The City of Austin's Plus 1 Fund provides emergency utility bill financial assistance to customers experiencing extreme hardships such as medical illness or sudden job loss. In 2009 the City of Austin doubled to $300,000 the amount of funding made available annually for this program. Beginning in fiscal year 2009, City of Austin employees were given the option to donate to the Plus 1 Fund through the City's annual Combined Charities Campaign, which raises money for local and regional charitable groups. Additionally, utility customers have the option to donate to the Plus 1 Fund when they make their monthly utility bill payments. Plus 1 funding is distributed to customers by more than a dozen social service agencies including Travis County Family Services and Meals on Wheels.

Budget Billing is available to customers who prefer to avoid significant fluctuations in their monthly utility bills. With this program, City of Austin Utilities takes an average of a customer's previous 12-month's worth of utility bills to calculate an average utility bill payment. With Budget Billing, accounts are reviewed and adjusted every six months.

The averages reflect all City of Austin utilities including electric, water, wastewater, solid waste, transportation and drainage fees.

October 2017: Budget billing data for the period October 2011 through September 2013 revises previously published data. The revision reflects increased maturity and stability of our reporting system.

Austin Energy is proactive in addressing customer needs and regularly monitors customer satisfaction through customer surveys. In recent years, overall customer satisfaction has gone down. The drivers of the lower satisfaction are customer perceptions of price and value resulting from an overall increase in utility bills, despite Austin Energy providing reasonable and affordable electric rates. Residential and Commercial surveys are conducted quarterly while key account surveys are administered annually. Find more information: http://austinenergy.com/go/reports

Austin Energy is one of the few utilities in the nation that tries to meet with each property owner in advance of tree trimming. A plan detailing the trimming needed for each tree on a property is discussed and provided to the property owner for their acknowledgment and signature. When property owners refuse to meet or cooperate with scheduling, they receive a letter that indicates when trimming will occur. The number of refusal letters is extremely small, often less than 1 percent annually. Find more information at http://austinenergy.com/go/trees and http://austinenergy.com/go/reports.

Austin Energy’s Power Supply Adjustment recovers fuel for generation, transportation, renewable purchase power agreements, purchase power to serve retail customers, ERCOT fees, hedging and the balance from the previous period. The adjustment is reviewed annually. Find more information at http://austinenergy.com/go/reports.

Capital improvement expenditures include upgrades to the Distribution and Transmission system such as new substations and transformers. They also include expenditures to build or upgrade power plants, new or upgraded chillers, new or upgraded facilities, and information technology infrastructure. All of these expenditures result in assets for the utility that become part of the rate base. Funding for CIP projects includes both current revenue and short-term debt or commercial paper which is eventually rolled into long-term bonds with a life of 30 years.

This report is the result of the Austin City Code 6-7’s Energy Conservation Audit and Disclosure Ordinance approved in November 2008 (amended in April 2011) to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings that receive electricity from Austin Energy. The ordinance meets one of the goals of the Austin Climate Protection Plan, which is to offset 900 megawatts of peak energy demand by 2024. This report contains information on commercial facilities that have reported the EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager benchmarking results in 2017 (*) to the City of Austin, as well as the calculated electric Energy Utilization Index (EUI). For information on ECAD exemptions and other requirements, see Austin City Code Chapter 6-7. Note – (*) Data reported by Commercial Customers

The following information will allow you to understand the intent of data provided. This report is in conjunction with Austin City Code 6-7’s Energy Conservation Audit and Disclosure Ordinance approved in November 2008 (amended in April 2011) to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings that receive electricity from Austin Energy. The ordinance meets one of the primary goals of the Austin Climate Protection Plan which is to offset 800 megawatts of peak energy demand by 2020 to help reduce Austin's carbon footprint. In addition, this report contains information on multi-family properties older than 10 years that are required to perform an energy audit and report the results to the City of Austin and all residents living in those communities. The Austin Energy report quantifies the 2013 energy efficiency findings and the progress towards meeting City Council goals of Resolution 20081106-048.

This report is the result of the Austin City Code 6-7’s Energy Conservation Audit and Disclosure Ordinance approved in November 2008 (amended in April 2011) to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings that receive electricity from Austin Energy. The ordinance meets one of the goals of the Austin Climate Protection Plan, which is to offset 800 megawatts of peak energy demand by 2020. In addition, this report contains information on multi-family properties older than 10 years that are required to perform an energy audit and report the results to the City of Austin and all residents living in those communities. The Austin Energy report quantifies the 2015 energy efficiency findings and the progress towards meeting City Council goals of Resolution 20081106-048.

Austin Energy manages the City of Austin Utility Contact Center and Online Customer Care Portal. This is the place customers go to start, stop or transfer utility services.