It's been reported that last week's rolling blackouts that left parts of the state in the dark for 15 minutes or more--in some cases, a lot more)--made for sky-high wholesale electric prices.
The only thing that stopped them from rising higher was the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' (ERCOT) "system-wide offer cap," that is, the top rate a power generator can charge for electricity. The cap on the day of the blackouts was $3,000. It had been raised from $2,250 just the day before. Two weeks earlier, it was only $180.
That's led some to question the timing and the extent of rolling outages last week.
The state's Public Utility Commission has ordered an investigation into the outages.
