Brilliant Energy LLC filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas, adding to a growing list of companies that have stumbled after power outages caused by a winter freeze in February.
The electricity provider has estimated liabilities of $50 million to $100 million compared with assets of $10 million to $50 million, according to its Chapter 7 filing Tuesday.
At their peak, the unprecedented outages left four million homes and businesses without heat, light and in some cases water as a rare and powerful winter storm gripped the region, causing as much as $129 billion in economic losses. Dozens of people died in the cold.
Brilliant Energy is at least the fourth firm to seek bankruptcy protection in the wake of the Texas freeze, underscoring the crushing financial pressure the outages have put on power companies in the state. The market faces a more-than $3 billion shortfall as more than a dozen companies can’t pay their bills.
— With assistance by Nicole Bullock, and Joe Ryan -Bloomberg