Austin elec rates going up fast - why? (Georgetown: apartments, new home)

[LongLiveCassettes]

Originally Posted by Roadking2003

Does anyone know it this is due to the huge investment Austin Electric made in solar panels a year or two ago?

I think they spend $200 million or so, and the cost of solar panel electricity is about 4 times higher than coal or gas generated electricity.

So why are our rates skyrocketing?

To pay for Mr. Weis steak and lobster dinners at Trulucks. Austin "Give us your rich, and yuppie" well send you our poor, low income, and disabled. But knucle heads voted to keep the status quo in office, go figure.

CEO of Austin Energy Weis makes almost $300,000 a year employed by Joe Taxpayer. Banning plastic bags and spending several thousands of dollars was more of a priority. Go to city hall every chance you get, and blast them on wasteful spending, we need more people. Also advocate for the needy, and disabled. A persons voice is powerful when a flock of many show up.

[MonkeyMD]

Love how they added a transporation fee to repair roads. So where are my property taxes going? Seems like double dipping.

[Roadking2003]

Originally Posted by MonkeyMD

Love how they added a transporation fee to repair roads. So where are my property taxes going? Seems like double dipping.

That pales in comparison to the 20% tax increase to pay for the proposed new rail system.

[afterdark80]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

It is partly because they haven't really got up at all for many years. Austin has some of the cheapest electricity in the state.

Also, environmental regulation and the resulting changes/controls have to be paid for, and regardless of whether you are for or against any particular rule, they all cost considerable money.

Uhh, wrong.
If you do the math with Austin Energy, it comes out to $0.12-$0.13 per kWh (assuming a typical 2,000kWh month for a single family home)


Right now, open market Texas electricity rates for renewals (not new customers) can be had anywhere from around $0.095-$0.105, and that's on 12-24 month contracts, even cheaper if you select a shorter contract term; and even lower for "new" customers.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by afterdark80

Uhh, wrong.
If you do the math with Austin Energy, it comes out to $0.12-$0.13 per kWh (assuming a typical 2,000kWh month for a single family home)


Right now, open market Texas electricity rates for renewals (not new customers) can be had anywhere from around $0.095-$0.105, and that's on 12-24 month contracts, even cheaper if you select a shorter contract term; and even lower for "new" customers.

The 'typical' Austin SFH is WAY below 2,000 kWh, and with the tiered structure, the effective rate is much lower. And while I know it is temporary, they have 'waived' the 1,000 kWh+ tier and hold it the same regardless of use during the current pandemic.

People that are on the open market end up paying more (per kWh) if they conserve electricity; so, yeah, if you spend a lot of money using electricity, you save per kwh, but you do not save overall.

Edit: I put our average usage (just under 1,000 kwh/mo for a 2400 sf house) in to 'powertochoose' and got this warning:

Many plans require you to use a minimum amount of electricity each month. If you use less than the minimum amount, you will automatically be charged a fee, sometimes called a "minimum usage charge." This fee may or may not be listed separately on your monthly bill, so it is important to check the electricity facts label for your plan.

Anyway, my average $/kWh was just under $0.11/kWh after taxes and all fees. The PTC does not include taxes and may (hard to know) not include some other fees. I don't have to shop for new plans to keep that rate, worry about fixed, variable, or market. AE kicked in $500 to upgrade my AC and gave me $50 to come haul away my old AC. If I want solar, they will also kick in a couple grand to offset the expense. So, yeah, I probably pay a (very few) extra dollars a month to avoid having to shop providers and worry about not using enough electricity and getting a penalty.

[Trainwreck20]

Here is a snap-shot of the cost for the non-deregulated energy providers in the area for a home using 915 kWh/month (what we used on average for some year, I forget which). Difficult to compare to deregulated, as there are structural idiosyncrasies with most of those and way too many to deal with them. Using an average is not perfect since it is tiered, but is pretty close for anything that doesn't spike too high above ~1,500 kWh.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

The 'typical' Austin SFH is WAY below 2,000 kWh, and with the tiered structure, the effective rate is much lower. And while I know it is temporary, they have 'waived' the 1,000 kWh+ tier and hold it the same regardless of use during the current pandemic.

