Tuesday, November 18, 2025, 9 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee
The Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee met on November 18, 2025, chaired by Council Member Vela, with Mayor Watson participating. The committee approved the October 7, 2025 minutes and a 2026 meeting schedule of six meetings, then heard General Manager Stuart Reilly's report highlighting a new 100-megawatt four-hour battery storage contract, two renewable RFPs, and affordability data showing the lowest average residential bill in ERCOT. Deputy General Manager Lisa Martin briefed the committee on the Resource Generation and Climate Protection Plan, focusing on local generation feasibility, peaker unit scarcity and pricing, and a planned all-resource RFP, with discussion about positioning Austin Energy to act quickly on peaker purchases. Vice President David Tom Cheson presented the 10-year, $735 million Electric System Resiliency Plan focused on overhead hardening, vegetation management, and smart grid investments. A solar leasing presentation was deferred to the next meeting.
0:01 Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I will call the meeting of the Austin energy utility oversight committee to order
0:08 at 9 0 9 on November 18th, uh, 2025.
0:14 Uh, we have a, a busy day today.
0:16 We're gonna go as quickly as possible to the, the Austin energy utility oversight, uh, committee, uh, meeting.
0:23 Uh, and we're gonna go ahead and skip the quarterly reports, uh, for today.
0:28 They're in the backup.
0:29 Uh, they're online. Uh, and please feel free to, uh, review them.
0:33 Uh, and if you have any questions, you can reach out to Austin energy staff.
0:37 And we're also gonna take things slightly out of order.
0:39 First, we'll do the general manager's report, then the generation plan update, then the electricity electric system resiliency
0:47 plan, and then if we have time, the, uh, the presentation on, uh, solar leasing.
0:52 But first up, uh, public communication.
0:55 Uh, daniel, do we have, uh, speakers today?
0:57 Yes, we have two.
0:59 Can I have kaba white and scott johnson?
1:12 Thank you. Yes. Okay.
1:17 Good morning, Mayor council members, uh, Council Member Vela.
1:21 My name is scott johnson.
1:22 I have a long history with electric lawnmowers and sales events and exchange events here.
1:27 My purpose is to try to work creatively to find funding that May be within the, or maybe
1:35 available to the office of climate action and resilience, or maybe not.
1:39 And therefore, I've followed this issue for a while.
1:43 This city's this letter that you're seeing.
1:45 There is a thank you letter from a former staff member at Austin energy for bringing the idea
1:49 for an electric lawn mow exchange to them in 1996.
1:52 And we did it in 97.
1:53 I picked it up again, uh, working with a nonprofit and then on my own for 10 years
1:58 between 2001 and 2015.
2:01 Next, please, and this is, uh, important, but right now, Austin energy is providing a rebate at point
2:11 of sale, where when you go in to buy an electric lawnmower or handheld equipment, you get a
2:17 certain amount of discount off of it, and that's okay.
2:20 But the mar the program is not well promoted.
2:22 The person sometimes is surprised that they don't, that they are getting a rebate, and many people don't
2:28 need a rebate if the price of the electric lawnmower is $249.
2:35 What I do know is that that program could be revamped or it could just be eliminated.
2:40 And I've spoken on this issue last year at the electric utility commission twice.
2:45 The funding annually that is expended for this is more than $40,000.
2:50 Most year records from three years ago showed it was 51,000 for a 12 or 13 month period.
2:56 The position that was approved by the joint sustainability committee, that's chaired by kaba white, that didn't make
3:02 it past the tre, it was stripped out, is a sustainable procurement position.
3:07 And that position May or May not be funded through the process that you're going for.
3:11 Now, another program that Austin energy has is an e-bike program.
3:17 I mean, early adopter of e-bikes, but the majority of those people talking to a large retailer are
3:22 people that are in a position to buy an electric bicycle without a rebate.
3:27 So my ask is for you to dig into the budget more and find out if there's a
3:31 way to limit or eliminate programs that are not effective to help people of, of lesser means to
3:39 get into an electric lawnmower or an e-bike and see if that funding can be used to support
3:44 the sustainable procurement, uh, fte that was stripped outta the budget from my understanding, after the tre failed.
