AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas Attorney General said Monday he is suing electricity provider Griddy for passing on massive bills to its customers during last month’s winter storm.
The lawsuit comes days after Texas power grid manager Griddy effectively shut down its access to the state’s electricity market.
Griddy charges $ 10 a month to give people a way to pay wholesale electricity prices instead of a fixed rate. But when temperatures dropped well below freezing last month, wholesale prices rose and Griddy customers left a sky-high electricity bill.
“Griddy misled Texans and reported for services that in a time of crisis led to individual Texans losing thousands of dollars,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “While the Texans struggled to survive this winter storm, Griddy made the suffering worse because he debited outrageous amounts every day.”
Griddy accuses the lawsuit of violating Texas’ misleading commercial practices and seeks refunds for customers. The exceptionally heavy winter storm covered most of Texas with snow and eliminated electricity. to 4 million customers and many struggle to get clean water.
Meanwhile, the Texas Electric Reliability Board, or ERCOT, on Friday moved about 10,000 Griddy customers to other utilities.
Griddy said in a statement that ERCOT “took our members and effectively shut down Griddy.”
“We have always been transparent and customer-oriented in every step. We wanted to continue the fight for our members to get relief and that has not changed, ”reads the statement.