Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has Plans to Stop the Next “Texas Power Crisis”

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Warren Buffet CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
Warren Buffet CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

Billionaire and legendary investor Warren Buffett prepared a plan to prevent Texas from suffering another power crisis. He did so while making billions of dollars in profit. Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, plans to create a new company. This one will be under the name the Texas Emergency Power Reserve, said a report by the Dallas Morning News.

Last month, Texans lost access to power in their homes amid the freezing conditions. The Uri winter storm left 4 millions of Texas residents with no electricity, food or water, causing over 100 deaths, and more than 11 deaths because of hypothermia.

Buffett’s Berkshire reserve announced it will be investing around $8.3 billion in new power generation. The company plans to build 10 power plants across Texas by Nov. 2023. As an exit plan, Berkshire’s reserve will provide a week’s worth of natural-gas powered storage in case of any disruptions.

The described plan would add over 10 gigawatts of generation to Texas’ electricity grid. This means it will be 50% of the supply cut off last month, said Chris Brown, the CEO of Berkshire’s energy-infrastructure unit in an interview with Dallas Morning News. Mr. Brown explained the proposal is like a “blackout insurance”. Berkshire is the owner of several insurance firms such as National Indemnity and Geico.

Berkshire to get a %9.3 annual return from the project

The conglomerate announced it will allocate $4 billion guarantee to the program. In other words, Texas would benefit from the sum if the plan fails to deliver what it promised. Nonetheless, Texas residents will be funding the energy project by paying higher energy bills the same way regulated utilities recoup their infrastructure expenses.