In San Antonio, Texas, USA, which was hit by the worst cold wave, a long line of vehicles from residents stands in front of a food bank operated by a’drive-through’ method on the 19th. AP Yonhap News
In the midst of a strong winter cold, some residents of Texas in the United States have a lot of glances tilting their heads at the news that they have received a bill of “bomb” that costs 18 million won for electricity.
This was basically caused by an imbalance in power supply and demand. The price of electricity bills surged when demand exceeded the supply of electricity as power plants in Texas were shut down due to a cold wave.
However, such an accident is difficult to happen in other states or in Korea. This is because the side is largely due to the unusual electricity tariff system in Texas.
Texas privatizes extreme electricity markets
According to foreign media and industry sources on the 22nd, some Texas residents have more than 20 times higher than the previous month in their electricity bills. Fox News said, “A resident in Arlington, Texas, paid an average of 660 dollars (730,000 won) per month, and this month, he received a bill of 17,000 dollars (18.81 million won).” “About 29,000 Texas residents I suffered such damage,” he said.
Texas is one of the most extreme privatization of electricity markets in the United States. It is a structure in which the price of wholesale electricity purchased by private power supply companies is reflected in the electricity bill of consumers in real time. Usually, the government sets a’cap’ to prevent rapid rate volatility, but it’s okay to say that Texas doesn’t have this.
“The Texas state government has allowed up to $9,000 per megawatt (㎿h) of electricity price fluctuations that are reflected in real time,” said Yeon-je Jeong, head of the power policy research team at the Korea Energy Economics Institute. “A case of transferring such a huge amount to consumers in real time It is rare in other states as well as in other states in the United States.”
Visuals_State of the power market opening by states
This has nothing to do with the Texas government’s reluctance to regulate everything. Texas is the only region that does not connect power grids, such as transmission and distribution, to other states in the United States to circumvent federal regulations. It solves power through self-generation using nuclear and wind power in the region.
Gwang-hoon Seok, an expert member of the Energy Conversion Forum, analyzed that “Texas is a region with a strong separatist tendency to become independent from the United States from the time of the Civil War. Even if only the power grid was connected to other states, this power shortage would not have occurred.”
As such, the power market is completely entrusted to private companies, while regulations are minimized, so the expansion of power generation infrastructure in preparation for emergencies has been pushed to the rear. It is reported that power plants in Texas do not even have a freeze-stop insulation facility. An official in the domestic industry said, “There has never been such a cold wave in Texas in the past 90 years,” and said, “Unless there is a public corporation like KEPCO in Korea, which private company will invest money in it?”
On the 17th of this month, a couple is leaving the house with their belongings near Glenwood in Huto, Texas. They said they would leave home and go to a nearby hotel to escape from the cold due to the subsequent power outage. AP Newsis
Difficult to occur in the Korean electricity tariff system
Of course, there is a side that consumers in Texas usually benefit from thanks to the largely variable rate system following the privatization of the electricity market. The average electricity bill per ㎿h in Texas is usually only 50 dollars (55,000 won). In Korea, the rate for an ordinary family house is around 8,300 won.
However, while Korea implements the progressive system, the unit price of electricity per kilowatt (kW) supplied by a public company (KEPCO) is fixed at a’constant’, so electricity rates do not fluctuate even in a disaster. In addition, KEPCO’s electricity rate adjustment must go through a deliberation by the government and cannot be increased at will.
Some are concerned that the Texas state situation could be reproduced in Korea as the’fuel cost indexing system’ was introduced, in which electricity rates fluctuate according to international oil prices from the 11th of last month. Regarding this, an official from KEPCO said, “Even if oil prices surge, the upper limit of electricity bills that can be raised per quarter is 3 won per kw. I said.
Hyunwoo Kim reporter [email protected]
News directly edited by the Hankook Ilbo is also available on Naver.
