Following the 2021 winter storms in Texas, power bills have been incredibly unpredictable. The variable rates being charged to the utilities jumped up hundreds of times because our laws fucking suck. So for the next 20 years, we’re having to pay off the power co-op’s debts, and we never know what the additional surcharge is gonna be on a bill. We’d get an electric bill for our usage and on top of that would be a fixed provider debt service surcharge of $300 that anyone connected to the grid had to pay regardless of use. Then the next month the surcharge would be $50. Then the next it would be $750. Then it would be $12. But it was usually far higher than the actual electric use portion of the bill.

It also has really hurt solar adoption rates, because the vast majority of the bill isn’t tied to use, so solar doesn’t offset that much of the bill while having its own payment plan. And code requires a connection to the electric grid, so you can’t just choose to completely disconnect to avoid the surcharges.