Austin Energy dialing in to climate protection plan

After pausing to rethink its approach, Austin Energy is revisiting its update to the 2030 Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan with a series of workshops set to begin next month.

The first of four workshops, scheduled for June 7 at the utility’s Mueller headquarters, will focus on the fundamentals, bringing newly participating stakeholders up to speed on utility basics and the framework of the existing generation plan. While the meeting will be open to the public, participation will be invite-only, limited to a panel of interest groups that Austin Energy says will bring a more diverse set of priorities to the table.

The plan, which charts a course for the next five years as Austin Energy juggles its clean energy goals alongside its task of managing growing demand for energy, has been mired in controversy since the utility circulated a draft update last November. Particularly unpopular was its proposal of a new hydrogen-capable combined cycle power plant to weather the system’s growing pains, a move environmentalists criticized for reinforcing the utility’s dependence on natural gas as it barrels toward the 2035 deadline for carbon neutrality.

Austin Energy has since switched gears, hiring mediation specialist Lynda Rife to break the impasse. Rife says her workshops will bring together stakeholders from myriad backgrounds, listing environmentalist groups, housing advocates, manufacturers, small businesses, hospitals and student and senior groups as examples, though the list of participants has yet to be finalized. Guest appearances by engineer and author Michael Webber are also slated to provide additional expertise. 

Unfortunately for the city’s Electric Utility Commission, the new approach comes at the cost of precious time. As the timeline for a new draft plan inches closer toward late fall, commissioners are concerned the scramble may prove too tight a turnaround for Council’s packed end-of-year agenda, which could delay the plan’s approval into 2025.

It has proved a challenging start to the decade for Austin Energy, which within the last four years has reckoned with a global pandemic, multiple climate disasters, record-shattering temperatures and now industrywide inflation. The wild ride has meant a continuous dipping into reserves, leaving the utility precariously out of compliance with its 150 days minimum cash on hand standards since 2022.

“As of the end of March, we have about 117 days cash on hand, which translates into about a $90 million shortfall,” Rusty Maenius, Austin Energy senior vice president and chief financial officer, said at last Monday’s Electric Utility Commission meeting. “We’ve seen some improvement in our cash position mostly thanks to base rate increases and some power supply adjustment recovery … but, quite frankly, inflation is outpacing our growth in revenues. … Drive poles, transformers and conductors are two to three times what we paid for them in 2021.”

These pressures are undoubtedly bubbling under the surface of ongoing talks, particularly as the utility struggles to maintain affordability and grid resilience on its path toward a cleaner generation profile.

Those interested in the ongoing saga are welcome to listen in to Austin Energy’s upcoming workshop from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, June 7, which will take place at the Shudde Fath Conference Room on the first floor of its headquarters at 4815 Mueller Blvd.

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