BG MEMO: City Council Work Session & Special Called Meeting (2/21/2023)
FROM: Bingham Group
SUBJECT: City Council Work Session / Special Called Meeting of the Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee
DATE: 2/21/2023
The Austin City Council met Tuesday, February 21st for their scheduled work session and a special called meeting of the Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee to discuss the following agenda items and briefing.
Item 6. Winter Storm Event Briefing.
Item 7. Identify items to discuss at future meetings.
Council Member Leslie Pool (District 7), Chair of the Utility Oversight Committee called the meeting to order and gave an overview of the meeting.
She then called the six public communication speakers who expressed their concerns with Austin Energy’s rate increase and asked the council to amend the residential energy rate structure.
Speakers also offered equitable solutions and communication strategies the city can take ahead of a crisis.
Two speakers from PODER (People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources) asked the council to install solar panels and hubs, especially in higher poverty areas like Montopolis and partner with organizations or institutions like the University of Texas.
Following speakers, Interim City Manager Jesús Garza gave introductory remarks on the Winter Storm Event Briefing.
Austin Energy General Manager Jackie Sargent then led the briefing presentation and emphasized climate change’s role in catalyzing extreme weather events. She highlighted areas where Austin Energy (AE) is already taking steps to derail outages but acknowledged AE should have started alerting customers sooner than they did.
Sargent also listed other areas of improvement such as conducting a third party study of what it would take to bury all power lines in Austin, improving AE’s power outage map, enhancing vegetation management, and learning about utilities around the country.
Stuart Reilly, Austin Energy Chief of Staff, then presented on key differences between Winter Storm Uri in 2021 and Winter Storm Mara. Unlike Uri, winter storm Mara caused hurricane level damage at a local level. He stated Austin was the only urban center in Texas that experienced the extremity of the ice storm. Reilly also provided a timeline of outages and restoration during the event which included the following phases of restoration challenges:
Hazardous road conditions & icy equipment
Smaller more complex restoration practices
Damage to customer owned or maintenance equipment
Next, Austin Energy debriefed the council on vegetation management. It was stated that no amount of vegetation management would have prevented down lines due to tree damage. AE touched on their customer tree trimming cycles and practices as well as how they are utilizing funds to increase contracts with vegetation companies to trim more trees.
Greg Flay, AE Vice President of Technology and Data, then presented on the AE power map. He explained how Austin Energy faced issues with outage status and reporting including the limit to the amount of inbound customer communications.
Finally, Lisa Martin, Vice President of Electric System Engineering & Technical Services, covered mutual aid. She listed some of Austin Energy’s mutual aid history in helping other states with restoration and emphasized how Austin hadn’t ever needed the mutual aid seen during winter storm Mara. She stated AE welcomed mutual aid crews from New Braunfels, Houston, San Antonio, and other locations.
The presentation concluded with an after action report review. Martin explained Austin Energy’s approach to audit themselves and stated they would be looking at seven key factors. Following the briefing, Chair Pool opened it up for questions and suggested doing a follow up briefing on utilities on April 11th.
In the Q&A period that followed, Council Member Alison Alter (District 10) asked AE to improve their communications with customers and prioritize text communications when many people lack access to the internet during power outages.
Council Member Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) also commented on communications and asked who at AE is in charge of public distribution. City Manager Garza responded to her questions, highlighting how Austin Energy and the City of Austin are not two separate entities but one and must work together moving forward.
Mayor Kirk Watson wrapped up the conversation with remarks. He requested a new communication plan to be set in place in the next 45 days and that the city do a mock disaster to practice implementing disaster communication response soon after.
Then, there being no further questions or comments, the council adjourned their special called meeting, subject to the call of Chair Pool.
For questions or comments, please contact Bingham Group at: info@binghamgp.com