Texas is largely deregulated where you can choose your electric provider. There is a common grid used by all but there are choices of electric companies that buy power from the grid, sell it to consumers, and do all the billing and meter service. I'm not sure if this is common in other areas of the country but if it is, then it might be worthwhile to review how your provider's billing work.

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"the market prices on the power grid spiked more than 10,000 percent on Monday in the aftermath of the deep freeze. Prices skyrocketed to more than $9,000 per megawatt-hour—compared to the pre-storm prices of less than $50 per hour.

The amped-up wattage costs have affected Griddy customers in particular because of the company’s distinctive business model. In Texas’ hypercharged market for electricity, Griddy makes money by debiting its subscribers a flat $9.99 monthly fee—and then selling them raw power at its going wholesale value, effectively stripping out any insulation between consumers and the oscillations in supply and demand.

Often this saves Griddy customers money. But the wild surge in costs due to failures across ERCOT’s grid has juiced bills up to astounding levels. Griddy initially urged its customers to switch to another power provider, but few companies are accepting new accounts.

Royce Pierce, a 38-year-old contractor, is one of those Griddy customers who received a notice from the power company to abandon his service—a message he admitted to The Daily Beast he thought was “overly precautionary” as the winter storm loomed.

Now, his bill has skyrocketed over $7,000 in the last two days, he said. As of Wednesday, Pierce owes Griddy $8,162.73 for the month of February—a shocking price considering the bill for his two-story house was $387.70 just last month. Last February, Pierce said he only paid $330."

news.yahoo.com/5-152-power-bill-texas-192316981.html

Robert, OntarioCanada,

The solution isn't wind turbines. 30% of Texas' energy supply comes from wind and solar, mostly wind. They were shut down due to the cold, ice and snow too. Gas well pumps froze too so we had troubles feeding our natural gas electricity power plants too. It also froze some water plants making water scarce in some areas too.

Looks like everything's running now, and they've called off the rolling blackouts, but it's been an unfortunate 5 days. I heard around 50 people in the state died due to this.

LOTF, why do you say wind turbines won't work in TX? That the cold, ice and snow shut them down? I don't understand. They work in Finland, Greenland, Iceland 24/7, way colder and harsher than TX.

Ladies and Gents -

All this is unfortunate, but a few facts. When you sign up for griddy, it states upfront that it's wholesale. Sometimes it's really cheap and other times it isnt. Buyer beware.

As far as wind and gas turbines, cold weather can prevent them from running. Turbines that operate in cold weather have heating elements in the leading edges and other places to prevent icing. Just like an airplane goes to get de-iced prior to flying. Who wants an off balance wind turbine in their back yard.

Same with the gas turbines as mentioned above. If the owner doesn't equip the generation source for cold weather for savings, well then this is what happens.

Same if you put your water pipe on an outside wall and don't drip it. While I'm not there, I have a generator and like to be prepared.