Houston Chronicle
L.M. Sixel
The Houston merchant power company Calpine has claimed responsibility for a data error that sent wholesale power prices spiking at the end of May and, according to an estimate from a commodity trading firm in Houston, cost consumers, industrial customers, power traders and retail electric providers more than $18 million.
The error likely added millions more in costs by pushing up the price of summer futures contracts for electricity, according to the electricity trading firm Aspire Commodities of Houston. Companies buy futures contracts to …