Griddy customers still facing outstanding electric bills after February's devastating winter storm now owe nothing, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office.
The attorney general said in a statement Monday that his office had finalized a bankruptcy settlement with Griddy Energy and that customers were being released from outstanding balances owed unless they elected to opt-out of their release.
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WATCH HEREFormer customers who already made payments on their account following the February winter storm can make a claim in bankruptcy court to recover what they paid for electricity.
Griddy charged customers wholesale electricity prices for a no-contract flat rate of $9.99 per month. When the weather is good and demand is low, electricity can be cheap for those paying only wholesale prices. But, if the weather turns and demand goes up, so does the price.
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SIGN UP In a past report, Susan Hosford of Denison said on a typical February day she paid Griddy less than $2.50 for power. But the one-day cost spiked to hundreds of dollars after the storm. In all, she was automatically charged $1,346.17 for the first two weeks of February. One man in Royce City said his credit card, tied to his Griddy account, was automatically charged nearly $18,000 to power his 3,000-square-foot home for part of February.
As the storm approached, Griddy warned customers, urging them to find another provider and get on a fixed-rate plan. When electricity prices shot up during the storm, the wholesale costs were passed onto customers. According to Griddy’s bankruptcy filing in March, it owed ERCOT just over $29 million.
Griddy published a statement that month saying, in part, that Griddy did not profit from the winter storm.
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Paxton said in a statement Monday that after the winter storm his office "engaged in good faith negotiations with Griddy Energy to provide some relief" and that he was pleased with the result of those negotiations.
