Energy Ogre users just sitting back reading this thread like...

$6.54 per currently with indicative at the $9.00 cap for the next hour+
Two more hours at least of 3-9$ per kWh

7.07

Thanks for posting the price.

I'm guessing folks are familiar, but the following link is also entertaining to watch right now.
http://www.ercot.com/

Man I love saving money but that just seems super labor intensive trying to constantly monitor that.

For a 2 story 2600 sq ft house I think my gexa bill runs between 75-120$ during the winter and anywhere from 150-250$ during July and August. Those credits they offer if you know your monthly KW usage is nice.

Only labor-intensive for a week or two in August. The vast majority of the year you can disregard.

I haven't been monitoring or making any changes.
Yesterday afternoon I happened to be home so I shut off the AC and just had the fans going. Got to 78 before I cranked them all up again.
With smart enough thermostats that had access to the real-time pricing system you could set-up all sorts of logic to actually take advantage.

I am reconsidering staying with Griddy or not...there is a bigger risk than I realized.

Energy Ogre won't work for me. I have frozen my credit with all three credit bureaus. I have all the credit I need. I don't want anyone opening fraudulent accounts under my credit... hence the freeze. To use Energy Ogre they need to run credit reports on you from time to time.

EEA 1 notice on ERCOT website (when it will load). **** is hitting the fan. They just need to hold it together for a few hours. Hopefully they make it.

$9,000 PRINT!!

Yeah, well, its been $8.99/kwh fir the last 10 minutes, at least.

However, I saw this coming yesterday. Had the kids charged up all of their tablets. We charged up all of the backup batteries. And this morning I pulled the house down by putting the AC thermostats on 70. We left the house around 11 and I put all the thermostats on 78. I came back right as the prices were peeking. I put the thermostats on 82. Wer'e still comfortable below 78 degree. Everything in the house is off except for appliances such as the refrigerators and alarm clocks. Kids are happily playing video games or watching YouTube or Netflix on their tablets or they're playing with nonelectronic stuff. We have lots of windows in our house so none of the lights are on. Not that big a deal.

Why would you want to live like that?

Imagine how much energy use would go down if everybody actually gave a **** about their consumption during the summer months.

My house this afternoon

schmendeler said:

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Imagine how much energy use would go down if everybody actually gave a **** about their consumption during the summer months.

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This is true
Wife and I are home today and tv is playing the stros and I'm cruising at 75 degrees. But I'm not with Griddy

abacavir said:

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Why would you want to live like that?

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Many people can survive without running AC so much that dew forms on the outside of their house windows.

Like what? We almost never have to turn lights on during the daytime because our house is so bright naturally. It's 77 degrees in the house.

I can afford the price spike. Even if I get $1,000 utility bill this month, it's no sweat. However, if everyone in this state was making the same effort, maybe the system wouldn't be as taxed as it currently is.

Before going on Griddy I was paying $0.19 per kwh year round ( I went too long without comparing prices). I'm pretty sure that at the end of a year my per kilowatt-hour price is going to be less than that. I'm not unhappy. I'm just trying to keep my usage down at peak times. If it's not less than $0.19 per kilowatt hour, I'll find another solution.

.19? Jesus
You should have been .11 or lower with any sort of effort.

I know. ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

combat wombat said:

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I know. ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

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Think that's the point. .19 shouldn't be any kind of baseline for savings.

What about a giant battery bank that fills itself up during off-peak hours. How long until that is actually economically feasible?

That's something individual generation projects are working on now. As far as when it's viable large scale and where it makes an actual impact to the greater market? It may be awhile.

From Griddy today

Extreme Heat and High Demand Today
As you may have noticed, yesterday's prices were the most volatile they've been in years. That's because Texas set a new all-time record for electrical demand at 74,531 MW between 4:00 5:00 pm. That's more than 1,000 MW above the previous record set last July. This put a severe strain on the grid, forcing every available generation unit to run at its capacity. However, there were several units that were unable to run at capacity for operational reasons: a coal-fired unit in Houston, a combined-cycle gas-fired unit in South Texas and a steam generation unit in North Texas all failed to run as expected, straining the grid even more.

Things are expected to return to normal tomorrow but unfortunately, today is expected to break yesterday's demand record. Forecasts are calling for a peak of over 75,000 MW this afternoon. That means we're almost certain to see more extreme price volatility. This will be another good day to adjust your usage where you can.

