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.
The price of gasoline if you can find it is on the rise in Austin and across the nation following the historic storm that froze Texas for days and wreaked havoc on oil production.
Austin gas prices have risen 13 cents per gallon in the past week and currently average $2.25 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline, according to industry website GasBuddy, which tracks fuel prices nationwide.
GasBuddy, which surveys 830 Austin-area stations daily, said prices in Austin are 22 cents higher per gallon than a month ago, and 12 cents higher per gallon than a year ago.
According to GasBuddy, the cheapest station in Austin is currently priced at $1.99 per gallon today while the most expensive is $2.79 per gallon, a difference of 80 cents per gallon.
Texas power outages, winter storm may cost more than Hurricane Harvey brownwoodtx.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from brownwoodtx.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As thawing temperatures begin to release Texas from the record-breaking deep freeze that has gripped the state over the past week, the devastating financial toll from broken water pipes, downed trees, wrecked automobiles and related weather-induced destruction is becoming clear.
Insurance industry executives say they anticipate the price tag for recovery could approach that of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 which resulted in $19 billion in insured losses in Texas, primarily along the Gulf Coast, and is considered the costliest storm in the state s history.
One big difference between then and now is that the current weather emergency has hit all 254 Texas counties, a trend manifested in the large number of claims statewide that already are pouring in to insurance companies.