TL;DR they say the Public Utility Commission of Texas has control of prices and is forcing them to be extremely high even though there is no reason for them to be based on supply and demand.
TL;DR they say the Public Utility Commission of Texas has control of prices and is forcing them to be extremely high even though there is no reason for them to be based on supply and demand.
The PUCT makes a salient point: why was energy trading at less than the maximum if we were shedding load? If demand is so high that the generators can't keep up, then pricing would be expected to follow. PUCT directed ERCOT to ensure that their pricing is commensurate with the scarcity on the market.
http://www.puc.texas.gov/51617WinterERCOTOrder.pdf
Previously consumers were getting cut off because large industry was still getting low wholesale power and generators were not incentivized to spin up more capacity.
clearly you missed the story from yesterday: Clearing price for supplying power to Texas grid –$31.65 (ercot.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26207827