If you’ve been following the Texas energy crisis, you’ve probably heard about the adorably named Griddy, a web-based power supplier with 29,000 customers that offers an unusual deal: Get your power wholesale on the spot market. When the weather is seasonable, these variable rates can be lower than the retail price. But when energy gets scarce, as it did during snow and ice storms that took large sections of power generation offline, the wholesale price shoots up.
Griddy warned customers to switch suppliers in the midst of the storm, but it took too long to change over to avoid energy bills of $5,000 or more, for five days of service. One customer “lucky” enough to have his lights stay on during the storms got a bill for over $16,000. Others had their bank accounts drained after Griddy reached in to directly draw funds to pay the power bills.
Read Full Article »