TEXAS — In the wake of the winter storm that devastated Texas and dropped temperatures to the single digits for an extended period, it was reported that customers of the Griddy power provider were paying rates as high as $9 per kilowatt hour.
That resulted in some of those customers receiving electric bills totaling in the thousands of dollars.
“Our bill is up to $5,600,” Griddy customer Jennifer Evans told Spectrum News 1 reporter Eric Griffey. “It's come in consistently at $9 per kilowatt hour. Most people are locking in 11.30 cents per kilowatt hour. We're very fortunate. We still have electricity, and we have farm animals that we're hauling water to. We're not able to just shut down the house.”
Customers complained that they weren’t aware they were signed up for adjustable-rate plans that were subject to market fluctuations or they were aware but unable to switch plans in time to avoid sky-high electric bills.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has now announced he has filed a lawsuit against the provider.
The lawsuit claims Griddy violated “the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act through false, misleading, and deceptive advertising and marketing practices.”
“Griddy misled Texans and signed them up for services which, in a time of crisis, resulted in individual Texans each losing thousands of dollars. As Texans struggled to survive this winter storm, Griddy made the suffering even worse as it debited outrageous amounts each day. As the first lawsuit filed by my office to confront the outrageous failure of power companies, I will hold Griddy accountable for their escalation of this winter storm disaster,” Paxton wrote. “My office will not allow Texans to be deceived or exploited by unlawful behavior and deceptive business practices.”
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This past weekend Griddy missed required payments to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). That resulted in the company losing its right to operate in Texas. Meanwhile, roughly 10,000 customers were transitioned to other services.
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