Hot summer combined with closing of plants may result in price surges

By Ryan Maye Handy

February 20, 2018 Updated: February 20, 2018 9:01pm

Wholesale electricity prices in Texas are expected to jump this summer following the recent shutdowns of three of the state's largest coal-fired generating plants, which have driven the state's power reserves to their lowest level in more than a decade.

Retail customers in Texas would eventually feel the impact of rising wholesale prices in the form of higher electricity bills, but it is too soon to know when those bills might climb or by how much, analysts said. But anyone without a fixed-rate electricity contract could ride a roller-coaster of spiking power prices should there be a long stretch of extremely hot weather that sends demand soaring and stretches power supplies.

"We are going into a summer where people are going to be paying a lot, potentially paying a lot more," said Commissioner Brandy Marty Marquez at the state Public Utility Commission last week. "We are not really sure what we are going to see."

For more: 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Texas-summer-electricity-prices-expected-to-jump-12628755.php