Dive Brief:
- Texas lawmakers have introduced a proposal that would potentially free Austin Energy's larger customers to shop for electric service from alternate providers, the Austin American-Statesman reports.
- Currently the municipal utility has a monopoly on service in Austin, but under the proposed bills customers who use more than 25 million kWh annually could petition state regulators for authorization to shop around for cheaper power.
- The utility cannot afford to renew larger customers' power contracts at cheaper rates, and critics of the proposal say it could wind up crippling Austin Energy's finances.
Dive Insight:
The Austin American-Statesman reports on two proposals which could impact the city's municipal utility. As low-cost power contracts roll off for larger customers, some could wind up paying millions more for power each year.
Bills introduced by state Sen. Troy Fraser (R) and Rep. Paul Workman (R) would allow the utility's largest customers to petition the Public Utility Commission to take service from another provider. Workman's proposal would reportedly also impact the utility's general fund and the way its operations are financed.
Austin Energy is the nation's eighth largest publicly-owned electric utility, serving more than 420,000 customers and more than 1 million residents. The utility has a service area of over 437 square miles, serving all of Austin and Travis County, as well as 15 square miles of Williamson County. About half of the service area is outside the City of Austin.
The utility is currently working on the first community solar project in Texas tied to a utility-scale battery storage system. Austin Energy is developing a project to begin delivering 2.3 MW of community solar power into its localized distribution grid with a 1.6 MW battery system providing storage at an adjacent substation to save the solar energy for when the sun doesn’t shine.
