CPS Energy resumes auto draw from your bank 2/26 (Clifton, Abbott: co-op, bankruptcy)

[resonator]

My last CPS withdraw was Feb 11, it was for January complete month. I must be on a fast cycle.

[Azure110]

I stopped doing auto payment/withdrawal years ago after a fiasco with another company where I got double billed twice in two months and it was a nightmare to fix.

I think posters here have legitimate concerns about auto withdrawal in this case.

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by WVNomad

I completely agree that the utilities will atleast try to get their customers to pay for the higher costs....whether they will be successful remains to be seen.

If you agree to the higher costs then you must have some kind of benefit from that. Maybe I am reading your posts wrong though and you are saying something different.

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by Azure110

If you agree to the higher costs then you must have some kind of benefit from that. Maybe I am reading your posts wrong though and you are saying something different.

Agree? No....but I CAN understand SOME premium. The kind of numbers I've heard are nothing short of usery, but then again, I've yet to see any actual billings showing the higher fees. IMHO, some of the bandied-about costs per KwH need to be (and, I'm sure, WILL be) investigated by the Texas AG's office for price gouging IF they actually try to bill for those amounts. My thought is that they're (the folks selling to our utilities) going to realize the kind of pushback they're going to get, and they'll be doing some serious price restructuring.

In the meantime, I'm not going to get all worked up over something that hasn't even happened.

[WVNomad]

Originally Posted by Azure110

If you agree to the higher costs then you must have some kind of benefit from that. Maybe I am reading your posts wrong though and you are saying something different.

I am not saying that I “agree” to the higher costs, but assuming we had a power system that was working appropriately, it would not be out of line for the power companies to charge some sort of reasonable fee to reflect the increased demands on the electrical system. Reasonable people can disagree on what is a fair fee and how it should be collected, but as an example, people on Griddy who were getting billed $1000/day for electric were, in my opinion, NOT paying reasonable surcharges. If CPS wants to charge me $5,000 for the few days of electric costs incurred during the winter storm, in one lump sum or over ten years, I would say that too is pretty bogus. My main point, and I am clearly doing a very poor job of articulating it, is that CPS is not going to charge any of us an excessively large surcharge to recover their increased costs next month. People on autopay are NOT going to have their checking accounts overdrawn next month because CPS is going to make some sort of massive debit to their accounts. They won’t do it because there is way too much political pressure for them to do so (there would be a revolution in the streets if they tried), and they have said they are not going to do so. They have said they are looking for ways first to mitigate the cost increases (I believe thru securing federal or state funds, looking to ERCOT to defray some of the costs, etc.), and to the extent they cannot do that, they will look to recover the costs from their customers over a period of years. I am pretty sure that we are getting to end up paying for some of this increase, but it is not going to result in a $2500 debit to my checking account next month—-it will be probably be more like $20 a month for 20 years. I am not a fan of paying more for any period of time given they (CPS, ERCOT, the TX Legislature, name your villain) screwed up, but there is no need to stop your autopay because of this situation.

[txbullsfan]

Originally Posted by Azure110

Fact: Prices got jacked up during a crisis.

Someone has to eat the costs set by those that sell the power at jacked up wholesale prices so the rich can get richer. How is this any different than jacking up prices for bread, water, milk, etc during the same time?

Price gouging is just Capitalism at the height of its powers. Supply and demand unfettered by regulation, morals or ethics.

From what happened with Texas, we can see both the electric grid and capitalism (both good things) need adequate regulation unless detriment for a sizable portion of people is the goal

[JH6]

They will cut a deal and you will pay a slightly higher bill. Probably a 5 dollar per month surcharge forever.

There are too many very poor folks who can't do a big bill.

[Azure110]

CPS Energy and its customers could be facing a $1 billion bill for February’s weather-related power crisis, though utility officials say they are doing what they can to protect customers.
CPS Energy CEO Paula Gold-Williams told trustees during a special meeting Monday afternoon that CPS is “accumulating” costs, but she estimated natural gas suppliers want $800 million for fuel they sold CPS during the crisis, and the state’s power grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), wants an extra $200 million. Gold-Williams said CPS would pursue regulatory assistance and help from elected officials to avoid customers shouldering that load.
“We’re going to negotiate. We want to sit down and talk constructively with our suppliers about what has happened and how difficult this is for the average citizen to bear. And then we will use every other tool in our toolbox to work to get this cost down,” Gold-Williams said.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021...ions_top_pages

[txtea]

Originally Posted by Azure110

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021...ions_top_pages

Pfffft
I'll believe it when I see it.

[WVNomad]

It is remarkable that a few days before the storm, natural gas was selling for $x. A couple of days later, nothing really changed as far as production costs, complexity of extracting gas from the earth, etc....it just cost more money...like 1000 times more. As I said in an earlier post, consumers should arguably bear some reasonable portion of the cost increase, but asking them to bear it all so a few natural gas tycoons get to profit off the misfortune of a bunch of homeowners and renters who were just minding their own business is just wrong.