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There have been a lot of (I'll charitably say) misleading stories about how bad the power system in Texas is lately, and this is one of them: these folks opted

There have been a lot of (I'll charitably say) misleading stories about how bad the power system in Texas is lately, and this is one of them: these folks opted into this program, most people foresaw this exact sort of thing happening and did not. Just like the meme about multi-thousand-dollar power bills: they opted into paying whatever the spot price was, and then expected a bailout when the bet didn't go their way.

vb6sp6 5y ago
> these folks opted into this program I like "personal responsibility" as much as the next person, but we both know that companies love to bury things like this deep into contracts in the smallest font sizes know to man. So while I do agree that "they signed up for the program" I doubt the fully read the TOS and other jargon associated with this part of the plan.
tpowell 5y ago
The City of Austin actually sent me a check (~$100 I think?) YEARS ago for opting into this when I first installed my Nest thermostat. It’s very transparent/obvious and easy to override when a rush hour activates (usually between 4 and 6 p.m.). It cranks your A/C for a bit before turning the temp up to 78° or so during the “rush hour” as it better distributes the load on the grid. If I was home working I would often turn it down some. I did like knowing when it was more expensive to run A/C, and it’s a no-brainer to let them adjust when you’re away. This article is very disingenuous, at least for how my utility implemented this capability.