electricity

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs says it's no longer accepting applications to the federally backed program to help struggling Texans amid stifling summer heat.

Officials in Farmersville told residents they would face rolling blackouts Wednesday evening amid triple-digit temperatures. They later said the blackouts wouldn't be necessary.

The cost of electricity in Texas is tightly tied to the price of natural gas, which has more than doubled since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm came to North Texas to highlight its efforts to build a greener economy and avert more catastrophic consequences of climate change, but she was mostly asked about the price of gas at the pump.

Regulators at the Public Utility Commission of Texas may take steps toward overhauling how electricity is bought and sold in the state on Thursday. Consumer advocates and energy experts fear the changes could increase electric bills without improving the grid.

Texas is still at risk of power blackouts this winter in the event of extreme weather like the catastrophic February storm that buckled the state’s electrical grid and left millions of people without heat for days, the nation’s grid monitor said Thursday.

Though meteorologists expect a mild winter for much of the United States, forces overseas are already sending prices up.

Shopping for an electricity plan in Texas can be confusing. Here are four tips to avoid overpaying.

In Texas’ deregulated energy market, high prices during times of scarcity are often considered a sign that the market is working. But many utilities say the high price of natural gas during the winter storm was different. They're calling it price gouging.

“Nobody should be in that kind of heat because their power has been removed,” Betty Gregory said. “That’s violence. That’s spraying me with guns, if you turn off my power and turn your back. I'm serious. I’m very serious. This heat is not playing.”

Texans were asked to cut back on their electricity use for a week because of “tight” power grid conditions, according to ERCOT officials. They still haven’t said what caused the plant outages.

The operator had urged electricity conservation earlier this week as several power generators unexpectedly went offline as temperatures rose this week.