Residents urge Austin Energy to avoid gas peakers and address perceived rate inequities

Public commenters at the Austin Energy utility oversight committee on Jan. 20 urged staff and council to reject new natural-gas peaker plants and to revisit how recent rate increases are distributed across neighborhoods.

Paul Robbins, introduced himself as “an environmental activist and consumer advocate,” and said Austin Energy’s rates have become more "regressive," meaning heavier users pay less per unit. "Since 2022, our electric rates have gone up 29% overall," Robbins said, and he cited steeper increases in lower-income council districts, including 34% in District 3 and 31% in District 4. Robbins asked the committee to "change the rates" by applying increases proportionally across the base fee and tiers.

Camille Cook, a District 3 resident, urged the utility to prioritize demand response, time-of-use rates and rooftop and community solar instead of buying new peaker capacity. "There’s untapped potential in creating time-of-use rates that can allow residents to be price responsive," she said.

Craig Nasser of the Sierra Club said Austin should favor more renewables and battery storage and that "our path does not include gas peaker plants." Rebecca Bernhardt, a public-safety appointee to the downtown commission and member of Texas Physicians for Social Responsibility, described personal asthma and heart concerns and warned that peaker plants would increase PM2.5 and other air pollutants.

Al Braden, speaking as a District 7 voter and former generation task-force participant, warned that buying peakers would contradict prior generation-plan commitments to limit new fossil-fuel generators and would be costly. Braden cited — and attributed to staff — an estimate of about $60,000,000 for a single peaker and told the committee that several peakers would translate into hundreds of millions in capital spending.

Austin Energy General Manager Stuart Riley responded to questions about equity by saying rate changes are not district-specific and that the utility’s customer charge remains lower than some peers (he said Austin Energy's customer charge is about $16.50 a month versus $20–$25 elsewhere). Riley encouraged continued investments in demand response and local solar programs to reduce peak demand and the need for peakers.

The oversight committee did not take a vote on new generation at the Jan. 20 meeting; staff emphasized that any recommendation on peakers would wait until the all-resource RFP analysis is complete.