People that are on the open market end up paying more (per kWh) if they conserve electricity; so, yeah, if you spend a lot of money using electricity, you save per kwh, but you do not save overall.

Edit: I put our average usage (just under 1,000 kwh/mo for a 2400 sf house) in to 'powertochoose' and got this warning:


Anyway, my average $/kWh was just under $0.11/kWh after taxes and all fees. The PTC does not include taxes and may (hard to know) not include some other fees. I don't have to shop for new plans to keep that rate, worry about fixed, variable, or market. AE kicked in $500 to upgrade my AC and gave me $50 to come haul away my old AC. If I want solar, they will also kick in a couple grand to offset the expense. So, yeah, I probably pay a (very few) extra dollars a month to avoid having to shop providers and worry about not using enough electricity and getting a penalty.

Our usage is way higher than 2,000 kWh. We have LED lighting, big trees, and some energy saver appliances but the home was built in 89, code didn't really consider energy conservation. Plus we have a pool. No offense but how would you know that a typical Austin SFH is way below 2k kwh? is there some magical thing in Austin that caps usage at 2k?

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Our usage is way higher than 2,000 kWh. We have LED lighting, big trees, and some energy saver appliances but the home was built in 89, code didn't really consider energy conservation. Plus we have a pool. No offense but how would you know that a typical Austin SFH is way below 2k kwh? is there some magical thing in Austin that caps usage at 2k?

My maximum usage so far this year for a 2.349 sf, 1989 house has been 1,277kwh or $134. Not much shade on the roof and only partial LED lighting. Granted I have added substantial insulation to the attic and solar exhaust fan and paid for a high efficiency HVAC system.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Our usage is way higher than 2,000 kWh. We have LED lighting, big trees, and some energy saver appliances but the home was built in 89, code didn't really consider energy conservation. Plus we have a pool. No offense but how would you know that a typical Austin SFH is way below 2k kwh? is there some magical thing in Austin that caps usage at 2k?

Austin Energy has published the average usage before. I would have to go find it again, but yes, of course there are houses that use more (and use less). A the time they were touting their energy efficiency programs that have been in place for a long, long time and had resulted in the 'average' home on AustinEnergy's grid being notable more efficient than homes that were on the deregulated grid.

Edit: Attached the latest data on average kWh per residential customer.

As an aside, you would NEVER get such information from a publicly traded company

If you live in the AE service area, they have programs with financial subsidies for improving energy efficiency. We have not down the whole-house audit or anything, but their rebate on an upgraded high-efficiency AC unit was not inconsequential.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

My maximum usage so far this year for a 2.349 sf, 1989 house has been 1,277kwh or $134. Not much shade on the roof and only partial LED lighting. Granted I have added substantial insulation to the attic and solar exhaust fan and paid for a high efficiency HVAC system.

We haven't added any insulation and our HVAC systems are 14 seer I think...

Differences are our home is 3700 sq ft, four people in the house now full time, plus a pool. The pool consumes quite a bit of power.

Despite that, our highest bill was 325 bucks this summer.

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Austin Energy has published the average usage before. I would have to go find it again, but yes, of course there are houses that use more (and use less). A the time they were touting their energy efficiency programs that have been in place for a long, long time and had resulted in the 'average' home on AustinEnergy's grid being notable more efficient than homes that were on the deregulated grid.

Edit: Attached the latest data on average kWh per residential customer.

As an aside, you would NEVER get such information from a publicly traded company

If you live in the AE service area, they have programs with financial subsidies for improving energy efficiency. We have not down the whole-house audit or anything, but their rebate on an upgraded high-efficiency AC unit was not inconsequential.

Oh ok. Well I live in a deregulated city, we change our providers every year or 18 months, but the biggest part of the bill is the delivery service ONCOR. AE doesn't use or have any need for ONCOR, so maybe it is less. I still don't understand why usage would be so low. Actually what spikes our bills isn't usage but delivery charges. The delivery charges can eclipse the amount for usage. I've learned that using less doesn't translate into smaller bills.