Monday Morning – January 31, 2011

News
• Customer bills lowest. Comparisons between AE and other utilities are a natural as we begin
a rate review for the first time in 17 years. So, here is an interesting comparison. Energy
Information Association (EIA) data for 2009 (most recent available) allows one to determine the
average monthly residential electric bill of utilities nationwide. Looking at the top 17 electric
utilities in Texas you find that, based on average bills, if the residential customers of those 17
utilities had been Austin Energy customers in 2009, they would have saved $4.58 billion less on
their energy bills – in that one year alone. This speaks not only to competitive AE rates but also to
the tremendous success of our energy efficiency and Green Building programs begun in 1982
and 1991, respectively.

• Average length of outages. During calendar year 2010, the length of power outages (SAIDI) in
the Austin Energy service area averaged 43.97 minutes – the shortest in our history. The industry
average is about 90 minutes. The number of outages per customer (SAIFI) at .63 is also
exceptional – against an industry average of 1.34. Weather plays a role (not many big storms last
year), but our crews have a superior work ethic in responding to outages. They respond
immediately and get problems fixed.

• Squirrels also set record. The tremendous performance of the AE system (and of our crews)
during calendar year 2010 is even more exceptional when you consider that the number of
outages during December included a record 251 caused by squirrels. December tends to be the
most active month of the year for squirrel activity – but this past December was a record-breaker.
Over the years, AE crews have installed thousands of squirrel guards throughout the system to
help address the problem. But squirrels not only touch things, they chew into insulation on lines –
making the problem very difficult to completely control.

• AE to pay franchise fees. The Austin City Council has authorized AE to begin paying franchise
fees to the eight communities served by AE outside the City of Austin. About 15% of AE
customers reside outside city limits, representing about $34 million in annual revenues. AE is
authorized to pay those communities a 3% franchise fee on revenues received from each.
Franchise fees are commonly paid by utilities for the use of rights-of-way for lines and other
equipment to serve communities. Outside communities served by AE include Bee Cave, Cedar
Park, Pflugerville, Rollingwood, Sunset Valley, The Hills, Lakeway, and West Lake Hills.
Franchise fee payments, once in place, would total about $1 million a year.

• ERCOT electric use up. Electricity use in ERCOT was up 3.5% in 2010 though AE saw a slight
decline. AE’s net energy load was 12.5 billion kWh in 2010 versus 12.6 billion in 2009 and 12.8
billion in 2008.
Coal-fueled electricity accounted for 39.5% of the energy produced in ERCOT, about a 3%
increase over the year before, while natural gas-fueled power dropped by about 4%. Wind
represented 7.8% of the total energy, compared to 6.2% in 2009 and 4.9% in 2008.
ERCOT ENERGY 2009 2008
BY FUEL TYPE
2010
Fuel Type Percent Percent Percent
Natural Gas 38.2 42.1 43.0
Coal 39.5 36.6 37.1
Nuclear 13.1 13.6 13.2
Wind 7.8 6.2 4.9
Water 0.3 0.2 0.2
Other 1.1 1.2 1.6