North - Northwest Austin | September 2023

BY BEN THOMPSON & KATY MCAFEE

Austin Energy charge increase coming in October Austin Energy customers can expect to see their power bills increase slightly beginning in October, a change utility ocials attributed to “extraordinarily high” electricity costs spurred by this summer’s record heat. This is ahead of a separate billing change coming in November. What’s happening limits are billed $0.04371 per kilowatt-hour for the PSA; that will jump to $0.0459 per kWh. For the typical AE residential customer using 860 kWh per month, the PSA increase means a $1.88 monthly billing increase, or about $22.60 per year.

Austin ocials push for A/C requirement A new rule to ensure all housing across the city is equipped to keep residents cool could be in place as soon as next summer. What happened? While Austin requires residential appli- ances to be in working order, there’s no city mandate for air conditioning in housing in the rst place. As Austinites endured dozens of 100-degree-plus days this summer, Council Member Vanessa Fuentes proposed a new requirement to keep all rooms in a residence at a “comfortable” level well below outside temperatures. Following council’s Aug. 31 approval of that measure, a city code amendment process will go underway before a nal ordinance solidies any new rules.

One month after the PSA change goes into eect, AE will begin billing customers under a new schedule of charges stemming from the 2022 base rate update process.

AE’s utility bills include several components, some of which are based on customers’ monthly power usage and some of which are standardized across all bills. For example, AE’s “customer charge” is a at $13 per month for residents regardless of how much power is used. However, base energy charges have rates on a tiered scale that increase with power usage. On Oct. 1, one charge on customers’ bills tied to power usage—the Power Supply Adjustment, or PSA, charge—will increase 5%. In September, residential customers inside city

Bill increases

5% increase in the Power Supply Adjustment charge

$1.88 more a month for the average ratepayer

$22.60 more annually for the average ratepayer

SOURCE: AUSTIN ENERGYCOMMUNITY IMPACT

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