Electricity retailer Entrust Energy Inc. sought chapter 11 protection Tuesday as the latest corporate bankruptcy stemming from last month’s extreme weather events in Texas, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Entrust’s chapter 11 papers listed a disputed $270 million bill from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator at the center of the state’s energy crisis. Houston-based Entrust is among many municipal utilities, electric cooperatives and electricity retailers facing huge bills from Ercot for power they bought at vastly elevated prices during the cold snap in Texas last month. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc., the state’s largest energy cooperative, was the first to file for chapter 11 after being overwhelmed with invoices. Energy retailers Just Energy Group Inc., Griddy Energy LLC and Brilliant Energy LLC also declared bankruptcy. Others have indicated they are in financial distress, are disputing the bills or need to borrow to pay Ercot, which allowed electricity prices to soar to the maximum level of $9,000 per megawatt hour, compared with the average price of roughly $22 last year, in an effort to get power generators to supply power amid widespread blackouts and equipment failures. Ercot cut off Entrust from the state power market after the company failed to make required payments and transferred its customers elsewhere, according to an Ercot notice. Rhythm, a renewable energy provider, said earlier this month it had acquired Entrust’s Texas customers as well as those of another retailer, Power of Texas Holdings Inc. totaling 40,000 residential and 10,000 commercial users.
