Despite the melting of the ice and snow in Texas, a big chill still exists for a Houston area woman who has filed a class action lawsuit against her electric service provider after her rate jumped from roughly $225 per month to over $9000 for six days in February.

Lisa Khoury is suing Griddy, the provider she has contracted with to pay a flat $10 per month plus the wholesale rate for electricity. Khoury said she had to place a stop-payment order on her bank account after repeated failed attempts to get answers from Griddy to the daily withdrawals from February 13 to February 19 that shot up to $9,340.

“At this point we don’t know how many people might be affected, but there are likely thousands of customers who’ve received these outrageous bills,” says Derek Potts of the Potts Law Firm in Houston, who represents Ms. Khoury. “A class action will be the most efficient and effective way for Griddy’s customers to come together and fight this predatory pricing.”

The lawsuit seeks more than $1 billion from Griddy for allegedly violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Griddy responded in a statement that the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) directed ERCOT to set wholesale pricing at $9/kWh, roughly 300 times higher than normal wholesale rates. Although the measure was supposed to be temporary, according to news reports it was left in place even after millions got their power back.

A PUCT investigation is underway into “indexed” electricity plans like Griddy’s.

—Source: kron4.com