This has heavy implications for people in TX that live in areas deemed “competitive” by the PUC (Public Utility Commission) of TX. In other words, the electric utility is ran by 1 or more private entities. The private entities often bill the users using “variable” (market) rates or fixed rates for X period of time.
I found an area in TX that used private companies to manage utilities (McCamey, TX - 79752) [1]. Used the “powertochoose.org” to compare prices and discovered people in this area can pay between 10-20 cents per kWh (kilowatt-hour) as of today. To compare, my electricity is managed by the city and have been paying between 3-5 cents per kWh for the past few years.
[1] https://ftp.puc.texas.gov/public/puct-info/industry/maps/maps/CREZ_Map_Attach_A.pdf
Also, it’s possible to overlay your linked map with current prices. https://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/contours/rtmLmp.html
The stories of folks with those contracts will start coming out in a month. Similar to the situation during the freeze a couple of years ago. Griddy in particular had a lot of lower income families who didn’t understand the implication of variable rates along with being told about “average” rates and then were stung when the bill showed up.
We’re in our first year with solar so this should be interesting. It’s brutal out there, ten minutes in the garage and I’m soaked.
The best things is for the blue clusters in Texas to regulate their districts the way they see fit and leave the red area’s to be unregulated. The corporations and the “free market” will sort them out.
Basic requirements (and other things people do not get to choose) should be regulated by a strong government imo.
