[AnthonyMouse]

"In addition to the rolling blackouts" still implies rolling blackouts. If you have rolling blackouts at all then people pay $4000 instead of $9000 and there is that much less incentive for anyone to have built adequate capacity.

Also, this:

> And as blackouts spread across the state, power was cut not only to homes and businesses but to the compressor stations that power natural gas pipelines — further cutting off the flow of supplies to power plants.

Regulatory action exacerbates supply shortage; market blamed.

[cratermoon]

What regulatory action are you talking about? Grid operators cut power to keep the system from failing catastrophically as the generating power available dropped and the frequency dipped from the desired 60hz to 59.93hz and falling. Nobody running the system needed a regulator to tell them to shut down power.

[AnthonyMouse]

"Grid operators" are the regulators. They're the people the government by statute gives regulatory authority over the grid.

The alternative to forcefully disconnecting people is to get people to volunteer because the prices for not doing so are higher they want to pay.

It's plausible that they had an information problem that should be addressed, i.e. people didn't realize that they're paying dollars rather than cents per kWh and correspondingly didn't cut usage. Maybe some kind of messaging system where everyone gets a text message estimating their monthly electric bill at their current usage and price, causing tons of people to say "oh crap" and go do something about it.

[mindslight]

Or recognize that inelastic demand meeting inelastic supply can only produce a terrible price signal, and have a capacity market like every other grid operator.