Consumers are being urged to check their energy bills before they pay them this month after the winter storm caused a spike in the cost of electricity.
Some Texas residents who are not on a fixed rate energy plan saw bills topping $5,000 as the wholesale price of electricity rose from $0.02 per kilowatt-hour to $9 per kilowatt-hour.
Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) met with state lawmakers in an effort to prevent spikes in the cost of energy and the state House and Senate committees on energy will hold a joint session Thursday to investigate what went wrong with the power grid.
The Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel issued guidance Saturday urging consumers to closely examine their rate plans. The consel encouraged residents to consider a fixed rate plan.
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"We have been working tirelessly around the clock to help the millions of residential consumers across the state that lost their electricity and water service this week," Chief Executive and Public Counsel Lori Cobos said. "We have provided and will continue to provide important updates and access to helpful resources for consumers via social media outlets and our agency's website. We are strongly committed to doing everything we can to help residential consumers get through this crisis and encourage consumers to continue to contact our office for assistance with electricity and water service issues. On behalf of our state's residential consumers, OPUC will be actively participating in the PUC's recently announced investigation to ensure that strong safeguards are put in place to protect consumers from high electricity prices during this extreme cold weather event and future weather events and to help ensure residential consumers never have to go through this again in the future."
For more information about the Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel, click here.
