prices to its customers – said in an online statement on Monday that it had filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and placed the blame on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. .
ERCOT manages power for about 90 percent of the state’s electric charge and when the winter storm hit, energy consumption skyrocketed. According to Griddy, ERCOT has set prices at $ 9,000 per megawatt hour, while the seasonal average is $ 50 per megawatt hour.
The rise in prices has left many Griddy customers with bills of hundreds, and sometimes thousands of dollars.
“ERCOT’s actions have destroyed our business and caused financial customers for our customers,” Griddy CEO Michael Fallquist said in a statement. “ERCOT has exacerbated a bad situation for our customers by continuing to set prices at $ 9,000 per megawatt hour long after … instructions stopped. Our customers paid 300 times more than the normal price for electricity during this period. “
The company said the bankruptcy application would help reorganize. ERCOT said in a statement: “We are reviewing its submission but do not comment on their allegations.”
Paxton said earlier this month that Griddy had “misled” Texans and “reported for wholesale energy services” which, in a time of crisis, led to individual Texans losing thousands of dollars. ‘
One customer, Jose Del Rio of Haltom City, had earlier told NBC News that he had paid $ 630 for his vacant two-bedroom home and still owed $ 2,600. Del Rio said his lights were off, but he kept the air at 60 to prevent the pipes from freezing.
His account is usually no more than $ 150 a month and when he contacts Griddy, he is told to call from service provider.
Another customer, Royce Pierce and his wife Danielle, said their bill had climbed to nearly $ 10,000 for their three-bedroom home within days. The Willow Park couple told NBC News last month that Griddy was automatically debiting the account from their card and that they had to close the card because the company deleted it.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday said he thanked the resignation of Texas Commissioner for Public Use Arthur D’Andrea and accepted it. D’Andrea was appointed to the role on March 3, days after former chairman DeAnn Walker stepped down.
The commission is responsible for regulating the power grid in Texas and has been criticized for dealing with the February storm.
