Texas’s largest co-operative power generator filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday as the financial fallout from a winter storm that plunged millions into darkness and sent wholesale electricity prices skyrocketing continued to mount.
Brazos Electric Power Cooperative — a generation and transmission company that serves co-operatives across the state, many of which serve poorer rural areas — said it faced more than $2.1bn in bills for power it bought at surging prices during the storm. The figure was more than three times what it paid in all of 2020.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing was “necessary to protect its member co-operatives and their more than 1.5m retail members from unaffordable electric bills”, said Clifton Karnei, Brazos general manager.