Electricity

The former Austin City Council member's Connect the Grid Act would mandate that ERCOT create new interconnections with neighboring power grids.

The electricity market in Texas is doing exactly what it's designed to do — and most customers probably won't notice any effect on their bill.

Bills introduced this session would do everything from reorganize the management structure of Austin Energy to potentially dismantle the utility by forcing it to sell off parts of its infrastructure.

It's pricey, but the city thinks burying power lines could make widespread outages a thing of the past. City Council voted unanimously Thursday to see how feasible it would be.

The actions by the Public Utility Commission led to billions of dollars of overcharges, the Austin-based court found. It’s not yet clear if the ruling will affect consumers.

Critics say the increase could fuel surges on Austin Energy customers' bills over the summer months. The utility says it needed to raise prices to stay financially stable.

Dialysis centers closed. Hospitals overwhelmed. When a historic winter storm walloped Texas in 2021, tens of thousands of dialysis patients were trapped at home with no treatment options.

High production costs, a glut of new customers and (ironically) energy efficiency are to blame for a hike in Austin Energy bills.

The utility said it’s been undercharging customers for the past year and that it needs to raise rates to reflect its actual costs.

On May 4, 1976, a power company based in Texas sent electricity from a substation in Vernon, Texas, to Altus, Okla. By doing so, they were breaking a deal among power companies in Texas to keep electricity within state borders.