3:53 This is an opportunity that was championed by Ryan alter's office and supported by others to have two
3:58 new positions in office of climate action and resilience.
4:01 But neither of those, from my understanding, are are there now.
4:04 We need to think creatively.
4:05 We need to look at things more closely, obviously, than, than we did before.
4:09 Thank you for your time.
4:10 Questions. Thank you very much for your testimony.
4:14 Any questions for mr. Johnson?
4:17 Ms. White, thank you. Good morning, kaba white on behalf of public citizens texas office.
4:24 Um, I have two things I wanted to talk to you about.
4:26 Both are related to distributed solar energy.
4:29 Um, the first, um, I've been encountering in my role, uh, with solar Austin, we are trying to
4:35 donate some solar energy systems to other nonprofits here in town to help reduce their cost.
4:41 And, uh, what we have found is that the permitting process and fees for small commercial solar installations,
4:49 which is where this falls for nonprofits, is excessive and, uh, appears to be out of line with
4:56 the actual review that is taking place to get those, that permitting done.
5:00 Um, so it's expensive.
5:02 It is complicated, and it slows the process down.
5:05 And when you look at what solar is being installed, you can have a lot of residential here
5:10 in Austin. And then you have a lot, you know, more of the kinda larger scale commercial.
5:15 But there's this missing bucket, which is the smaller commercial.
5:19 And I think this is probably a big reason why.
5:22 So I know you'll have a, a a a a resolution out that you're waiting to hear back
5:27 from in February about permitting fees.
5:30 And I'm just speaking to this in the hopes that some of y'all will make sure that, uh,
5:36 permitting process and fees for solar, and especially commercial and small commercial solar is part of that review.
5:44 Um, the other piece, uh, that I wanted to call your attention to is about the solar standard
5:49 offer program that is up and running now for commercial, and that is in development for residential and
5:55 hopefully small commercial. Um, I've been hearing from a number of folks that are in the industry wanting
6:02 to participate in this program, that the rate is simply not high enough to make the finances work,
6:09 that there's not really an any, um, money available with, with that budget to be able to pay
6:17 the property owner for the use of their roof space.
6:19 And many property owners are not gonna offer up their roof space for nothing.
6:24 And specifically, I would like to ask that you direct Austin energy to start using the full value
6:30 of solar rate, um, not excluding the environmental social benefits piece of it.
6:37 And also, there is no reason why this type of distributed solar should not be, uh, awarded incentives
6:44 just like other distributed solar.
6:46 It's the exact same thing.
6:48 It's just being financed in a different way.
6:51 So if this is truly a priority in terms of how Austin energy is going to continue to
6:55 get its energy, I think we're gonna need to make some changes in the existing program and in
7:00 what comes forward for the smaller scale installations.
7:04 I will say Austin energy has had a great year with distributed solar.
7:07 That's awesome. Things are about to be changing with the tax credits going away.
7:13 Um, so we need to start, uh, making some changes here locally to prepare for that.
7:18 Thank you. No further speakers.
7:23 That is everyone. Thank you very much.
7:25 Uh, going, um, onto the agenda.
7:29 Uh, item one is the approval of the minutes from the October 7th, 2025 meeting.
7:35 Can I get a motion, a motion by Council Member Siegel and a second by Council Member Ellis
7:41 to approve the minutes.
7:42 Uh, all in favor, please indicate by raise your hand unanimous approval of the minutes.
7:47 Uh, going on to items two is the approval of our 2026 meeting schedule.
7:52 It is in your backup packet.
7:53 We're looking at six meetings for 2026, January, March, May, July, September, and November.
8:00 Um, and again, I would ask for a, uh, motion and a second, a motion from, uh, council
8:05 member uchin and a second from Council Member Ellis for approval of our 2026 meeting schedule.
8:11 All those in favor please indicate by, uh, unanimous, uh, approval of the 2026 meeting schedule.
8:19 And, uh, item three is a general manager's report by, uh, mistakenly, uh, written as interim general manager,
8:28 stuart o'reilly. Uh, he, there's congratulations in order, uh, to, uh, mr. Stuart reilly, who is now our, uh,
8:36 full-time permanent, uh, general manager.