Here are a few tips to save money during these times:

• When prices rise in the afternoon, bump up your A/C a few degrees. Even increasing the temperature 2 degrees can save you money.
• Better yet, turn it off altogether and go hang out at the movies, pool or mall!
• Do your dishes and laundry at night when prices are lower.
• If you have a pool pump, run that at night as well.
• Check your Griddy app and make sure price alerts are turned on so you'll be notified of price spikes. Check Settings > Notifications on the Account screen.

Below is a chart showing how unusual these spikes are over the course of this year.

Jethro95 said:

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What about a giant battery bank that fills itself up during off-peak hours. How long until that is actually economically feasible?

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Tesla had a product that was capable to do that. But I don't think anyone was interested.

Anyone know why the "cool" spots on the real time price nodes?

Burn-It said:

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From Griddy today

Extreme Heat and High Demand Today
As you may have noticed, yesterday's prices were the most volatile they've been in years. That's because Texas set a new all-time record for electrical demand at 74,531 MW between 4:00 5:00 pm. That's more than 1,000 MW above the previous record set last July. This put a severe strain on the grid, forcing every available generation unit to run at its capacity. However, there were several units that were unable to run at capacity for operational reasons: a coal-fired unit in Houston, a combined-cycle gas-fired unit in South Texas and a steam generation unit in North Texas all failed to run as expected, straining the grid even more.

Things are expected to return to normal tomorrow but unfortunately, today is expected to break yesterday's demand record. Forecasts are calling for a peak of over 75,000 MW this afternoon. That means we're almost certain to see more extreme price volatility. This will be another good day to adjust your usage where you can.

Here are a few tips to save money during these times:

• When prices rise in the afternoon, bump up your A/C a few degrees. Even increasing the temperature 2 degrees can save you money.
• Better yet, turn it off altogether and go hang out at the movies, pool or mall!
• Do your dishes and laundry at night when prices are lower.
• If you have a pool pump, run that at night as well.
• Check your Griddy app and make sure price alerts are turned on so you'll be notified of price spikes. Check Settings > Notifications on the Account screen.

Below is a chart showing how unusual these spikes are over the course of this year.

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Griddy treating their clients to a third world country experience. Turn that ac off and go outside. Killer recommendation. Sounds something Russians would do.

Lol. Yeah, because going to the movies, pool, or the mall are all typical third world country activities you hear about and see on TV.

Saw this on Twitter. Ouch.

I think you missed his point

Your yearly savings can be wiped out in an hour? Sure, if your yearly savings are $60 total, and you don't heed warnings to conserve.

redag06 said:

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Anyone know why the "cool" spots on the real time price nodes?

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South Texas wind generation picking up without enough transmission capacity to get it out of the local area most likely. All the fossil generators in the area and surrounding areas were generating at max and probably haven't ramped down fast enough to let all the wind on the system. I would think this would be relatively short lived.

The node at the coal plant down in Victoria is printing negative at the moment as well.

ETA: Those cool spots also don't reflect the real time price adders, so it's misleading.

combat wombat said:

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Like what? We almost never have to turn lights on during the daytime because our house is so bright naturally. It's 77 degrees in the house.

I can afford the price spike. Even if I get $1,000 utility bill this month, it's no sweat. However, if everyone in this state was making the same effort, maybe the system wouldn't be as taxed as it currently is.

Before going on Griddy I was paying $0.19 per kwh year round ( I went too long without comparing prices). I'm pretty sure that at the end of a year my per kilowatt-hour price is going to be less than that. I'm not unhappy. I'm just trying to keep my usage down at peak times. If it's not less than $0.19 per kilowatt hour, I'll find another solution.

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I don't believe residential customers turning things off will have much impact on load or prices. It will be up to the big commercial users to see they are paying the $9000. Many of those contracts are like griddy and based on the RTP + an adder.

tlh3842 said:

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Lol. Yeah, because going to the movies, pool, or the mall are all typical third world country activities you hear about and see on TV.

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Maybe you should turn that ac on just for a little bit. Heat getting to you.

Down to about a buck now

Now 25 cents

One thing I didn't realize before this was that prices don't really start to spike until the afternoon. I assumed before that things went up big time starting during normal business hours but that's not the case at all.

I am adjusting my AC to run cooler for longer and then switch to a higher temp later in the day.

It will be interesting to see how it works out.