Hacker News Reader

Griddy is saying the price hike was artificial. I am not sure if it makes sense or if it's misleading.

https://www.griddy.com/post/griddy-update-why-energy-prices-...

It was artificial in that the Public Utility Commission forced the price up to force more non-retail load to be shed by wholesale customers (think fabrication and industry).

http://www.puc.texas.gov/51617WinterERCOTOrder.pdf

Retail customers weren't expected to be directly affected by wholesale pricing of energy, but when a provider passes through the wholesale price directly that goes out the window.

Yeah but this was a hack and the side-effects should still be addressed. If the intent was to force the price to a point where everyone’s system trips and automatically stops buying but just relied on everyone having that set up then that’s on the commission to make it right when that assumption turned out to be false for some people. They should make everyone whole by charging the real market prices for that stretch of time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com