Welcome to your deregulated "free market", Texas. Don't want to be tied to government regulation? Guess you get to pay more or cook...or freeze. Your choice by season.
It's not a coincidence that Texas is a hotbed of development for "microgrid" systems to cover for when ERCOT shits the bed -- and of course all those systems are made up of diesel and natural gas generator farms, because Texans don't want any of that communist solar power!
I've got family in Texas who love it there for some reason, but there's almost no amount of money you could pay me to move there. Bad enough when I have to work on projects in the state -- contrary to the popular narrative, in my personal opinion it's a worse place than California to try and build something, and that's entirely to do with the personalities that seem to gravitate to positions of power there. I'd much rather slog through the bureaucracy in Cali than tiptoe around a tinpot dictator in the planning department.
I live in Texas and have already received 2 notices this spring to conserve electricity. It has barely hit 90, and they aren't able to keep up with demand.
They get the same weather reports we have access to, up to 14-21 days, yet they can't/won't anticipate demand?
Bookmarking this for the next time white supremacists here in good ole' South Africa peddles the "privatisation is the only thing that will fix our electricity problems!" bullcrap.
Texas indeed has been blessed with much sunlight to make solar energy quite viable. This includes solar hot water heaters, and many trees to grow with vigour and bio-filtrate.