The 'independent' market monitor who has been investigating the events surrounding the Texas blackouts of February 2011 has released his report. You can find it at this link.
The short summary is that there was no market manipulation and everything is just peachy.
and, apparently, price spikes and power blackouts were an intentional part of the system. The price spikes draw in outside investors who want to make money (off of you). The blackouts were just an unintended side effect but they helped in getting those investors in there (to make the electric grid more stable and cost less dontcha know).
quote from report:
In summary, alternative mechanisms exist for ensuring long-term resource adequacy in competitive electricity markets. In most organized electricity markets, a form of capacity market has been implemented to achieve this objective. In the ERCOT market, the energy-only approach has been implemented. The energy-only approach is designed to allow energy prices to rise significantly higher during shortage conditions such that an efficient price signal is provided for supply and demand resources in the short-term, as well as signaling the longer-term need new supply and demand side investments. During non-shortage conditions (i.e., more than 99 percent of the time), the expectation of competitive energy market outcomes is no different in energy-only than in capacity markets. Although reserve shortage conditions (and the associated price spikes) are only expected to occur during a small percentage of the hours in a year, such market outcomes are a critical component of the energy-only market design, and an energy-only market design without efficient shortage pricing is not sustainable over the long-term.
This is what I keep trying to tell Republicans. The free market approach is designed to make all citizens pay more out of pocket. The assumption is that 'blood in the water' attracts sharks. and it does.
Regulation is for people. De regulation is for corporations.