Texas Regulators Double Cap for Electricity Prices
Wholesale electricity prices on the Texas power grid will be allowed to go twice as high as is currently possible, following a vote Thursday by the Texas Public Utility Commission.
Over the next few years, the cap on wholesale prices will be allowed to rise from $4,500 per megawatt-hour toward a new level of $9,000 per megawatt-hour. Normally power prices do not reach anywhere near the cap, but during a power crunch, prices can temporarily hit it.
The move is aimed at ensuring that Texans will have enough power in the future because, as the theory goes, higher ...
Comments (12)
Penni Livingston via Texas Tribune on Facebook
hmmm, what do you think will happen?
Richard S. Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Sounds like the Market is not ready for deregulation!
GS Crispus
I assume this may have the impact of reducing electrical consumption, or encouraging upgrades to more efficient capital for larger energy consumers in the state.
David Cortez
There was a lot of good discussion about developing stronger rules for incorporating demand response programs into the overall package of solutions. Our concerns are that raising prices provides no guarantee that new generation will be built, that the cart was put before the horse by raising prices w/out developing a way for demand response to bid into the market, and that the PUC has weakened or ignored available tools to bring more energy efficiency and non-wind renewables online to help meet peak demand.
Read more here:
http://www.texasbluegreenapollo.org/2012/10/puc-to-double-price-caps-on-electricity.html
Herbert Haynes
It looks like someone got their decimal points in the wrong place. For example, $4500 per megawatt-hour (mwh) would be $4.50 per kilowatt-hour (kwh), since 1 mwh = 1000 kwh. But a reasonable wholesale price would be only $0.045 per kwh. (We pay about $0.12 per kwh for retail electricity.)
gypsy314 ne
I hope our leaders are say hell NO and all Texans should be screaming hell NO
Tom Epley via Texas Tribune on Facebook
With no requirement that they actually use the money to increase capacity...
Elmo
David Sibley derserves all the blame. He had deregulation put here in Texas and lined his pockets
gerald leonard
Sounds like a recipe for gouging the average user. Simple math $9,000 is double $4,500. Your household bill is going to double.
Julie Dinkins-Borkowski via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"The cost to consumers is difficult to assess." ARE YOU kidding me? If a republican was in office they would have that amount calculated to the penny. Lets make it simple.
For every $4.50 you paid on your electric bill, you will now pay $9. That is almost double what you pay now.
$300 utility bill is going to turn into a $600 utility bill.
Yall ok with that?
V Marshall
For everyone here who believes this headline, how many times in the past year did electricity producers hit the cap? (The answer is ONCE!) So no your prices aren't going to double. However this move is also unlikely to induce more construction of generation. The cap is not the problem. However the fact that we only hit the cap once is an indication that we have adequate generation for now.
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