On Wednesday evening, spot electricity prices topped $5,000 per megawatt-hour, up more than 200 times from Wednesday morning.

Texas power prices soar 20,000% as brutal heat wave sets off emergency::On Wednesday evening, spot electricity prices topped $5,000 per megawatt-hour, up more than 200 times from Wednesday morning.

  • hoot@lemmy.caEnglish
    1673·
    10 months ago

    Don’t worry everyone. The free market will take care of this for sure! Deregulated private companies always have the best interests of the consumers at heart!

    • Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4013·
      10 months ago

      The free market is trying to supply renewables, they are cheaper, more flexible and simple to deploy, the free market loves that shit.

      It’s vested interests fighting it at every turn that’s the issue.

      • douglasg14b@lemmy.worldEnglish
        323·
        10 months ago

        Yeah, those vested interests are part of the free market.

        You don’t get to cherry pick this

        • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.ukEnglish
          7·
          9 months ago

          It doesn’t seem like a very “free” market with lobbyists, subsidies, and pet politicians propping up the establishment entities in every corner of the market. Too big to fail and all that.

  • fkn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    107·
    10 months ago

    Waaaaat? The Texas power grid is price gouging again?!? Who could have foreseen this??? After all that work they put into the power grid after the last time this happened? It’s almost like someone should regulate this power grid or something.

  • Bassman1805@lemmy.worldEnglish
    613·
    10 months ago

    Good thing we brought all those bitcoin miners to “incentivize” the power companies to improve the grid. And then we give them millions in energy credits to make them stop so we don’t have a total meltdown.

    10/10 plan, there.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.worldEnglish
    381·
    10 months ago

    All these motherfuckers, including Abbott and every CEO sitting on ERCOT, need to go to prison for the rest of their goddamned lives. This is ALL market manipulation and price gouging. All of it.

  • EvilZionistEatingChildren@lemmy.worldEnglish
    34·
    10 months ago

    Wait, I have seen that before. I have a déjà-vu

    EDIT: so it’s 5$ kWh, current price in France is 0.2€ kWh for comparison. Makes a real point for energy-efficient computers/software!

    • p_q@lemmy.worldEnglish
      228·
      10 months ago

      so it’s a publicly traded commodity. are there texasmegawatts or what? are there less texasmegawatts then before? because if not, this is how it works. they gain capital, can cheaper lend capital, buy efficient texasmegawattsfacilities.

      • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        10·
        9 months ago

        Because Texas refuses to connect its grid to the federal grid, yes, there’s effectively texasmegawatts, and they’re fucking expensive right now because the governor keeps refusing to let the power companies properly prepare for devastating weather.

        • SimplePhysics@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          7·
          9 months ago

          Texas is connected to the Eastern (Florida to Canada) grid, the Western (Cali to Canada) grid, and a Mexican grid not part of the US/CA system via tie-ins. It is the only state in the continental US with it’s own grid, which was not a smart decision (cough cough feb 2021). The most outrageous part was that they could have bought power from Mexico, east, or west and import it via those tie-ins during Feb 2021 but chose not to. Power was out for millions for over a week in freezing temperatures. Fuck Texas. Fuck CenterPoint Energy.

          Additional Information: Besides Texas, Quebec and Alaska have their own grids as well. Alaska is the only grid without any tie-ins.

  • AlexisFR@jlai.luEnglish
    33·
    10 months ago

    Impossible. Isn’t Texas the richest, most developed place on earth?

    Was I lied to???11!

  • Overzeetop@lemmy.worldEnglish
    331·
    10 months ago

    Emergency? You mean kind of emergency where I have to call my naval architect to lengthen my new summer yacht by another half a football field because I need to spend this profit windfall. -Power Co execs in TX

  • Wahots@pawb.socialEnglish
    30·
    10 months ago

    At ERCOT’s request, the Biden administration declared a power emergency in Texas on Thursday, waiving some air-pollution rules so generators in the state could produce more electricity.

    Why not just say “yes, but only if you promise to put in more clean energy, drop gas, and connect to say, I dunno, the fucking international grid, you fucking dumbasses?”

    If you have the means, move out of the state before anything worse happens from your galaxy brain politicians, who would seem to rather kill you than see you have normal living conditions. Jesus.

  • Destraight@lemm.eeEnglish
    131·
    9 months ago

    I don’t get it. Texans live close to the ocean, just go for a swim if it’s too hot.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Did you see ocean temperature off the coast of Florida reaching one hundred degrees? Cool off in a hot tub…