| Austin, Texas, to Hold
Drawing for Green Power Program
Austin, Texas, is now one of four cities in the United States where
customers enrolled in Austin Energy’s green power program are now paying
less for electricity than nonsubscribers. As a result, and because the
current supply of green power, Austin will hold a drawing in March to
enroll additional electric customers into Austin Energy’s GreenChoice
program. The drawing is being held because the remaining supply of green power, at the current price, is limited. The remaining supply will be sufficient to enroll about 1,400 residential customers and about 200 businesses into the GreenChoice program. A residential customer enrolled in the program as a result of the March drawing (using 1,000 kWh per month) will save about $1.30 a month or about $16 a year, over what a nonsubscriber pays for the same amount of electricity, according to Austin Energy. Like most utilities across the country, Austin Energy, was forced to increase its standard fuel charge due to escalating natural gas prices. The increase took effect January 1, 2006, raising the fuel charge to 3.63 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity used. For customers subscribing to Austin Energy’s green power program, the fuel charge is taken off their bill and replaced with a “GreenChoice Charge.” The current GreenChoice Charge is 3.5 cents per kWh. In addition, the GreenChoice Charge stays fixed for the life of Austin Energy wind supply contracts. Those contracts typically span up to 10 years. So while the standard fuel charge can go up or down depending on the price of natural gas, coal and nuclear fuel, those fuel charge increases or decreases do not affect GreenChoice subscribers. The Austin Energy GreenChoice program is the number 1 utility-sponsored green power program in the nation for sales, outperforming 600 other programs. The program sells 520-million kWh of green power a year. Almost 400 Austin companies subscribe to the program, 344 for 100 percent of their annual usage. This gives Austin more 100-percent green-powered businesses than any other city on the nation. In addition, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) ranks 5th in the nation among businesses by purchasing 52-million kWh of green power a year while the Austin Independent School District (AISD) leads all public school systems nationwide purchasing 45-million kWh annually. Austin is on track to reach its goal with 6 percent of the energy produced currently coming from renewable resources, primarily wind-generated energy. Austin’s renewable energy program also includes a small amount of generation powered by methane gas released from decaying landfills.
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