September 23, 2008 News Media Release

Public Participation Process Announced

Austin Mayor Will Wynn and Austin Energy General Manager Roger Duncan announced details (September 23, 2008) of an eight-month community-wide public participation process to solicit feedback on future power generation options for Austin Energy, the city's electric utility.

The "Austin Smart Energy" Public Participation Process will include an extensive series of public meetings that will begin in mid-October and conclude in March.

Austin Energy has developed a draft plan that calls for 1,000 MW of new generation by 2020. The proposed plan is designed to meet City Council goals including:

• 30 percent of the energy generated by Austin Energy by 2020 be delivered from renewable resources;
• offset 700 MW of peak demand through energy efficiency and load shifting programs;
• cap greenhouse gas emissions and initiate steps to become one of the nation's first carbon neutral electric utilities.

“The City of Austin, through our ground-breaking Climate Protection Plan passed by Council last year, has assumed a leadership role in demonstrating what a community can do to meet energy needs in a cost effective and responsible manner,” said Austin Mayor Will Wynn. “This public participation process invites every citizen in our community to provide feedback to those goals, and the proposed manner in which those goals would be achieved.”

Community-Wide Meetings, Resource Guide, Consultants
The draft generation plan will initially be presented and discussed during five community-wide town hall meetings, the first to be held October 22 at City Hall, the last November 19 at the Metz Recreation Center.

Those meetings and the overall public participation process will be supported by a resource guide that will provide pros and cons on a range of generation options. This will include information on the efficiency and relative cost of each generation type, the potential impacts from federal or state legislation as well as statewide transmission grid considerations.

The five town hall meetings will be led by an outside facilitator. In addition, Austin Energy will retain generation technology and financial consultants to ensure the best available information in answering questions posed by citizens during the public participation process.

Targeted Customer Meetings
A second part of the public participation process will involve meetings between Austin Energy consultants and representatives of a variety of customer groups. The customer groups include large industrial customers, Chambers of Commerce, neighborhood associations, city councils representing customers living outside the City of Austin, community service organizations and environmental groups, among others. The meetings, which will occur over the next two months, have the goal of coordinating directly with customer groups to set up a second round of town-hall-type meetings. The second group of meetings, along with additional community-wide town hall meetings, will occur January through March.

Dedicated Web Site, Blog
The “Austin Smart Energy” Public Participation Process will have a dedicated web site to provide public meeting schedules, summaries of discussions from each meeting including questions asked and answers given. The site will include a blog so that Austin Energy customers can voice their opinions or send questions at any time. In January, the site will provide another tool to the public participation process: an online resource to allow citizens to input their own proposed generation recommendations. The online resource will provide feedback to citizens on their choices including projected bottom line costs. The Austin Smart Energy web site will be announced and will go live in early October.

“We want to do everything possible to provide meaningful information that encourages participation,” said Roger Duncan, Austin Energy General Manager.  

Citizen Survey
Throughout the public participation process, citizens will also be invited to take a simple survey designed to gauge general reaction both to the generation mix Austin Energy currently employs—as well as the draft generation plan through 2020. That survey will be distributed at all meetings and will be available online

The first round of public participation town hall meetings will all begin at 6:30 p.m. The schedule includes the following:

Wednesday, October 22, Austin City Hall, Council Chambers, 301 W 2nd Street
Tuesday, October 28, Sunset Valley City Hall, 3205 Jones Road
Thursday, November 6, University Hills Library, 4721 Loyola Lane
Wednesday, November 12, Travis County Service Center, 4501 FM 620 N
Wednesday, November 19, Metz Recreation Center, 2407 Canterbury Street

Austin Energy expects to send final recommendations on the proposed generation plan to City Council by early summer.

For more information, contact Ed Clark, Public Information.
Phone: (512) 322-6514
Pager: (512) 802-2000