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 in the past five years has led to concerns about companies making improper attachments that […]
Energy
Posted inEnergy
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 of six public and private entities to have received grants as part of the federal […]
Posted inEnergy
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 charges for power. On Monday, the Council Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee – which comprises […]
Posted inEnergy
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 the process, according to Mark Dreyfus, vice president of regulatory affairs and corporate communications for […]
Posted inEnergy
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 and is a member of the Electric Utility Commission, says the recommendations that have been […]
Posted inEnergy
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 – with commercial customers getting all of the reduction. The utility is also recommending adjustments […]
Posted inEnergy, Resources
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 Sierra Club, Public Citizen, Texas Legal Services Center, a Barton Creek property owners association and […]
Posted inEnergy
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 proceeding, said he would take into account the feedback he heard when providing his opinion […]
Posted inEnergy
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 Advisors LLC and the city about whether the energy consultant firm violated the city’s Anti-Lobbying […]
Posted inEnergy
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 the job brought a protest against the city for its disqualification after an alleged anti-lobbying […]
Posted inEnergy
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 Energy staff found that rates for its residential and small commercial classes of customers are […]
Posted inEnergy
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 Inc. landfill in Northeast Austin. Austin Energy needs a hauler for its Class 2 nonhazardous […]