A judge overseeing the bankruptcy of the largest electric co-op in Texas on Wednesday shut down certain arguments that the state's electric grid operator was looking to make in a legal brawl with the co-op over a nearly $2 billion bill stemming from a historic winter storm last year, Reuters reported. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones in Houston issued his ruling ahead of a February trial over the $1.9 billion claim the Electric Reliability Council of Texas filed in Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc's chapter 11 case. The judge held that some of the arguments ERCOT tried to raise to defend its claim weren't relevant to the immediate issue. Brazos filed for bankruptcy in March 2021 after being hit with the energy bill from ERCOT. The bill for the seven-day storm is nearly three times the co-op’s total power cost from 2020, which was $774 million, according to Brazos. For several days during the storm, ERCOT set electricity prices at $9,000 per megawatt hour, around 500 times the usual rate. In August, the co-op filed a lawsuit as part of its bankruptcy objecting to ERCOT’s $1.9 billion claim and aiming to substantially reduce the amount, arguing that the charges are "exorbitant and excessive." ERCOT, in response, said Brazos purchased energy it knew it couldn’t afford and failed to comply with agreements under their market participation contract. Additionally, ERCOT said Brazos was partly at fault for not properly preparing its facilities for severe winter weather. But Judge Jones held that those issues “have nothing to do with the proceeding." A trial on the dispute is set to begin on Feb. 21.
