It's worse than that, at the peak of the crisis not only were the capped at $9k/MWh, they were also floored at that price. As in, prices were administratively set to be $9k for a few days. ERCOT can just set prices to whatever they like, and their regulator (the PUCT) directed them to set it to $9k.

It's...not entirely obvious to me that was a good choice. Or even that it was a better outcome than what a deregulated market in wholesale electricity might have done, although we'll never know, since Texas doesn't have one. :)

> The PUC met Feb. 15 to address the pricing issue and decided to order ERCOT to set prices administratively at the $9,000/MWh systemwide offer cap during the emergency.

> "At various times today (Feb. 15), energy prices across the system have been as low as approximately $1,200[/MWh]," the order states. "The Commission believes this outcome is inconsistent with the fundamental design of the ERCOT market. Energy prices should reflect scarcity of the supply. If customer load is being shed, scarcity is at its maximum, and the market price for the energy needed to serve that load should also be at its highest."

(Source: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-ne...)

Interesting logic. I suppose the idea is that if there's any shortage at all, then it must be because generators don't have enough money, so government should mandate that money be transferred from, in this case, coops like Brazos to the generating companies who failed to weatherise their plants?

Nice for the generators, rough on the people forced to buy power at those prices.

The regulator set prices at $9000 with the idea that the high price would reduce the shortage.

And it did. Plenty of Texans were reducing their power usage to the absolute bare minimum once they got word of how expensive power had just become.

Why would retail customers (with fixed rates) worry about it?

Commercial customers like factories and empty offices cutting usage can still make a serious impact.

I expect they would have mostly been shut down at $1200.

Really it looks like retail electric providers in Texas are structurally disadvantaged vs generators, carrying an unlimited obligation of service vs getting the spot price set to the regulatory maximum.

25000 people.

I recall hearing that it was 29K on Griddy (myself included) before the storm. I've also heard a little over 10K were left to be transferred when it was shut down. I'm not sure exactly how many were exposed to the 4-days of artificially pegged prices.

I've also discovered over the past week that there's at least one more wholesale-rate provider, https://www.octopusenergy.com (specifically, it's OctoFlex plan).

Yeah, that's why I added the qualifier. It seems likely that most of the spot load was going to home heating (with less flexible large loads having contracts).

Ah, I misunderstood your comment. You meant "those retail customers who have fixed rates", but I read it as "retail customers, who have fixed rates".

Of course, now people are going to keep an eye on daily utility prices, to avoid life braking bills. The superiority of a free market with poor regulations!