Texas Spot Power Prices Jump Almost 100-Fold on Tight Supply (1)

Texas electricity prices soared almost 100-fold as a high number of power-plant outages raised concerns of a potential evening shortfall.

Spot prices at the North Hub, which includes Dallas, jumped to more than $3,000 a megawatt-hour just before 7 p.m. local time, versus about $32 at the same time Tuesday, according to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

This morning, Ercot, as the state’s main grid operator is known, issued a “watch” for a potential capacity reserve shortage from about 7-9 p.m., meaning the buffer of spare supplies could fall to low enough levels to call on back-up ...