8:38 And, uh, I just want to give him, uh, uh, hardy congratulations from myself and I think from,
8:43 from everybody, uh, on the day.
8:45 Thank, kate. Thank you.
8:46 Appreciate it. Well, thank you so much.
8:51 Um, that tells you how far in advance we do these agendas, uh, take some planning.
8:55 So, uh, I appreciate that.
8:57 And, um, with this being my first meeting and in the permanent role, I just wanna say what
9:01 a privilege it is, um, to be leading one of the nation's premier public power utilities.
9:06 We have an amazing team of electric utility professionals at Austin energy, and I'm, I'm thrilled to continue
9:12 to work alongside all of them, alongside all of you, our community stakeholders, our customers, and meeting our
9:18 ambitious clean energy goals.
9:20 So, look forward to it.
9:21 Um, lots ahead. So thank you.
9:23 Um, I will just get right into it.
9:25 Um, first update is a few weeks ago we executed a contract for 100 megawatt battery storage project
9:32 with jupiter power. Um, this is a utility scale energy storage project that is located, will be located
9:40 within the Austin energy load zone in eastern travis county.
9:44 Um, one thing that's noteworthy is this is a four hour storage system.
9:48 And so that puts us in truly elite company.
9:51 Uh, most battery storage systems in ercot are one hour or two hour energy storage systems.
9:56 By having a four hour utility scale battery storage system, we're able to more effectively take advantage of
10:03 some of the market opportunities that might present themselves for four hour duration.
10:07 Um, really support resiliency, reliability, and affordability for our customers, especially in those critical, um, sundown periods late
10:14 in the day. Um, very excited about that.
10:17 Um, local energy support, um, really good for customers, good for reliability, and we're looking to do that
10:24 in a way that, um, we can continue that momentum.
10:27 We are now working on other energy storage efforts.
10:31 Uh, don't have any news on that today, but hopefully in the coming months we'll have some more,
10:35 um, positive developments in the energy storage space.
10:40 Also wanted to mention two renewable requests for proposals that are out on the street right now.
10:44 One is a landfill solar rfp.
10:47 This is a partnership between Austin energy and Austin resource recovery to make the city of Austin fm
10:52 eight 12 landfill a productive renewable energy site.
10:56 So we're seeking proposals for utility scale solar at that landfill.
11:01 Also, we have a renewable rfp out for wind energy seeking proposals for, uh, shovel ready wind energy
11:09 projects with the tax incentives expiring.
11:11 Our hope is that there are some good opportunities to get some more renewable energy into our portfolio,
11:18 um, with some developers that might be looking for off takers with a, with a short timeline ahead
11:22 of ahead of us.
11:24 And we are accepting offers either with or without onsite battery storage pairings.
11:28 Um, so we're hoping to get some good offers there as well.
11:32 Um, changing gears. We have the newest affordability data from the us energy information administration.
11:40 And you can see on this chart that Austin energy's residential average monthly bill is for.
11:46 And there, I should say there's a little bit of a lag in this information.
11:49 So this comes out in October of each year for the prior year.
11:52 So this is 2024 data.
11:55 Um, but you can see here our average residential monthly bill is $105.
12:00 Um, the only cheaper utility is el paso.
12:04 Um, but it's worth noting that el paso isn't within ercot.
12:07 In fact, of the four cheapest utilities on this list, only Austin energy is within ercot.
12:13 And so being in ercot faced some additional cost pressures, um, that non ercot utilities aren't subject to.
12:19 Um, so that makes us the cheapest residential monthly bill in all of ercot.
12:25 And actually, you can see from that black line that shows the texas average.
12:29 And so we are not only the lowest bill in ercot with we and the second lowest bill
12:34 in texas, but we are $60 less per month than the texas average.
12:39 That means we're saving our customers $720 per year from the texas average.
12:47 So some, some really good data there just shows our continued focus on reliability.
12:51 And you get a lot for your bill in Austin.
12:53 A lot of customer programs, um, renewable programs, a renew a largely renewable portfolio.
12:59 And so a lot goes into that number.
13:01 And our customers are, are getting great value.
13:04 And my last update, I mentioned in October that our crews had deployed for our annual lightup navajo