ERCOT – You’re Welcome – NOT!!!

This morning we recieved notice from our electric provider and the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) that we are going to be in a pickle this afternoon because of the expected high demand for electricity due to our overly hot weather. Sorry to hear that, ERCOT, but there’s an old saying out there which states, “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” I have done some prior planning by having an array of solar panels installed on my house. Doing my part, you see. Heck, I even “donated” 846 Kilowatts into the system between May 15th and June 15th. “Donated” is not quite what happened – I was not given credit for what I generated above and beyond my own needs during that billing cycle.

It’s a long story. The short and skinny is that I have done ERCOT a favor by generating excess electricity and sending it into the grid at what amounts to my expense.

And it ain’t the first time it happened.

Before the power grid fiasco in February, 2021, the better half and I contracted to have solar panels put on top of the house. We got the go-ahead and had a start date which incidentally came in the middle of the time ERCOT had their power hiccup. Not a problem. We waited another fortnight for the installation and had everything up and running by the first part of March.

When the panels were up, I called Reliant to get on a solar buyback program. It is important to know that Reliant is nothing more than a billing agent – a middleman. The electricity we use comes from an entity known as Texas New Mexico Power (TNMP). Reliant gave me the information on a solar buy-back program. I told them I’d go for it. They came back and told me that I needed to pay a contract termination fee before they would switch me over to the new plan.

Uh, no.

It took me several phone calls and the better part of an hour in hold hell to finally convince someone that I was not terminating service, but moving on to a new plan. That was the good news. The bad news was that it took them one (if not two) billing cycles for Reliant to catch up to the fact that I was sending them (and by extension TNMP) electricity at no cost.

After that, no problem – at least until last February.

I got a notice from Reliant that the solar plan was going away and that I would be slammed onto a month-to-month plan in the very near future. I called Reliant to ask what was going on. They told me that TNMP was no longer buying electricity from those of us with solar panels. After scratching my head for a short while, I called Reliant again, specifically asking if I was going to be credited for the power I was sending back in the grid. Their answer was that I most assuredly would be credited for the power I was sending into the system under the plan I was being slammed onto.

That assurance went away on June 24th when I opened my electric bill and noted that the line item crediting me for the electricity sent into the grid was missing.

Tried contacting their chat and had a totally unsatisfactory “conversation” with an agent who told me that I needed to call their “Solar Solutions” team. While the “Solar Solutions” agent got the issue resolved (I’m back on a solar program retroactive to June 16th), I am still more than a bit miffed that Reliant led me to believe that there would be no change in the way I would be compensated for sending power into the grid. I am also miffed that the agent told me that if I was to terminate the two-year contract I was about to enter into, there would be a termination fee attached to that termination.

So here I am. Sitting at the computer on a Monday afternoon, wondering if there will be rolling blackouts because of a lack of electricity in the grid here in the Lone Star State. On their part, they have an emergency. Still should not be counted as an emergency on my part.

Thanks for letting me unload. I feel a little better now. I’ll feel a lot better when I get my 846 kilowatt hours back.

Be Seeing You!