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Energy

Austin Energy has wire problems

Austin Energy’s poles are overcrowding. Providers of telephone, cable and internet services have a right under state law to attach their wires to city-owned utility poles (at a nominal $10 fee), but a dramatic increase in the number of attachments…

Federal grant offers Austin chance to be leader in solar energy storage

Staff at Austin’s city-run utility is using millions of dollars of federal funds to explore new energy storage methods that will allow utility customers to receive more of their energy from renewable sources, particularly solar power. Austin Energy is one…

Expert outlines AE cost-of-service recovery options

As City Council deliberates over changing electricity rates, it is tasked not only with deciding how much to change rates for residential and commercial customers of the city-owned utility but with deciding whether the city should change the way it…

23 groups get involved in Austin Energy rate review

Austin Energy is assuring the public that new electricity rates will be determined with plenty of input from stakeholders. Twenty-three individuals and groups representing the interests of various segments of the utility’s customer base have signed on as “intervenors” in…

Recommendations aimed at reducing energy costs for poor move to Council

City Council is a step closer to acting on a series of recommendations made by a task force aimed at reducing energy costs for poor and near-poor Austinites. But Carol Biedrzycki, who chaired the Low Income Consumer Advisory Task Force…

AE to Council: Cut commercial customers' rates

Mark Dreyfus, Austin Energy’s vice president of Regulatory Affairs & Corporate Communications, told City Council on Monday that the utility’s proposed new rates are a “good news story.” The utility’s proposal seeks to reduce base electric rates by $17.4 million…

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Customers seek changes in AE rate case

An unusual coalition of consumers has written to City Council to request that it slow down the proposed schedule for Austin Energy’s upcoming rate case. In addition, the consumers – including semiconductor giants Samsung and NXP as well as the…

Prehearing held in Austin Energy rate review

Austin Energy stakeholders provided feedback Thursday in a prehearing on the rules of a legal proceeding that will kick off later this month as part of the utility’s ongoing rate review. Attorney Alfred Herrera, the impartial hearings examiner in the…

Arguments made in consumer advocate hearing

A Thursday afternoon hearing likely brought the city one step closer to hiring an independent consumer advocate for the ongoing Austin Energy rate review. Attorney Stephen Webb, the independent hearings officer for the case, heard arguments from representatives of Oxford…

Consumer advocate hearing to take place today

As Austin Energy moves forward on a rate review, one puzzle piece remains missing – an independent consumer advocate for smaller customers. That piece may soon come closer to falling into place. On Dec. 14, the sole remaining bidder for…

Austin Energy reveals cost-of-service findings

As the city begins to re-examine its electric rate structure for the first time since 2012, Austin Energy staff revealed the preliminary results of its internal cost-of-service analysis at an Electric Utility Commission meeting on Dec. 14. In short, Austin…

Austin Energy waste contract extension in doubt

City Council members Ora Houston and Don Zimmerman voiced their objections at Tuesday’s work session to a 12-month extension of the contract between the city and Republic Services Inc. for hauling industrial waste from Austin Energy to the Waste Management…

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