Austin Energy assisting more customers with utility bills

Austin Energy has exceeded its initial target for enrolling new customers in the utility’s Customer Assistance Program, according to Austin Energy General Manager Bob Kahn.

Last week, Kahn sent a memo to Mayor Kirk Watson and City Council detailing the utility’s progress in signing up customers for assistance paying utility bills, as well as in weatherization programs. The Customer Assistance Program also offers emergency financial assistance for people who are medically vulnerable and low-income customers who need help managing their debt to the utility.

Austin Energy can lower those customers’ bills because other customers pay a surcharge on their utility bills to help out the Customer Assistance Program.

As Kahn pointed out in his memo, the utility in November established a goal of expanding the program to 46 percent of eligible customers – or 42,780 households – by June. “Austin Energy is pleased to report that its planned expansion measures have exceeded the first of three targets, with June enrollments reaching over 53,100 accounts,” he wrote. “Customers not previously enrolled in the program have received a letter explaining the discounts and will realize savings with their next billing cycle.”

The next ambitious goal for the utility is to enroll 72 percent of the eligible population in the discount program by June 2024. And after that, the utility hopes to enroll 90 percent of those who qualify by June 2025.

Council Member Leslie Pool, who chairs Council’s Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee, told the Austin Monitor, “This is good news from Austin Energy. Expanding participation in (the) discount program is a goal of the Council, and I’m pleased to see this clear progress. Staff will continue to assess appropriate quality controls to ensure benefits reach eligible customers, and I look forward to additional progress reports.”

In order to reach those goals, Austin Energy has started having discussions with its Discount Steering Committee on how to enroll more eligible utility users.

The utility also has requested data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to determine whether people not currently included in the discount auto-enrollment group might be eligible. That group includes people who participate in Medicaid, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and several other programs.

Matthew Mitchell, an Austin Energy spokesperson, said that “95 percent of our customers are automatically enrolled into the discount program if they are on the state rosters of one of the entitlement programs.” A third-party vendor, Solix, performs an income screening for the remaining share of customers.

Kahn wrote that Austin Energy also has started plans for a data-sharing arrangement with local housing authorities, as well as the Public Utility Commission’s Light Up Program. And finally, Austin Energy is “exploring how to ensure households with students in the free and reduced lunch programs are receiving discount benefits,” beginning with a partnership with the Austin Independent School District, according to the memo.

Kahn wrote that Austin Energy would continue its efforts in future years, applying lessons learned from current programs to form partnerships with other school districts and community partners.

Not forgetting about criticism that Austin Energy received in the past for insufficient income verification, Kahn wrote that “screening processes remain in place for secondary income verification when customers owned homes above the threshold value or appear to own multiple properties. Austin Energy plans to regularly review quality controls to ensure benefits reach eligible customers; these efforts will be ongoing as the program evolves and continue through the stabilization phase.”

However, Paul Robbins, a consumer advocate and frequent critic of the Customer Assistance Program, told the Monitor via email, “Austin Energy has changed the threshold for people that own upscale homes to be required to income qualify, and the utility has done this in a non-transparent way. It used to be a set $250,000 improvement value limit.” Anything above that threshold would disqualify them, Robbins wrote. He said that customers would theoretically have to prove that they had an income of 200 percent or less of poverty guidelines and pointed to flaws in the process previously found by the Office of the City Auditor.

Robbins wrote that the utility’s language around Customer Assistance Program eligibility is difficult to understand. He cited Austin Energy’s current description:

“Customers who are otherwise eligible will be removed from the discount program if (1) the customer’s current appraisal-district homesite improvement value exceeds the qualification threshold established by Austin Energy pursuant to this schedule, and household income is greater than 200 percent of the FPIL guidelines; or (2) the customer owns two or more properties within the Austin Energy service territory, and household income is greater than 200 percent of the FPIL guidelines.

“Annually, upon release of certified appraisal information by the Travis Central Appraisal District, Austin Energy shall calculate the homesite improvement value qualification threshold by adding to the prior year’s mean homesite improvement value (MHIV) a factor calculated by multiplying the prior year’s MHIV by the mean of the prior five years’ annual percentage change in MHIV. In either situation, the eligible customer must provide sufficient information to enable Austin Energy to verify that the household income is at or below 200 percent of the FPIL guidelines.”

Photo by Loadmaster (David R. Tribble), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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