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In spite of (or perhaps because of) the constant repairs after a major storm every 10 to 15 years, Houston actually has one of the lowest energy costs in the Un

In spite of (or perhaps because of) the constant repairs after a major storm every 10 to 15 years, Houston actually has one of the lowest energy costs in the United States: https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/data/averageenergyprices_selectedareas_table.htm https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/data/averageenergyprices... For some real numbers for Houston specifically in the middle of the hot summer months, input 77002 (a Houston metro zip code) into Texas govt's electricity provider search engine https://powertochoose.org/ https://powertochoose.org/ ; it will show most plans are around 12-14 cents per kwh, down to 10.9 c/kwh on a variable 12 month 500kWh plan.

laweijfmvo 2y ago
does it matter how cheap it is if it’s not available?
- gunapologist99 2y ago
  That's something you could decide for yourself and vote by moving there or away. Many residents of Houston would gladly tolerate an occasional outage to not see prices go up, and critical services like emergency services, hospitals, and datacenters all have generators, so it seems to be something that can be worked around with a bit of effort and expense.
  - arp242 2y ago
    > Many residents of Houston would gladly tolerate an occasional outage to not see prices go up Source on that? Also, when did people vote for this issue specifically? Was there a referendum about this?
protastus 2y ago
It seems that it's cheap because they're cutting corners on infrastructure.
- kibwen 2y ago
  And then go begging for disaster relief and emergency funds from the federal government, so the rest of the country gets to cover the costs. Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
Sam713 2y ago
Part of the reason Houston electricity is cheap is because a lot of power generation is from natural gas https://www.gridinfo.com/texas/houston https://www.gridinfo.com/texas/houston, and Houston area is also a trading hub and hosts some of the largest nat gas refineries in the US. TDU charges are relatively fixed for utility providers in Texas, so transmission infrastructure tends to have less impact on rates than supply and trading.

laweijfmvo 2y ago

does it matter how cheap it is if it’s not available?

gunapologist99 2y ago
That's something you could decide for yourself and vote by moving there or away. Many residents of Houston would gladly tolerate an occasional outage to not see prices go up, and critical services like emergency services, hospitals, and datacenters all have generators, so it seems to be something that can be worked around with a bit of effort and expense.
- arp242 2y ago
  > Many residents of Houston would gladly tolerate an occasional outage to not see prices go up Source on that? Also, when did people vote for this issue specifically? Was there a referendum about this?

protastus 2y ago

It seems that it's cheap because they're cutting corners on infrastructure.

kibwen 2y ago
And then go begging for disaster relief and emergency funds from the federal government, so the rest of the country gets to cover the costs. Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.

Sam713 2y ago

Part of the reason Houston electricity is cheap is because a lot of power generation is from natural gas https://www.gridinfo.com/texas/houston https://www.gridinfo.com/texas/houston, and Houston area is also a trading hub and hosts some of the largest nat gas refineries in the US. TDU charges are relatively fixed for utility providers in Texas, so transmission infrastructure tends to have less impact on rates than supply and trading.