10 Feb AUSTIN ENERGY Unveils New Generation Planning Strategy
Ouija-nomics
Quiet. . . . Hold still. . . . let’s see, I feel it moving a little to the right. . . .
Spirit are you there?
At that point the dark spirit of King Coal leapt out growling, “25% Rate Increase” as startled City Council members ran for cover.
Parody to be sure, but it captures the essence of Austin Energy’s stakeholder briefing February 4th at City Hall on the options and costs of ramping down and retiring our polluting Fayette coal plant.
Stakeholders – actually we’re shareholders – were promised a view of multiple scenarios as a starting point for Austin Energy’s new Generation Plan, which will define our energy sources for the next decade. Integral to that plan is the discussion on just what to do with Fayette – the 6th largest CO2 greenhouse gas source in Texas.
This is indeed serious business.
Past community discussions like this have started from real data.
Data on the costs of operation, fuel prices, projected cost for fuels, projected costs for competing electric generating technologies. Will coal continue to rise in cost? Will export of LNG raise gas prices? Will fracking keep it low? Will the U.S. Congress finally enact legislation to deal with the environmental, climate and health costs of greenhouse gas pollution, which is currently free? Will wind and solar continue to decline in price? What is the cost reduction now that the CREZ transmissions lines are up and running to West Texas? These questions, and many more, are the tip of the fast melting iceberg.
Past cooperation between Austin Energy, Austin City Council, the City Manager and the many shareholders in Austin seems to have evaporated. We are used to data being available for analysis. We are used to transparency, consideration and listening.
This is especially important because we – the citizens of Austin – OWN Austin Energy. We elect the board members – those on City Council responsible to direct energy policy and supervise the managers. It is our electric utility – directly responsible to the shareholder citizens of Austin with a mission to find the optimum balance of electricity, rates and climate.
But something happened on the way to this Generation Plan.
Through multiple meetings with Austin Energy and City Council, many scenarios were promised, scenarios that would make a critical difference in understanding our choices and tradeoffs. In short our possibilities to be a Green Leader and still meet our price targets of being in the lower half of Texas in electric rates. Everything was said to be open for discussion from Business As Usual to the Sunny Side of the Street. Necessarily those scenarios must be complete with real data so that they could be analyzed and discussed.
When the scenarios were unveiled on February 4th they consisted of only seven options, based on a single year of 2017 and with absolutely no underlying data to understand their assumptions. To date, Austin Energy has not been forthcoming is releasing the information. So it is really impossible to take these scenarios seriously or to use them for any planning purpose.
King Coal’s purpose, however, seems to have been served. The most extreme case – retire Fayette and make up all the shortfall with spot purchases from ERCOT – might indeed have a rate impact of 25%. The media had headlines and the Council had hives – but in reality no one would actually propose such a plan.
New wind contracts in the Valley are said to be competitive to King Coal even though Austin Energy guards these prices as state secrets. Solar is coming close to grid parity as shown by San Antonio’s aggressive solar program. And weatherization, demand management, conservation, efficiency and smart grid are totally ignored in this absurd King Coal vs. ERCOT scenario.
Austin Energy’s shareholders deserve real numbers and real plans so that we can discuss these critical issues. We can’t give these scenarios any serious consideration without seeing what is behind them.
Getting Austin Energy to put real data on the board has to be the first step in the discussion.
Oh, and then there’s the 800 MW naturalfracking gas plant. Don’t get me started.
Hey, AE, “We all gotta talk! This is not a new topic.”
Make yourself heard the one way Austin Energy has offered to listen at the moment. Follow this link and send your comments on the Generation Plan and getting off coal to: http://bit.ly/PeoplesGenPlan
Talk about what matters to you. And be sure and demand an open and transparent process in planning Austin's energy needs.
A process open to all and accessible when working people can participate. A process with real data that can provide informed choices.
A plan that gets us off coal and on to a renewable future at affordable rates.
Once again, send your comments to
Austin Energy at:
http://bit.ly/PeoplesGenPlan
REFERENCES:
PowerPoint presentation by Austin Energy’s Khalil Shalabi, VP Energy Market Operations & Resource Planning, February 4, 2014 http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=204901
Complete video of the Austin Energy Presentation at City Hall, February 4, 2014
http://austintx.swagit.com/play/02042014-631
Special Briefing of City Council by Austin Energy December, 5, 2013
http://austintx.swagit.com/play/12052013-612
City Council Resolution on June 27, 2013, directing the City Manager to develop a comprehensive plan to eliminate coal from Austin Energy’s portfolio by 2015-2918, with the plan to be presented to City Council for consideration no later than December 31, 2013.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/edims/document.cfm?id=192189
City Council Resolution on October 6, 2011, requiring a thorough and detailed analysis of options regarding Fayette to be presented to the Electric Utility Commission at its September 2012 meeting.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/edims/document.cfm?id=159108
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