(Bloomberg) -- Skyrocketing electricity prices in Texas are creating a financial windfall for power generators able to supply energy during the unprecedented cold spell. For companies unable to deliver, losses may be monumental.

Power sold on Texas’s main grid likely totaled $10 billion on Monday based on extraordinary high prices and demand, according to Wade Schauer, research director of Americas power and renewables at Wood Mackenzie. It may end up being higher after the Public Utility Commission of Texas moved to raise some prices to reflect scarcity.

“A lot of generators will make more than a year’s typical revenue just yesterday and today,” said Nicholas Steckler, a power-markets analyst at BloombergNEF.

The most likely winners are going to be generators whose plants didn’t fail and can sell power at $9,000 a megawatt-hour, the price cap in Texas.

“In the past five years, if generators could get several hours of scarcity in the summer, they were on their way to a good result for the year,” Steckler said. “Now, we’re talking days -- days of full scarcity.”

But for generators whose plants shut down due to frozen instruments, limited natural gas supplies or icing, losses could be substantial. Similarly, retail electricity providers unable to fulfill their commitment will be forced to buy power on the spot market at inflated prices, and sell it at one-tenth of the cost, said Andy DeVries, a power analyst at CreditSights.

“The retailers are screwed,” he said. “I bet you see numerous bankruptcies.”

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