AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin Energy says its customers should not be worried about a major spike in electric rates due to last week's winter storm.
According to utility officials, some customers under different electric providers across the state have their rates controlled by variable price billing - meaning their electric rates are vulnerable to sudden price swings in the wholesale energy market, similar to what we saw during last week's winter event.
Austin Energy's base rates, on the other hand, are fixed and any adjustments are subject to a thorough review process by the Austin City Council.
One component of Austin Energy's rate structure is a Power Supply Adjustment, or PSA charge - a fee that covers fuel for Austin Energy-owned plants, the cost of electricity purchased from the grid, and any net revenues or losses experienced as Austin Energy plants produced and sold power to the market at large.
Council last adjusted the PSA charge in November 2020, when it directed the utility to reduce it by 1.9 percent. The last adjustment to the base electric rates charged by Austin Energy was in 2017, when rates decreased by 6.7 percent.
Austin Energy says it will evaluate any impacts of buying electricity from ERCOT during this winter event, and make an appropriate recommendation to the City Council.
Residential customers are billed for their actual energy usage, measured in kilowatt hours (kWh), recorded from their electric meter. Anyone without power during this time period had no electric use recorded from meters during these outage events.
Customers with questions about their bills can visit www.COAUtilities.com or call 512-494-9400.
