After weathering power and water outages and broken pipes, many Central Texans are now facing their next fear: What will their electricity bill look like after all of this?
As some Texans report sky-high bills, customers of the area's three largest electricity providers — Austin Energy, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative and the Pedernales Electric Cooperative — should see no such spike, officials said.
The utilities do not engage in the kind of variable rate pricing that allowed some energy retailers to jack up rates as demand soared and the wholesale energy market went haywire.
In a statement to customers, Austin Energy explained that those affected by major bill spikes are seeing electric rates controlled by variable price billing and are therefore vulnerable to sudden price swings from the wholesale energy market.