City Council members didn’t have a whole lot to say on Monday during their first hearing regarding the electricity rates that Austin Energy, the city-owned electric utility, has proposed for the next five years. Convened as the Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee (a committee of the full Council), they sat, for the most part, silent […]
Energy
Posted inEnergy
Some AE customers propose rate case settlement
Austin Energy’s two largest customers, Samsung and NXP, have teamed up with advocates for residential and low-income consumers, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and the city’s two largest hospital networks to propose a settlement of the utility’s currently pending rate case. They have proposed a $55.9 million base rate reduction, with approximately 43 percent […]
Posted inEnergy
Environmental groups demand that Austin Energy ditch coal plant
Two environmental groups say that Austin Energy, the city-owned utility, is ignoring an important sustainability goal set for it by City Council. Public Citizen and Sierra Club, which are intervening jointly in the Austin Energy rate review, argue that it’s time for the utility to take serious steps toward retiring the Fayette Power Project coal […]
Posted inEnergy
AE proposes raising residential service charge
The independent consumer advocate that the city hired to represent the interests of Austin residents and small businesses as it reviews electricity rates is crying foul. John Coffman, who heads the advocate team, accuses Austin Energy, the city-owned utility, of surprising the team with a change to its rate proposal that will increase costs for […]
Posted inEnergy
City to consider new building standards to encourage efficiency, solar power
The city of Austin is poised to update its energy code to comply with the latest edition of the International Energy Conservation Code. “It’s really very, very modest,” said Debbie Kimberly, vice president of customer energy solutions for Austin Energy, in an interview with the Austin Monitor Thursday. Her emphasis on that point was ostensibly […]
Posted inEnergy, Uncategorized
Little support for reducing utility transfers
At the end of Wednesday’s City Council budget work session about transfers from Austin Energy and Austin Water to the city’s General Fund, Chief Financial Officer Elaine Hart asked Council members to weigh in on whether they support continuing the transfers as they are or if they want to see a reduction. There seemed to […]
Posted inEnergy
Updated: Austin Energy puts new gas plant on hold
Austin Energy has put a hold on plans to construct a massive new natural gas plant, to the delight of environmental activists. The utility has determined that the estimated $500 million investment in a new plant would likely be a bad bet because of how low gas prices have dropped in the two years since […]
Posted inCity Hall
Sargent to lead Austin Energy
City Manager Marc Ott announced Thursday that he has hired Jacqueline Sargent, the general manager and CEO of the Platte River Power Authority in Fort Collins, Colorado, as general manager of Austin Energy. Sargent, 55, has nearly 30 years of experience in the electrical utility industry, including two years overseeing power supply and market operations […]
Posted inEnergy
Consumer advocate: Austin Energy should lower rates for residents
Austin Energy should lower electricity rates for average Austinites, says the independent consumer advocate hired by the city to respond to the rates proposed by the city-owned utility. In testimony Monday to the Electric Utility Commission, Clarence Johnson, the expert witness for the consumer advocate team, said that residential customers and small businesses should get […]
Posted inEnergy
Some AE panelists reject all manager finalists
Three of eight members of an informal citizen advisory group that was created by Mayor Steve Adler and City Council members Leslie Pool and Sheri Gallo to weigh in on finalists for the Austin Energy general manager job have indicated that they would choose Jacqueline Sargent of the Platte River Power Authority in Fort Collins, […]
Posted inEnergy
Citizens panel to consider AE finalists
Eight more pairs of eyes will be scrutinizing the four finalists for general manager of Austin Energy in meetings scheduled for today. City Council members Leslie Pool and Sheri Gallo along with Mayor Steve Adler chose representatives from the community to serve on the Austin Energy community panel, with the approval of City Manager Marc […]
Posted inEnergy
Controversial pilot energy programs don’t make it far
Austin Energy planned to run three pilot programs this year aimed at finding new ways for the city’s ratepayers to pay for electricity, but so far those programs haven’t gained much traction. One of the programs was designed to test the employment of “time of use” rates. Under this system, customers would pay more for […]