A number of concerned citizens gathered to speak at the Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee meeting Monday morning to express their frustration with Austin Energy’s updated Resource, Generation, and Climate Protection Plan. While the updated plan, which was written by a 16-member working group organized by the Electric Utility Commission, suggests a goal for renewables […]
Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee
The Austin City Council committee on Austin Energy was created in May 2013 to provide oversight of the city’s electric utility. It’s creation was marked by political maneuvering that ultimately resulted in a committee comprised of every member of the Austin City Council.
Posted inEnergy
Austin Energy defends demand charge for small biz
Shudde Fath, the legendary advocate for ratepayers, wants Austin Energy to change the way it charges certain small businesses for their electricity. In a January letter to Mayor Steve Adler and City Council members, the longtime member of the Electric Utility Commission wrote that she hoped that the utility would roll back a change from […]
Posted inResources
City utilities devise plan to help with unpaid bills
Austin’s two city-owned utilities are teaming up to help some of the city’s most indebted customers catch up on unpaid bills. Beginning this summer, the joint effort between Austin Energy and Austin Water will target 543 customers who participate in AE’s low-income customer assistance program and owe between $1,750 and $3,000 to the utilities. Those […]
Posted inEnergy
Austin Energy makes good on energy efficiency goals
Austin Energy officials say the city-owned utility is making good on a lot of the ambitious energy efficiency goals set out for it in the Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan approved by City Council in December 2014. Thirty-one percent of the energy Austinites consume now comes from renewable sources, up from 25 percent when […]
Posted inEnergy
Oversight committee discusses making city carbon-free by 2030
“Can Austin be a carbon-free energy city by 2030?” was one of the more prominent questions up for debate Wednesday as the City Council’s Energy Utility Oversight Committee got its first update on the 10-year road map for Austin Energy’s resource needs and climate protection objectives. The discussion came during a presentation from Khalil Shalabi, […]
Posted inEnergy
Austin Energy gears up for smarter smart meters
Nearly a decade after rolling out smart meters for all of its electric customers, Austin Energy is planning another citywide meter upgrade. At a Monday meeting of the Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee, AE General Manager Jackie Sargent told City Council members that the utility would ask Council next month to approve a $29.1 million […]
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
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 inPremium Types
TipSheet: This week’s Council committees
As the Austin Monitor does weekly, we invite you to join our ongoing effort to keep readers up to date with all that is going on at City Hall by providing a tip sheet for City Council committees. As usual, we will be offering highlights of meetings, with links to entire agendas. Austin Energy Utility […]
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 […]