Electricity

Hit hard by winter storm, Brazos Electric Cooperative to file for bankruptcy

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Dallas Business Journal

By Mark Curriden

The severe winter storm that hit Texas two weeks ago has claimed its first energy company victim.

Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, the largest generation and transmission co-op in Texas, is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection shortly after midnight in the Southern District of Texas, The Texas Lawbook has learned.

Four legal and financial advisors with connections to Waco-based Brazos Electric and the 16 community members the co-op serves across 68 counties say that Brazos faces a demand for payment of possibly hundreds of millions of dollars for power and natural gas it purchased from other energy companies through ERCOT or directly from other energy producers during the frigid temperatures between Feb. 15 and 19.

“This week, Brazos and other power distributors are getting …

Generation

Power supplier Vistra expects to take a $1 billion hit from Texas’ epic winter storm

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Dallas Morning News

By Maria Halkias

Companies are beginning to sort out the big hits and windfalls, and it appears the brutal Texas freeze was a zero sum game.

Radical swings up and down depend on whether a company was a fossil fuel supplier, a generator of electricity or a seller to Texas residents who are left with eye-popping bills. More than 80 deaths have been tied to the frigid snowstorm. More than 4 million customers lost power, some for days.

Vistra, the state’s biggest power supplier, said Friday that it expects a one-time financial impact of $900 million to $1.3 billion due to the Texas power crisis. Vistra said it won’t pass that cost on to consumers.

“As a retailer, we don’t want to increase the price to consumers in the middle of this type of an event, yet our suppliers are …