You may be invoiced for electric service, water service, or both, depending on where you live in our service region. Other City services and costs may also be levied to you.
The First Page of Your Bill
Left to right:
- Updates and adjustments to the bill and City services are covered in this section of the utility news.
On the left:
- Service Synopsis Information about your utility account and current bill charges at a glance.
At the bottom of the page:
- Payment by Tear-Off StubContains all payment information. On the right side of the stub, you’ll find the account, payment due date, and contribution information. Various payment alternatives are listed on the back of the card.
- After the Due Date, the Penalty If payment is not made in whole by the due date, a late fee will be levied. Your next utility bill will include the late fee.
The Summary of Service
A summary of all utility charges appears on the first page of your bill. You may be charged for Electric, Water, Wastewater, Clean Community Service, Solid Waste Services, and Street and Drainage Services, depending on where you live. The following items are included in the Service Summary:
- Number of Accounts Your account number is ten digits long.
- Previous Charges/Activities
- Indicates if you paid your last bill in full or if you paid it in part. This part will show a credit (for overpayment) or a residual amount, as well as late fees (for underpayment or nonpayment).
- Charges/Activity Right Now
- A summary of your current utility bills.
- Charge for a Clean Community Service
- This fee supports programs that keep Austin clean and make our neighborhoods and downtown more livable.
- Charge for Solid Waste
- Covers administrative fees as well as your Austin Resource Recovery garbage cart fee. Charge for Drainage Service. The City’s drainage system is repaired and maintained with funds from this fund.
- Charges for street service
- This fee pays for the upkeep and repair of the city’s streets.
The Remaining Pages: Service Details
- Consumption Fees for Electricity, Water, and Wastewater Kilowatt-hours are the units of measurement for energy usage (kWh). The amount of water and wastewater used is measured in gallons.
- Graphs of Consumption
- Graphs illustrate consumption of electric, water, and wastewater services. Each graph depicts the usage of energy, water, or wastewater over the previous 13 months. They show the current billing cycle’s average daily use and cost per day.
- For information on electric service pricing, charges, and fees, go to Austin Energy.
- Austin is worth a visit. Charges and fees for water and wastewater services
Other Electric Charges
- Charges to Customers This fee is used to recoup overhead and administrative expenses.
- Electricity Rates in Five Tiers
- To encourage conservation, electric rates are divided into three categories. Residential users will be charged a monthly tariff based on their electric usage tiers, or levels. The amount of use can be distributed among one or more tiers. Commercial clients are charged according to their customer class and the voltage levels used in each class.
- Regulatory Fees
- This price covers power grid transmission costs, such as new transmission line construction and grid operation expenditures, as well as ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) administrative fees.
- Charge for Community Benefit
- The Customer Assistance Program, energy efficiency programs, and street lighting service are all supported by this fee.
- Adjusting the Power Supply
- This price covers power plant fuel costs as well as the total amount of power sold and purchased in the electric market. The Power Supply Adjustment is usually changed at the start of each year to reflect changing market conditions and fuel and power prices.
Other Water Charges
- Billing, metering collections, customer service, and the servicing and monitoring of fire hydrants across the city are all covered by the Customer Charge.
- Fixed Charges on a Scale
- It pays for the upkeep and upgrades of water meters, water lines, and other water infrastructure. The fee is calculated based on your monthly use.
- Charge per volume unit
- The expense of running water treatment plants is covered. The cost is based on 1,000 gallons of total invoiced water usage for the billing month.
- The Austin Water element of the Customer Assistance Program is funded through the Community Benefit Charge.
- Surcharge on the Reserve Fund
- A volume-based levy for all customers to help develop a reserve fund to compensate for revenue losses caused by both rainy and dry extreme weather patterns.
- Customer Charge aids in the recovery of billing, collections, customer service, and other account management overhead and administrative costs.
- Volume Charge in Two Levels
- The rate is calculated based on the number of 1,000 gallons of wastewater billed throughout the billing period. Water usage over a three-month averaging period, or monthly water consumption, whichever is smaller, determines the quantity of wastewater invoiced.
Clean Community Service
This charge is paid by all Austin residents to support programs that keep Austin clean and improve the livability of our neighborhoods and downtown. It’s split into two departments:
- Austin Resource Recovery is a non-profit organization dedicated to Street sweeping, dead animal collecting, and litter abatement are among the civic services included.
- Austin Code Department is in charge of enforcing several city ordinances as well as graffiti removal.
