Brazos Electric argues that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas broke rules governing the state’s power market when it set power prices at the $9,000 per megawatt hour price cap — more than 300 times the normal price.
weeks after the storm. Also scheduled to testify are DeAnn Walker and Arthur D’Andrea, former commissioners of the Texas Public Utility Commission, which ordered ERCOT to override the market.
In a legal filing in August, Brazos argued that rolling blackouts like those initiated by ERCOT were not not a justifiable cause for market intervention . And what’s more, Brazos said, the grid manager left prices at $9,000 for more than 30 hours after rolling blackouts ended, increasing wholesale power bills by $16 billion.Last year ERCOT came under pressure to reduce power bills incurred during the storm, with the state Senate passing a bill that would have forced it to claw back $4.2 billion in charges.