AUSTIN (KXAN) — Next week, Austin City Council will vote on the Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2035. That plan will guide the utility’s priorities and strategies over the next decade.
The city gathered input on the plan from the community in the form of public meetings, a survey with thousands of respondents and brought in experts including the Webber Energy Group from the University of Texas at Austin.
The plan: “provides a flexible path to a clean energy future that incorporates our community’s core values of reliability, affordability, environmental sustainability and energy equity while meeting new challenges and opportunities,” the draft plan says.
Much of the planning process focused on risks the utility may face in the next decade including a growing population and increased energy consumption, climate change and balancing cost to the consumer with the financial health of Austin Energy.
The Webber Energy Group also provided the utility a report which looked at potential challenges.
“AE must address the expiration of renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) and rising power demand driven by four main factors: population and economic growth; electrification of home heating and cooking; large load growth (e.g., data center growth); and electric vehicle (EV) adoption,” the report said.
The plan lays out priorities that include:
- Continue moving toward 100% carbon-free energy by 2035
- Improve reliability, affordability and environmental sustainability
- Protect vulnerable customers
- Resiliency in the face of extreme weather and associated financial risk
“We heard from the community that reliability is their top priority, and it is one of the significant risks Austin Energy faces. The 2035 Plan provides us the ability to add the resources we need to address voltage support, extreme weather and market risks. This way, our community is better protected from local outages and future weather events,” the plan says.
You can read the full draft plan here.
Austin City Council is expected to vote on the plan during its Dec. 12 meeting.