Watershed Protection
- The Comprehensive Drainage Fee is used to maintain and repair the City’s drainage infrastructure, such as cleaning creeks, water quality ponds, and storm sewer drainage systems. It also sponsors programs to aid with flooding, erosion, and contamination of the water supply. The cost is determined by the amount of impermeable cover on the land.
Public Works
- User Fee for Transportation This fund is used to pay for street upkeep and repairs, such as pothole repair, street resurfacing, and street construction. Customers who use more above 150 kWh are charged a price that varies depending on the structure of their home.
Download These Guides to Learn More
- Electric Charges – A Guide to Your City of Austin Utility Bill (pdf)
- Water and Other Charges on Your City of Austin Utility Bill: A Guide (pdf)
To get more information about your bill, download these guides:
- Una gua para sus facturas de servicios pblicos – cargas elctricas de Austin (pdf)
- Una gua para sus facturas de servicios pblicos – agua y otros cargos en la city de Austin (pdf)
Is electricity included in the City of Austin’s utilities?
Utility rates from the City of Austin are included in your bill. It may include charges for drainage, power, solid waste, street service, wastewater, and water, depending on where you live.
Information on Your Utility Bill
The following information is included in each bill:
- Account NumberThis is the phone number to call if you have a question about your account. This number should be written on checks and electronic payments. If there are any leading zeroes, make sure to include them.
- Date DueDate by which the bill must be paid in order to avoid a penalty.
- Contact InformationCall these numbers if you have any questions.
- Messages or announcements from the utility.
- Contributions is a section on your pay stub where you can make charitable contributions.
- Charges for each of your utility services are listed here.
- Drop Boxes and Authorized Pay Stations are locations where you can pay bills or deposit payments.
Charges on Your Utility Bill
If you have Austin Energy electric service, your account will include tiered charges for your electricity usage. Other charges, such as customer charges, power supply adjustments, regulatory, community benefit, and energy efficiency charges, will be included.
Your account may contain costs for water, wastewater, solid waste, recycling, and street service if you get other utility services from the City of Austin.
To learn more, download these guides:
In Spanish:
What is the energy charge on a Texas electricity bill?
Q. On my bill, I see an energy fee, a demand charge, and a fuel charge. Why are you billing me three times for electricity?
A. Your electric service is separated into three components on a non-residential account: a demand charge, an energy charge, and a fuel fee. The demand charge is based on the peak demand for electricity, which is measured at 15 or 30 minute intervals (depending on the Entergy company providing your service). Installing a water line in your home is a good analogy. The larger the pipe, the more water that can be provided (i.e., capacity). That’s what your demand fee measures: your maximum kilowatt delivery during a 15- or 30-minute period.
The amount of kilowatt hours you used during the billing period is reflected in your energy charge. It’s comparable to the amount of water that flowed through your pipe throughout the billing period. The energy charge is calculated by multiplying the number of kilowatt hours you used by an energy charge per kWh. The fee is for the non-fuel cost of generating these kilowatt hours (i.e. cost of generating plants and power lines).
Finally, the fuel charge is essentially a cost pass-through for any purchased electricity as well as the fuel required to achieve the required energy output. Fuel is not subject to a markup. Entergy bills you the amount it pays for the fuel and electricity it purchases to meet your energy needs.
A. Energetics Texas uses a unique meter that captures kilowatt consumption in 30-minute increments, allowing us to calculate the highest kilowatt consumed throughout a billing period. The length of your billing cycle is determined by the jurisdiction that handles your account. To calculate your demand fee, multiply the period’s peak demand (kilowatt) by a demand charge. Tariffs can be found here.
Q. Part of my company’s operations are being shut down, and we’ve cut our operations by three-quarters in the last four months. Despite this, my electric cost, particularly the demand charge, has remained practically unchanged since we reduced activities. What exactly is going on here?
A. Your energy consumption is influenced by a number of factors. Have you shut down all of your machinery, pumps, heating and cooling systems, lighting, and computer activities in addition to the majority of your operations? In addition, several Entergy tariffs provide for the annual recovery of capacity provision expenses (i.e., providing you with the maximum amount of energy capacity you require). As a result, your demand fee may be based on a previous peak, which may continue to apply throughout the recovery period (in most cases a year). During this transition period, you should avoid creating a new peak demand. As a result, your monthly bill will be reduced sooner.
A. Executive Summary (Collective) Billing is an Entergy service for companies with three or more operations (for example, manufacturing or assembly factories, stores, distribution centers, schools, and so on) inside a single Entergy operating company, such as Entergy Texas. The electric bills of business customers are rolled up and presented once a month as a master bill that comprises the details of each individual account. To remain a collective billing customer, the company must pay its account by the master bill’s due date.
