• Monthly Discounts for Qualifying Households: AE offers a waiver on customer charges for electricity, water, and wastewater; a 50% drainage fee reduction; and a reduced fuel charge, from 3.65 cents to 1.7 cents. At the average monthly residential use of 1,000 kilowatt hours, these discounts altogether amount to about $43 a month, or more than $500 a year.
• Casework Managers: AE has on staff two full-time case managers with social work experience, an innovation noted by several area nonprofits as particularly useful. “The customer assistance group is very responsive and very much aware of needs in the community,” says Joyce Hefner of Family Eldercare, whose clients “often have unexpected medical expenses come up” and who tend to live on fixed incomes in “energy-inefficient homes.”
• Emergency Assistance: Funded by the city of Austin (at $300,000 a year) and donations from AE customers (about $45,000 a year), this program is available to households facing “extraordinary emergencies such as loss of job or medical emergencies.” Ratepayers can apply through one of several area churches or social service organizations, such as Family Eldercare, AIDS Services of Austin, Any Baby Can, Meals on Wheels and More, St. Austin Catholic Parish, and Travis County Family Support Services. “One situation that we see all too often is a family whose child has been diagnosed with a critical illness,” says Allison Daskam of Any Baby Can. “One or both parents may have to reduce hours or quit working to care for their child. … The Austin Energy program allows Any Baby Can to bridge the financial gap and help the family get back on their feet financially.”
• Free Home Energy Efficiency Improvements: AE provides solar screens, attic insulation, minor duct repair and sealing, caulking around plumbing penetrations under sinks, and weather-stripping around entry doors for homeowners and renters meeting income qualifications. On average, this program serves 500-600 homes a year. In February, AE will launch another similar program funded by $2.9 million in federal stimulus money.
• Deferred Payment Agreements: Customers who fall behind on their bills qualify for a deferred payment agreement with a down payment of one-third of the amount owed and payment of the remainder over a maximum of six months; if beset by additional hardship, they may qualify to reset the payment plan again within a year.
• Lifeline Rate: All residential AE customers receive a discounted “lifeline” rate of 3.55 cents per kwh for the first 500 kwh of electricity they use each month; after 500 kwh, the rate goes up to 7.82 cents. Catholic Diocese Chancellor Ron Walker points to the lifeline rate as one example of a program that should more directly target the poor; authority for that kind of rate change would lie with City Council, in a process known as a “rate case.” The next rate case is expected in 2012.
This article appears in December 25 • 2009.