Austin Energy
More than electricity
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| Public utility | |
| Industry | Electric power |
| Founded | 1895 |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas |
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Area served
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Travis & Williamson counties, Texas |
| Owner | City of Austin |
| Website | austinenergy |
Austin Energy is a publicly owned utility providing electrical power to the city of Austin, Texas and surrounding areas. Established in 1895, the utility is a department of the City of Austin and returns its profits to the city's general fund to finance other city services. Austin Energy is the United States' 8th largest public utility, serving more than 440,000 customers and more than one million residents (as of 2015) within a service area of approximately 437 square miles (1,130 km2), including Austin, Travis County and a small portion of Williamson County.
Austin Energy’s total generation capacity is more than 3,000 megawatts (MW), provided by a mixture of wind power, solar power, biomass, natural gas, nuclear power, and coal.
Austin Energy owns and operates two natural gas-fired power plants in the Austin area: the Decker Creek Power Station and the Sand Hill Energy Center. The utility also owns 50% of units 1 and 2 at the coal-fired Fayette Power Project in La Grange and 16% of the South Texas Nuclear Project in Bay City (near Houston). The STNP was the subject of a binding citizen referendum (November 3, 1981) to sell Austin's part in the project. STNP went online in 1986. No council has sold Austin's STNP telling citizens that "no one wanted our 16 percent".
As of July 2014, renewable energy represents roughly 23% of Austin Energy's generation portfolio, including solar, wind, landfill methane and biomass projects. The utility's 2014 generation plan indicated that it aims to produce 50% of power from renewable sources and 75% from carbon-free sources by 2025.
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Wikipedia