Step 1 would likely be to use your smartphone app to set your Internet enabled thermostat down to its lowest setting, probably 55F. High enough that the pipes don't freeze, but low enough to save energy. Probably not cooking anything either unless you have a gas grill. Definitely not plugging in the electric car. If this happens during the middle of summer then you turn the A/C off and hope the house can coast for the rest of the day without melting anything. At least in the summer you can grill outside.

But honestly, it boggles my mind that anybody would opt for these sorts of power plans with effectively unlimited downside and fairly marginal upside. Who wants this kind of stress in their life? Doesn't Texas already have pretty cheap power thanks to all of the wind and deregulation? Isn't that why they are in this mess in the first plate?

I suppose I’d have to call a neighbor. But the vast majority of my energy costs happen when I’m home in the form of ac & appliance use.

The text is triggered if retail rates go above 14c per kWh for more than 30 minutes. That’s about 7x our normal peak rate.

Last week saw the highest prices I’ve seen going up to 40c at one point.

I’ll also note that I’m on budget billing which normalizes monthly fluctuations. No idea what the agreement is in the case of one of these tail events but I suspect it involves lots of publicity and regulators.