The families who saw their bills rise were reportedly planned with exchange rates with Griddy, an electricity supplier in the state.
Griddy recommended that customers go to another supplier this week and warn them to find fixed tariff plans instead, as it predicts rising electricity costs due to rising demand. But many customers trying to convert said other companies would not accept new customers weeks later in the future, which left them with their big bills.
Ty Williams told WFAA in Dallas that he normally spends $ 660 every month on his home, guesthouse and office computer bills. His new bill after the tariff increase exceeded $ 17,000.
He told the point of sale that he could eventually switch to another provider and that he hoped to work out a way to pay his massive bill. But Williams described the situation as “held hostage and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Some groups, such as Reliant Energy, say they are willing to work with customers and offer flexible payment options after the storm.
The rise in people’s bills was due to the striking demand for power during the freezing conditions, which overloaded the unprepared council for electrical reliability of Texas, which manages power for about 90 percent of the state. Demand increased the price of power, but only those with variable rates directly affected their bills.
This meant that while there were millions of power outages, electricity customers with exchange rates who still had electricity increased their bills. WFAA noted that plans with variable rates are rarer than fixed rate plans in the state.
The news from Texas contributes to the fallout from the blizzards, which left at least 47 people dead, left millions of people without power and even harmed thousands of sea turtles.