Austin Energy: Rate increasing 5% March 1

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Beginning March 1, Austin Energy (AE) said it would implement a 5% increase to the Power Supply Adjustment (PSA) rate.

The impact is expected to be roughly a $2 monthly increase for the typical residential customer.

The utility company most recently applied a 5% rate increase that began Jan. 1.

Per Austin Energy’s policy, it can only adjust the PSA in increments of up to 5%.

“The increase is required to continue making progress on recovering power supply costs in order to position Austin Energy for an anticipated PSA under-recovery during the summer months,” AE said.

In November 2022, AE said it had an under-recovered PSA balance of $102 million, so it began planning to recover the balance over the next three years. By November 2023, the amount was at $78 million.

As of Jan. 31, AE said the current under-recovered balance was $61 million, which was an over-recovery of $3 million to its estimated $64 million.

"An over-recovery for the month was anticipated and necessary, along with projected overrecoveries over the next several months, in order to be positioned for an expected summer under-recovery. However, the January over-recovery was not sufficient to stay on track," AE said.

The utility said it planned to continue to make PSA changes as needed to be on schedule.