> Which gets to me other point in: besides the seriously unlucky residential users, who is paying these extreme prices? Factories which can't go down? Critical infrastructure?
The residential consumers in this unlucky boat were ones that explicitly opted into it. Most residential plans don't directly expose the consumer to wholesale pricing fluctuations - the consumer pays a flat rate per kwh, and the electric provider takes on the risk of their wholesale costs going above the retail rates their customers are paying.
The "known flat rate" usually get adjusted on a periodic basis, so right now the electric companies are eating the loss themselves and will have to make up for it when they next adjust the flat rate consumers pay. But on the short term, the consumer is protected from the volatility of the wholesale rate spikes and the electric company ends up on the hook to carry that debt load.
... unless you opted into one of the providers in Texas that give you "access" to wholesale rates. Because fixed rate plans have to factor in wholesale pricing uncertainty (like this exact situation), they typically have higher rates than plans pegged to wholesale. So the people in this situation took a deliberate gamble - generally they had cheaper-than-retail rates due to direct access to wholesale pricing. But they also took on the risk of wholesale pricing volatility, so it's now coming back to bite them in the current situation.
It's still seriously unlucky. But it's also wholly avoidable, and those in it have been enjoying the benefit of generally lower rates by opting into this risk exposure.