The Texas administrator on Friday rejected calls to resolve $ 16 billion in overcharges that occurred during power outages caused by last month’s winter storm.
Arthur D’Andrea, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission, suggested at a committee meeting on Friday that the error would be too difficult to fix, the Austin American-Statesman said. reported
“It’s nearly impossible to disentangle these types of eggs,” he said, according to the news outlet.
D’Andrea added that actions designed to help customers may have unintended consequences as a result of private transactions out of sight, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“You think you’re protecting the consumer and it turns out you’re bankrupting a cooperative or a city,” said D’Andrea.
The comments come after third-party market monitor Potomac Economics, which the state has hired, concluded that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) charged $ 16 billion in electricity during the winter storm.
During the storm, ERCOT implemented controlled power outages across the country to prevent damage to the energy network. ERCOT CEO Bill Magness told The Texas Tribune last month that the decision was made to prevent the net from going down.
ERCOT set prices at a maximum of $ 9,000 per megawatt hour during the power outage. However, the monitor said prices should have been reset after the controlled blackouts were over.
Texas is still dealing with the fallout from the winter storm that left dozens of deaths, and ERCOT’s approach to the situation has since been intensively scrutinized.