Texas does not decide to fix $ 16 billion in power overload

“It’s impossible to eradicate this kind of egg,” he said.

Mr D’Andrea said there were so many hedges and private transactions outside the commission’s view that taking a step to help consumers could have unintended consequences. “You think you’re protecting the consumer and you’re apparently bankrupting a cooperative or a city,” he said.

The commission met Friday morning to consider a recommendation from the Independent Market Monitor, which concluded that Texas kept wholesale prices artificially high for 33 hours longer than it was granted during a $ 16 winter halt last year. billion in excess levies on consumers.

Amid the freezing point, which led to mass disruptions that left millions of households in the dark for days, the three-member panel appointed by the Texas government, Greg Abbott, ordered the state’s network operator to increase wholesale prices increased to the highest price of $ 9,000 per megawatt hour.

The market monitor said in a report submitted on Thursday that prices should have been reduced when the network operator stopped introducing power outages, not when it ended the state of emergency a day and a half later. It recommended reversing $ 16 billion in charges.

Earlier this week, former commission chairman DeAnn Walker resigned under criticism and left as sitting commissioners, Mr. D’Andrea and Shelly Botkin, who also indicated Friday that she is not inclined to order re-taxation.

Several market participants and consumer groups have called on the commission to repair and reduce prices by $ 9,000. Vistra Corp.

VST 1.54%

, which is one of Texas’ largest generators and also owns a large electrical retailer, said the repricing would not “lead to unfair and unreasonable results.”

Texas is struggling with a major financial downturn after last month’s electricity crisis, with the state commission and the power grid operator at odds with exactly what went wrong.

A few hours after the outage, the utility commission took the unusual step of abandoning the market-based pricing mechanism and ordering the wholesale prices at the amount of $ 9,000 until the end of power consumption.

The network operator complied with the prices at the maximum price after it was stopped, but at that time, local electric companies were still struggling to turn on the lights, and some were still having major power outages.

The extended four days of $ 9,000 prices – an exponential increase compared to normal prices in Texas, which averaged $ 22 per megawatt hour last year – have taken a huge financial toll on some market participants.

Vistra said it incurs losses between $ 900 million and $ 1.3 billion. Many wind farm operators, who had to buy electricity due to hedging contracts, are in financial distress. A large electric cooperative has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Utilities Commission did not vote to reject the independent market monitor proposal, leaving the door open for a policy change in the coming weeks.

Senator Nathan Johnson, a Dallas Democrat, said he viewed the agency’s decision as a mistake. He said he would support a setback to alleviate the concerns of generators and retailers about intervening in the regulation of market pricing.

“It would have sent a stronger market signal,” he said.

—Katherine Blunt contributed to this article.

Write to Russell Gold by [email protected]