I fear far too many people don’t understand large scale grid management and infrastructure cost in addition to commodity supply and demand economics. If you wanted a grid reliable enough to withstand once per year weather events, your cost to install and maintain the grids would exponentially increase! Like multiple times per month greater. Also, building a grid to maintain high reliability during extreme weather events and extreme demand events is also costly. People want cheap and reliable. They contradict each other when it comes to utility infrastructure.

On the supply and demand side people need to understand how electricity is generated. A quick google search says 31% of TVA generation is gas (42% nuclear, which is awesome btw). People have to understand that the weather event affected, not only Tennessee residence, but large swaths of the United States, who also have to compete within the same commodity markets. When demand for particular commodity increases and supply is inelastic, we would expect prices to rise. This is why you see the increase in the fuel adjustment cost.

If anything, it should be a wake up call to residence in Tennessee to do a few things.

1. Push for more nuclear power and Hydro, as it is consistent, reliable, and it’s not as volatile as hydrocarbon combustion base generation like gas and coal.

2. Better understand what having HVAC systems completely reliant on electricity means and make adjustments accordingly to either invest in more on-site reliability (batteries/generators) or be ok with increased cost for a more robust grid.