ERCOT to Brazos Electric: ‘I Just Do What I’m Told. Now Pay Me My $2 Billion.’

ERCOT, operator of the Texas electric grid, says it was just following orders when it charged Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc. roughly $2 billion for power and related services provided during the deadly storm in February — a staggering bill that drove Brazos, the state’s largest and oldest electric cooperative, into bankruptcy.

In a motion filed last week, ERCOT said it had no choice but to jack up the wholesale price of electricity to as much as $9,000 per megawatt-hour — or 300 times the normal rate — during the storm. The motion seeks dismissal of a complaint by Brazos challenging ERCOT’s claim for just under $1.9 billion in Brazos’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Brazos filed its complaint Aug. 18 in an adversary proceeding.