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Since February 14, Texas — the 2nd largest U.S. state by both population and area have been facing frigid conditions amid the Uri Winter Storm. However, this is not the only problem that Texans are facing, as electricity costs reached $17,000 for some residents.

North Texas residents reported that they were shocked by the exorbitant electricity bill amid the freezing days in Texas. For instance, an Arlington resident Ty Williams who didn’t lose power in Wednesday’s power outage said that he received a $17,000 electric bill. Williams is a customer of Griddy — a Huston-based electric utility company.

According to a report by Fox 4 “Griddy gives customers real-time access to the power grid wholesale. Prices were so high this week, they hit a state-imposed cap. Griddy urged their customers late last week to switch companies before the storm because of a high price forecast.” 

“Unless you’re in a variable rate plan, you should not see a change in your energy rate. When it comes time for a new contract, we may see higher prices.” the Fox report continued.

Williams said that he tried to conserve as much electricity as possible, but the cost was still excessive. He added that he repeatedly tried to switch from Griddy but still failed to do so. 

“How in the world can anyone pay that?” Williams said of his large bill. “I mean you go from a couple hundred dollars a month…there’s absolutely no way…it makes no sense.”

Meanwhile, Griddy explained the sky-high prices and responded, “We intend to fight this for, and alongside, our customers for equity and accountability – to reveal why such price increases were allowed to happen as millions of Texans went without power.”

Texans filed lawsuits against Energy Committee

In the last few days, 3 million Texans lost power and over 30 people lost their lives because of the freezing conditions including 10 hypothermia deaths. Additionally, Texans reported that they're lacking clean drinking water and heat. As a result, angry Texans filed lawsuits against the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, seeking $10 million in damages. 

In a tweet on Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott said, “As of this afternoon there are no residential power outages due to lack of power generation,” and urged those without power to contact their providers.