Genie Energy continues to serve its 10,000 customers across Texas with no change in their rates under their current agreements despite the unprecedented price volatility in real-time electricity prices last week.
Michael Stein, Genie’s CEO, commented, “First and foremost, our heart goes out to the many people across Texas who have suffered because of the extraordinarily severe weather this winter and particularly in the last week. We applaud the emergency services personnel who helped many Texans in need during this difficult period.
“Our retail supply business in Texas, Southern Federal Power, continues to provide electricity to customers with no change in rates, as it did throughout the extraordinary market conditions last week. Although real time costs climbed to levels that were well over 100 times the rates we charge our customers, we take very seriously our obligation to provide our customers with supply at the agreed upon fixed rates.
“Genie Energy had a robust commodity price risk management strategy in place to mitigate the financial impacts of price spikes, and our seasoned customer service team worked diligently with customers throughout the disruption. In that regard, we thank the thousands of customers who consulted with us over the past week. Our team provided our customers with hundreds of thousands of dollars in incentives and rewards to lower their consumption and reduce strain on the grid during the crisis,” Mr. Stein concluded.
Management continues to evaluate the financial impacts of the severe weather event in Texas. Its current estimate is that the impact on its consolidated, company-wide profitability for the first quarter of 2021 will be modest. The company expects to provide a full account of the impact when it announces its quarterly results.
