Griddy's model makes sense for customers who have the ability to automatically shed load and switch remaining critical load to backup generation when wholesale prices spike above the cost of using the backup generation. Might also make sense if the minimum load after load shedding is small enough that $9/kWh is not going to break the budget. A 10 watt, 1000 lumen LED can run for 100 hours on 1 kWh.

Customers without such load shedding and/or backup are taking the risk of possibly seeing $9/kWh (current TX cap?), assuming power is available at all. Do their customers understand the risk?

It also appears Griddy is planning to roll out a 'price protection option' for customers. I guess that option probably will look similar to variable rate plans offered by other retail providers.

On Fri, Feb 19, 2021, 12:19 Tim Burke <tim@mid.net> wrote:

CYA measure more than anything else, so Griddy can say they warned their customers that prices would be high when faced with chargebacks or bad press.

Based on past experience, they are just passing through actual electric costs and profiting off of a ~$10 membership fee. After the absurd energy rates they had to pass through in 2019 (somewhere around $80/kWh), I'm amazed anyone still uses them.

V/r
Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: NANOG <nanog-bounces+tim=mid.net@nanog.org> On Behalf Of Mark Tinka
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2021 10:26 PM
To: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: Texas internet connectivity declining due to blackouts

On 2/17/21 16:09, Ben Cannon wrote:

> https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2021/02/16/electricity-reta
> iler-griddys-unusual-plea-to-texas-customers-leave-now-before-you-get-
> a-big-bill/
> <https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2021/02/16/electricity-ret
> ailer-griddys-unusual-plea-to-texas-customers-leave-now-before-you-get
> -a-big-bill/>
>
>
> The power market in Texas has utterly failed.

Griddy aren't greedy. Pity about the grid.

Mark.