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Isn't that the whole issue in Texas, that end customers can decide to pay the spot prices? Something similar happened last time they had issues: https://www.ny
by theolivenbaum 3y ago
Isn't that the whole issue in Texas, that end customers can decide to pay the spot prices?
Something similar happened last time they had issues: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-bills.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-b...
- vel0city 3y agoResidential customers can't really sign up for spot pricing plans anymore, and even back then those plans were extremely rare.
- somenameforme 3y agoYeah, the article seems to clarify this: --- 'Many of the people who have reported extremely high charges are customers of a small company that provides electricity at wholesale prices.. The model can be risky. Last week, foreseeing a huge jump in wholesale prices, the company encouraged all of its 29,000 customers to switch to another provider when the storm arrived. But many were unable to do so.' --- So a fraction of 29,000 people in a state of 30 million. Things like this are such a shame because being able to buy electric wholesale would be such a luxury. You could pay rock bottom prices 99% of the time, but of course it'd come with the responsibility that you need to be able to handle those 1% events without just relying entirely on your electric. And the natural/reactionary outcome of stuff like this is the government will simply completely prohibit people of insufficient means from being able to sign up for spot priced electric contracts, and the gap just gets even wider.