College Station Utilities customers will soon receive letters and other notification regarding a temporary increase in their electric bills to offset costs incurred during the statewide rolling brownouts in early February.
The modest Power Delivery Adjustment will begin appearing on bills mailed in March. An average customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month will pay an additional $5 during the six lower usage months of March, April, May, June, November and December. The amount of electricity used in each billing period is expressed in kilowatt hours on utility bills.
When the actual costs from the emergency event are recovered, the CSU’s Power Delivery Adjustment will return to its normal level. Customers who need assistance with paying electric bills can call 2-1-1 or go online to 211texas.org.
“College Station Utilities shares the frustration many of our customers experienced during this emergency event,” CSU’s Director of Electric Utilities David Massey said. “Unfortunately, it had extreme financial consequences as we were forced to purchase power that was at least 50 times the normal market price. This resulted in millions of dollars in additional charges, and we deeply regret that we had to resort to this temporary increase in our Power Delivery Adjustment.”
“College Station Utilities is profoundly grateful to our loyal customers and we sincerely appreciate their patience and understanding as we recover from this emergency situation,” Massey said. “Our highest priority is to deliver reliable electricity to our customers, and we are dedicated to working closely with state authorities and ERCOT to ensure that we maintain a dependable power supply.”
What Happened
In the early morning hours of Feb. 2, extremely cold weather conditions caused numerous power generation plants throughout the state's transmission grid to trip offline in rapid succession. As a result, all electric utilities within the transmission system operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) immediately were ordered to conduct rolling brownouts of non-emergency customers.
Without the brownouts, Massey said the ERCOT grid could have completely collapsed and would have taken 48 hours or longer to restore. Fortunately, electric utility systems within ERCOT responded quickly and the brownouts ended just after 1 p.m.
Financial Impact
The brownouts had an extreme financial impact as the cost of power on the ERCOT market soared to maximum-allowed levels for more than six hours and were higher than normal for two days. Because of the excessive cold, College Station’s electric demand was almost 20 percent higher than any previous winter peak.
“That demand forced us to either purchase additional power or cut power to our customers, which was not a realistic option.” Massey said.
Because of the large number of offline generation stations, most electric utilities were forced to purchase power that was at least 50 times the normal market price. As a result of this extraordinary situation, power costs for a seven-hour period on Feb. 2 were equal to 15 to 20 days of normal costs. To cover such unanticipated expenses, most utilities have adjustment factors that are not part of the basic rates.
“We understand that an extra $5 per month is a significant amount during tough economic times, and assure our customers that this action is not being taken lightly,” Massey said.
