GreenChoice®—Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
What is renewable energy or green power?
What is the GreenChoice® program?
Why should I subscribe to GreenChoice?
How do I subscribe?
If I sign up, will my home or business receive electricity generated from renewable energy?
Where do we get the GreenChoice energy?
What is the difference between the GreenChoice charge and the regular fuel charge?
What is the typical monthly cost for a residential customer?
If I sign up for the program, may I later decide to cancel?
Why has the price of GreenChoice increased?
What is renewable energy or green power?
Renewable energy or green power is electricity generated from natural sources such as wind, sun, and methane gas released from landfills.
Power that comes from renewable sources is limitless and clean. Green power does not add pollution to the atmosphere.
What is the GreenChoice® Program?
GreenChoice is Austin Energy’s renewable energy program that provides subscribers with a fixed GreenChoice charge instead of the regular fuel charge for the term of their subscription.
When you sign up for the program, you are buying energy produced from 100% renewable sources like wind power and methane gas from landfills.
Why should I subscribe to GreenChoice?
When you subscribe to GreenChoice, you make a lasting contribution to Austin's quality of life. Our reliance on fossil fuels will decrease along with the air pollution created by fossil fuel combustion.
Your purchase of GreenChoice energy also supports growth of the renewable energy industry in Texas. The renewable energy industry creates new jobs in the state and produces new revenues for school districts.
Small business and commercial customers can get started by completing our online form. An Austin Energy representative will contact you to discuss your energy needs.
Key Account customers should contact their account manager.
If I sign up, will my home or business receive electricity generated from renewable energy?
Yes, but not directly.
When you subscribe to GreenChoice, Austin Energy purchases green energy to meet your needs. This means less electricity is needed from natural gas or coal-fired power plants.
Austin Energy’s electric system receives green energy daily over our statewide transmission system. Once green energy enters our system, it mixes with energy produced from power generating plants.
This means the electricity generated from green sources is not directed to a specific home or business. But as more customers subscribe to GreenChoice, the amount of green power in the mix increases. This reduces the amount of energy coming from fossil-fuel based power plants.
Where do we get the GreenChoice energy?
100% of our GreenChoice renewable energy comes from several wind farms in West Texas.
What is the difference between the GreenChoice charge and the regular fuel charge?
The regular fuel charge is adjusted periodically to reflect the actual cost of fuel to Austin Energy. When the cost Austin Energy pays for these fuels goes up or down, the fuel charge goes up or down, too.
The GreenChoice charge, like the regular fuel charge, is a “pass-through” charge to our GreenChoice subscribers. This means we charge our customers what it costs us.
The GreenChoice charge is the sum the contract purchase price plus the additional ERCOT administrative costs and other small costs it takes to bring renewable energy into our generation mix.
What is a typical monthly cost for a residential customer?
Each power purchase agreements for renewable energy is fixed over a long term which means that Austin Energy can set the GreenChoice charge over a long term, too.
A fixed fuel charge over a long term helps customers budget for energy costs well into the future.
Beginning January 1, 2011, the regular fuel charge is 3.105 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) and the GreenChoice Batch 6 charge is 5.7 cents per kWh.
A residential customer using the average of 1,000 kWh per month will pay approximately $25 more on GreenChoice® Batch 6 than on the regular fuel charge.
If I sign up for the program, may I later decide to cancel?
Yes, residential subscribers can cancel. However, participants who cancel their subscriptions are ineligible for further subscriptions to the program. Subscriptions are not transferable from customer to customer.
For additional details specific to residential and commercial accounts, see Program Details.
Why has the price of GreenChoice increased?
The GreenChoice charge is based on what it costs Austin Energy to bring renewable energy into our service area.
Starting in 2001, the early batches of GreenChoice were based entirely on the power purchase agreement. Since then, power purchase agreement prices have risen over the years.
By 2007 the cost per kilowatt hour for renewable energy had almost doubled from our original purchase agreements. A world-wide shortage of steel and a backlog of orders for wind turbines contributed to this increase.
Also since 2001, ERCOT, our regional electric reliability entity, has added many new fees related to the introduction of renewable energy into the ERCOT electric grid. They have also added other administrative charges that apply to all energy being moved across the grid.
In the last decade, Texas has enjoyed a robust period of wind farm development. Because of this increased development, more energy has been added to the ERCOT grid than can be moved over the existing transmission lines from the wind farms around the state.
It takes about nine months to build a wind farm, but it can take five to seven years to add new transmission lines. We should see reductions in the price of renewable energy as more lines are installed to handle all the new renewable energy produced.
Green-e Energy certifies that Austin Energy’s GreenChoice Program meets the minimum environmental and consumer protection standards established by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions.
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