AUSTIN, Texas — Texas utility regulators have rejected a recommendation that they reverse about $16 billion in overcharges for wholesale electricity that were racked up during the massive failure of the state’s utility grid last month because of a pricing error by the grid’s operator.
“It’s just nearly impossible to unscramble this sort of egg,” Arthur D’Andrea, the new chair of the Public Utility Commission, said during a commission meeting Friday.
Potomac Economics, a Virginia-based firm that’s paid by the state to provide an arm’s-length assessment of the Texas power grid, recommended Thursday in a letter to the commission that the overcharges — which were billed to retail electric providers, distributors and others — be reversed by retroactively lowering wholesale electricity prices over a 32-hour period beginning Feb. 18.
