A Texas woman filed a class - action lawsuit this hebdomad to the tune of $ 1 billion in damages against Griddy , a Texas electricity retailer that the suit alleges charter in illegal price gouging during thewidespread outagesthat brush through the state last week .
Houston resident Lisa Khoury filed the suit on behalf of the countless Griddy customer that might be facinginordinate billsfollowing the winter violent storm thatknocked outpower for uncounted resident across the state . PerKhoury ’s suit , her monthly electrical bills until this month ranged between $ 200 to $ 250 . For the period between Feb. 1 and Feb. 19 , she say Griddy charged her $ 9,546 .
Griddy , for those unaware , is a overhaul that lets Texas residents pay what the company claim are “ wholesale rates ” for electrical energy , rather than the fasten price that other providers might buck . away from these rates , Griddy also asks for a flat rate of about $ 10 per month for rank .
Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)
But these sweeping rates start spiking during the state - full outage that affectedmillionsof Texans , accord to the courting . While wholesale rates typically point $ 50 per megawatt time of day , Reuterspoints outthe commonwealth ’s Public Utilities Commission grow the cap to $ 9,000 per megawatt hour .
“ A social class action will be the most efficient and effective way for Griddy ’s customers to fare together and contend this predatory pricing , ” said Derek Potts , an attorney representing Khoury in the case . “ At this power point we do n’t know how many the great unwashed might be feign , but there are likely thousands of client who ’ve received these outrageous bills . ”
One tab on the company’sFAQ pageaddresses some of the gouging claim made in the suit :
The intellect sweeping cost were so gamy was on Monday , February 15th , the Public Utility Commission of Texas ( PUCT ) cite its “ complete authority over ERCOT ” to aim that ERCOT set pricing at $ 9 / kWh until the grid could manage the outage situation after being harry by the freezing winter storm .
Another pageon Griddy ’s internet site put forward that the company intends to contend “ for , and alongside [ its ] customers for equity and answerability , ” and will agitate the state ’s “ political appointee ” to fess up about why cost increases were “ allowed to happen ” during what ’s undoubtedlyone of the worstpower outages in the res publica ’s history .
In Griddy ’s defense here , the wooing claim that the company netmail its customer on Feb. 14 — just before some of these sky - high prices were charged — discourage that they should attempt to find a fixed - rate supplier in the coming days . But Khoury enounce that this was too little , too late . By the time she received that email , the suit says , she and countless other Griddy customers were n’t able-bodied to make the switch , since most provider were n’t have on Modern customers during the tempest .
By the clip Khoury finally wangle to switch supplier on Feb. 19 , she ’d already racked up thousands of dollar mark in tutelage . Other Griddy customers have report handbill ofupwards of $ 5,000 , despite suffering through Clarence Shepard Day Jr. without power or heat .
Electric powerElectrical gridEnergy
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