Austin Energy Cutting Residents a Discount
Having suckled at the teet of local residents more than adequately this year, Austin Energy's spitting out a little back next year.
Starting January 1st, Austin Energy will cut electricity rates for "most users" by a hefty 8 percent. From Austin Business Journal:
The move comes after the city-owned utility earned more than it expected in November when warm weather caused power users to turn up the AC when they ordinarily would've just opened the windows.Austin Energy spokesman Ed Clark says that, combined with better natural gas prices, have enabled the utility to more closely meet its year-long cost projections and balance the books.
"You try to end up at about zero," he says.
The new fuel rate is expected to be 3.343 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from this year's 3.634 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Meanwhile--and we probably missed this entirely when it first came out--the community-owned electric utility recently teamed up with the Austin History Center to create a nifty photo exhibit entitled "Austin Beginnings," which you can check out below:
We also recently took advantage of their Power Partner free thermostat program, and we're pleased as pie with the results: in exchange for letting them briefly cycle off your air conditioner at peak demand hours during the summer, they'll provide a free programmable thermostat including installation and warranty. This year, they sent out cycling signals about nine times total to the roughly 60,000 thermostats already installed around Austin -- not a whole lot of impact on the individual household, but a big difference overall.
