Texas power prices briefly soar 1,600% as a spring heat wave is expected to drive record demand for energy

We’ve learned nothing from the 2021 winter storm that killed over 200 people.

Welcome to your deregulated "free market", Texas. Don't want to be tied to government regulation? Guess you get to pay more or cook...or freeze. Your choice by season.

It's not a coincidence that Texas is a hotbed of development for "microgrid" systems to cover for when ERCOT shits the bed -- and of course all those systems are made up of diesel and natural gas generator farms, because Texans don't want any of that communist solar power!

I've got family in Texas who love it there for some reason, but there's almost no amount of money you could pay me to move there. Bad enough when I have to work on projects in the state -- contrary to the popular narrative, in my personal opinion it's a worse place than California to try and build something, and that's entirely to do with the personalities that seem to gravitate to positions of power there. I'd much rather slog through the bureaucracy in Cali than tiptoe around a tinpot dictator in the planning department.

Lol so how’s that “deregulated freedom” working out for you, Texans?

I live in Texas and have already received 2 notices this spring to conserve electricity. It has barely hit 90, and they aren't able to keep up with demand. They get the same weather reports we have access to, up to 14-21 days, yet they can't/won't anticipate demand?

Bookmarking this for the next time white supremacists here in good ole' South Africa peddles the "privatisation is the only thing that will fix our electricity problems!" bullcrap.

Thanks, Texas!

Pretty sure they are happy they don't have "communism" when they pay those bills.

I bet those businesses who relocated from Cali to Texas are loving those power prices.

Oh yeah, they already left Texas.

Permanently Deleted

Oh, Texas. Your power grid is an endless source of amusement (for people who don’t have to rely on it, of course).

What year in a row ia this?

Enjoy the freedom!

Greed and incompetience. No wonder Texas has been resistant to federal regulation and interconnect its power network with the rest of the country.

Everything's bigger in Texas, even the power bill.

So I assume that ted cruz flees to ski somewhere this time? And does he still blame his daughters, or does that change as well?

Buttma taxes

Texas indeed has been blessed with much sunlight to make solar energy quite viable. This includes solar hot water heaters, and many trees to grow with vigour and bio-filtrate.

Gotta love capitalism.

The Enrons are Enroning the faces.

I guess they'll have to shut down their bootstrap-pulling engines for awhile.

WINNING! /s

shitty cruel systems texas likes to inflict on its citizens, the gun-totingest murican motherfuckers there are. kinda surprised they just bend over and take it. guess gun toting losers really are just losers

uh oh, somebody did a capitalism

The weather has absolutely nothing to do with that

shouldn't there be an abundance of energy if its hotter?

Texas has also become a hotbed for bitcoin mining, adding to electricity demand, as the state’s deregulated power market and abundance of cheap natural gas became attractive to the energy-intensive sector.

Hmm.

That actually might make a lot of sense.

So, if Texas has inexpensive electricity most of the time, but also has occasional high price spikes...bitcoin mining is something where you do not need power now. Sure, you're losing money on your hardware and space if it's not running, but my guess is that bitcoin miners probably can do just fine shutting their systems down when prices rise above a certain point. That would tend to smooth out electricity prices.

I'd been trying to think of electricity users that could defer usage and use a lot of electricity, which are something that you want if you have wildly-varying demand and want to smooth it out, and I suppose that coin mining is actually probably a pretty good example.

Good way to cause expansion renewables and batteries.

Click bait story that doesn't paint the complete picture.