The case was filed Monday on behalf of Chambers County resident Lisa Khoury in Harris County, who claims her electricity bill rose to $ 9,340 the week of the storm. According to the case, her average monthly bills usually range from $ 200 to $ 250.
She said Griddy automatically withdrew $ 1300 from her bank account from February 13 to 18 and her total account from February 1 to 19 was $ 9,946. The lawsuit alleges that some customers had bills up to $ 17,000.
The complaint accused the company of paying over 29,000 customers too much because they knew consumers would be harmed.
Khoury said she was hit by the charges, even because she and her husband suffered “mostly without power” in their home from Feb. 17 to 18 when they housed her parents and in-laws who were in their 80s during the storm.
She claims that despite expressing concern about the withdrawals and subsequently refusing the checks, she never returned from Griddy. Finally, on February 18, she placed a stop payment on her bank account.
In Texas, residents can choose between two electricity bill options: a fixed plan, where their price stays at one rate, regardless of market conditions, or a market rate plan, which can vary based on how much electricity is used and the market price of electricity. Griddy presents the latter plan.
“We (customers) charge the wholesale energy price, which changes every 5 minutes. You actually pay the same price as a retail energy supplier or tool,” Griddyy said in a statement. Griddy boasts on its website that this strategy is ultimately cheaper for most customers.
The storm of last week disrupted the state’s power grid and led to an uninterrupted flow. This also led to Griddy’s wholesale tariff rising to $ 9,000 per megawatt hour due to a shortage of supply and increased demand for power. Before the storm, the rate was $ 50 per megawatt hour, the case reads.
In the storm to storm, Griddy advised his customers to switch to another provider at a fixed rate and told customers via his website that he was ‘seeking help from utility regulators’. But many could not change due to the approaching weather.
The lawsuit seeks $ 1 billion in monetary relief for Khoury and “on behalf of all other similar locations.”
It also accuses Griddy of violating Texas Fraudulent Commercial Practices Act and requests an order to stop the company from collecting payment for ‘excessive prices’.
Khoury’s attorney Derek Potts, of the Potts law firm in Houston, told ABC News Griddy has 29,000 clients in Texas that could sue.
“What happened financially to all of Griddy’s customers, both in terms of the exorbitant prices charged and the way it was taken from people’s bank accounts and credit cards, literally in the midst of a disaster, while many without power, “Heat washes, and water, are clearly in violation of existing Texas legislation to protect consumers,” Potts said.
Griddy did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment, but dismissed the lawsuit as “ruthless” for Reuters.
Griddy blamed the public utility commission for raising the wholesale price of electricity in the crisis, saying the company was not benefiting from the increased prices.
“We intend to fight it for, and in addition, our customers for fairness and accountability – to reveal why such price increases are allowed while millions of Texans go without power,” Griddy said in a blog post.
The controversial Texas power network operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), is also facing lawsuits after more than 4 million customers lost power in the storm.
ERCOT’s top board members announced on Tuesday that they would retire amid outrage over the corporation’s handling of the storm. Four board directors, including the chairman and vice-chairman, submitted their resignations, which took effect from Wednesday. A candidate for a board position also said he was withdrawing his name from consideration. All five live outside Texas, which only intensified the investigation into ERCOT.
ABC News’s Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2021 ABC News Internet Ventures.