Griddy: Texas AG says more than $ 29 million in unpaid electricity bills will be forgiven if it sues Griddy Energy

Griddy: Texas AG says more than $ 29 million in unpaid electricity bills will be forgiven if it sues Griddy Energy

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“My office sued Griddy Energy under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act to hold them accountable for their increase in last month’s winter storm disaster by debiting huge amounts from customer bills as Texans struggled to survive the storm,” AG Ken Paxton said Tuesday in a statement.
The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, noting that more than $ 29 million is owed to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the state’s electrical network. That form of bankruptcy enables a company to restructure and reorganize its debt to repay creditors over time.

Through the bankruptcy plan, Griddy will “release all outstanding payment obligations to the consumers in Texas who could not pay their energy bills due to the high prices charged during the storm,” the attorney general’s office said.

And Paxton said his office is working with the company “to continue good faith negotiations to address additional relief” for customers who have already paid energy bills as a result of the storms.

Griddy did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. In an online report announcing the bankruptcy filing, Griddy blamed ERCOT.

“ERCOT’s actions have destroyed our business and caused financial damage to our customers,” Griddy CEO Michael Fallquist said in a statement.

‘No choice but to turn off’

While most Texans and Americans pay a fixed rate for electric power, Griddy works by joining customers in the wholesale market for electricity – which is more volatile – at a monthly fee of $ 9.99. When generators failed in last month’s storms and heating demand skyrocketed, ERCOT raised the price of electricity to the legal limit of $ 9 per kilowatt hour and kept it there for several days.

Red customers who did not lose power were hit with massive electric bills that were automatically debited from their bank accounts. The Attorney General’s Office received more than 400 consumer complaints against Griddy in less than two weeks.
Texas energy company that charged huge electric bills for bankruptcy during storms

ERCOT revoked Griddy Energy’s right to operate in the state’s electricity market within days of the storm due to lack of payment. Following the decision, Griddy said he has a choice as to switch off. ‘

The attorney general announced this month that he is suing Griddy Energy and Griddy Holdings for ‘false, misleading and fraudulent advertising and marketing practices’, claiming that the company is misleading customers and the incredible risk of its pricing scheme, which charges the most as customers pay , diminishes most vulnerable.

An independent monitor for the Texas Public Utility Commission recently found that ERCOT had kept prices too high for nearly two days during the storm, resulting in $ 16 billion in overcharges.

Another public utility commissioner resigns

Meanwhile, another commissioner at the Texas Public Utility Commission resigned this week, according to a statement from Gov. Greg Abbott. Commissioner Arthur D’Andrea resigned at Abbott’s request, according to a news release from the governors’ office.

“I will be appointing a replacement in the next few days who has the responsibility of mapping out a new and new course for the agency,” Abbott said. “Texans deserve to have confidence in the Public Utility Commission, and this action is one of the many steps that will be taken to achieve that goal.”

Commission chairman DeAnn Walker and commissioner Shelly Botkin also resigned in the wake of the winter storm, CNN reported. D’Andrea has been the PUC’s commissioner since 2017 and was appointed by the governor to serve as head of the commission after Walker’s departure.

CNN’s Eric Levenson and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.

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