Texas regulators refuse to order ERCOT to reprice $16 billion in excess charges

摘要

Texas regulators declined March 5 to order the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to reprice real-time prices, from mid-night Feb. 18 through 9 am CT Feb. 19, that resulted in $16 billion in excess charges to load-serving entities. "Decisions were made at these prices in real time, based on the information that was available to anybody, to all market participants," said Arthur D’Andrea, chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, during Friday’s regular meeting. "They did all sorts of things they wouldn’t have done if the prices were different, and it’s nearly impossible to unscramble this sort of egg." The PUC also discussed the possibility of a capacity market and indicated regulators would likely let the existing systemwide emergency pricing rule prevail this summer, setting the systemwide cap at the higher of either $2,000/MWh or 50 times the fuel index price.