CoServ Electric customers will be paying back the debt that was incurred during February 2021’s Winter Storm Uri for a long time.
The average residential customer will see an increase of about $7.70 per month starting in January, according to the Denton County electric co-op.
During Winter Storm Uri, outages at several of the generation plants owned by CoServ’s electric power supplier, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, resulted in Brazos not being able to meet its obligations.
As a result, Brazos had to purchase power at high prices to replace the power that normally would have been supplied by its generation plants at up to $9,000 per megawatt hour. In comparison, Texas averaged $22 per MWH in 2020. The $1.9 billion price tag led to Brazos filing for bankruptcy in March 2021.
As part of the bankruptcy reorganization plan filed by Brazos this past August, all member-cooperatives are required to pay their final Uri power costs after the court approves the plan.
The Texas Legislature enacted Senate Bill 1580 in May 2021 which allows electric cooperatives to utilize a financing mechanism called securitization to pay the expenses from Uri. On Wednesday, the CoServ Board of Directors adopted a financing order that allows CoServ to spread the costs and expenses out over 25 years.
A copy of the approved Financing Order and more information can be found at CoServ.com/Brazos.
