One of Tarrant County's most important organizations gets an unexpected and unpleasant surprise.
The Tarrant Area Food Bank recently received an electric bill that caused major sticker shock.
"We received an electric bill to the tune of nearly $58,000 for electrical services during the winter vortex," says Julie Butner, president and CEO of the Tarrant Area Food Bank. "Our electric bill normally runs about $5,000 to $6,000 a month for our two buildings."
To add insult to injury, the food bank was without power during the height of the crisis.
"It took us close to 72 hours to get it turned back on," says Butner. "And of course, we have perishable products, so when our electricity was down, we lost food as a result of that."
The TAFB's electric provider is MidAmerican Energy Services, based in Iowa and owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
While some Texas customers got saddled with enormous electric bills because they were on a variable-rate plan, the TAFB is on a fixed-rate plan with MidAmerican.
At issue here, however, are non-energy costs being passed to the customer by MidAmerican.
"Non-energy costs include ancillary costs that are billed by ERCOT and your local utility that distributes the power," MidAmerican states on a special section of its website for Texas customers affected by the arctic blast. "Ancillary costs are determined by ERCOT and your local utility for maintaining the integrity of the electric grid and as such performed rolling outages during the storm event. Ancillary costs are market-driven and can increase significantly during extreme weather events.
"Non-energy costs such as ancillaries are not fixed and are passed through based on changes in the ERCOT tariff rates or market prices," MidAmerican's website continues. "You will see a new line item on your bill, Supplemental Ancillary Charges, for the increase in ancillary rates."
Mike Brasovan, the president of Thigbe LLC, brokered the deals between the TAFB and MidAmerican. He says passing those costs to the customer is unethical.
"During that time when those prices spiked, I guess they didn't have those hedged adequately," says Brasovan, "and they're trying to pass through that variance to the customers."
Butner says the people that the TAFB serves stand to lose the most.
"$56,000 is equivalent to almost 700,000 meals that we would be losing for the community if we have to pay that, if we have to redirect that funding to electrical services," Butner says. "Just really feels very disheartening that this is happening."
Butner says the TAFB has not paid the more than $48,000 in ancillary costs in that bill.
"The food bank is on a fixed budget, and we certainly were not expecting this type of gouging to occur," Butner says, "particularly because we are in a contractual agreement for a fixed rate."
And apparently, the TAFB is not the only MidAmerican customer that this has happened to.
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"There are 16 other organizations," says Butner. "Tarrant Area Food Bank just happens to be one of the largest that have experienced this gouging from MidAmerican."
Brasovan, who also brokered agreements with MidAmerican for the other 16 companies, has filed a formal complaint against MidAmerican to the Public Utility Commission, alleging that it violated the terms of the agreements.
He says it would be in MidAmerican's best interest to forget about the excessive ancillary charges.
"Hopefully, the folks at MidAmerican will come around and realize that they've made a mistake," says Brasovan; "and if they want to participate in this market any further, I think they're going to have to do that."
KRLD has reached out to MidAmerican Energy Services for comment and has yet to hear back.
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