What is a typical monthly kWh usage?
The average annual power consumption for a household utility user in the United States in 2020 was 10,715 kilowatthours (kWh), or roughly 893 kWh per month. Louisiana had the greatest annual electricity use per residential customer at 14,407 kWh, while Hawaii had the lowest at 6,446 kWh.
For further information, go to:
RECS stands for Residential Energy Consumption Survey (detailed data on U.S. residential energy consumption for selected years)
Other FAQs about Electricity
- How old are nuclear power stations in the United States, and when was the most recent one built?
- A kilowatthour of electricity is generated using how much coal, natural gas, or petroleum?
- In the United States, how many smart meters have been deployed, and who has them?
- What do you think the price of home heating fuel will be this winter?
- How much does it cost to produce electricity using various power plants?
- Is data on electric utility rates, tariffs, and demand charges published by the EIA?
- Customers of electric utilities have the option of choosing their electricity supplier.
- How much of the energy consumed and generated in the United States comes from renewable sources?
- Is there data on each power plant in the US at the EIA?
- In each condition, what sorts and amounts of energy are produced?
- How much of the carbon dioxide produced in the United States is due to power generation?
- Is the EIA able to provide data on energy use and prices for cities, counties, or zip codes?
- In the United States, how many power plants are there?
- What is the number and location of nuclear power plants in the United States?
- How much power does the average American household consume?
- Does the EIA provide state-by-state estimates or projections for energy output, consumption, and prices?
- In the United States, how much electricity is utilized for cooling?
- In the United States, how much power is consumed for lighting?
- In the United States, how many alternative fuel and hybrid automobiles are there?
- What is the energy source for power generation in the United States?
- In the United States, how much does it cost to create various types of power plants?
- Is data on peak or hourly electricity generation, demand, and prices available from the EIA?
- In the United States, how much electricity is lost in transmission and distribution?
- What are the different types of power plants’ efficiency levels?
- Is the location of electric power plants, transmission lines, and substations published by the EIA?
- What’s the difference between electricity generation capacity and actual generation of power?
- How much electricity is generated by a nuclear power plant?
- Does the EIA have data on energy production at the county level?
- How do Americans use electricity in their homes?
- Is the EIA able to provide statistics on power sales and prices by state and utility?
- Is there any information on the costs of power transmission and distribution at the EIA?
- What percentage of global energy use and production comes from renewable sources?
- How much energy does each energy end-use industry consume globally?
- Is the EIA aware of any unplanned disruptions or shutdowns of energy infrastructure in the United States?
What is the average monthly kWh usage in Texas?
For two reasons, Texas homes use more electricity than the national average. For starters, our houses are larger. Second, the expense of cooling has a significant impact on our usage. According to EIA data, the average residence in Texas uses 1,176 kWh per month, or 14,112 kWh per year.
Is electricity in Austin Texas expensive?
Housing costs in Austin are notoriously low, but they are expected to rise even further in 2020. Mortgage rates are at an all-time low, notwithstanding the demands of the previous year. Despite the fact that mortgage rates have risen since the housing bubble of 2020, they remain below the national average in Austin, at less than 3%.
Median Home Prices in Austin
The median cost of a home in Austin, like most cities, varies greatly and is prone to rapid change. Overall, property prices in Austin have increased by 32% year over year. In addition, comparable price hikes have been recorded in neighboring counties. Home prices in Travis County, Austin, can range from $325,000 to more than $3.5 million. Cedar Park houses for sale will cost between $300,000 and $1.2 million; homes for sale in Round Rock range from $200,000 to $1.5 million.
While current statistics indicate that median Austin property prices will continue to rise in the more populous counties, many communities in the surrounding area still have low median values. Home prices in nearby cities like Redwood, Lockhart, and Martindale are closer to the national average.
Median Rent in Austin
The average monthly rent in Austin is around $1,335 dollars. In the Austin area, the average cost of renting a property for various dwellings has risen in the last year. The average rent for a one-bedroom unit is $1,335 per month, while two-bedroom rentals are roughly $1,650 per month. Rental units with three bedrooms cost on average $2,100 per month, and four-bedroom ones cost on average $2,573 per month. Monthly rent for a studio apartment in Downtown Austin is roughly $1,768. Studio apartments outside of Central Austin, on the other hand, can cost much less per month. North Austin, Coronado Hills, Heritage Hills, South Manchaca, North Lamar Studio, Georgian, and University Hills are among of Austin’s low-rent communities. Renters are exempt from paying for maintenance and repairs, as well as homeowner’s insurance and other associated expenditures.
Utilities in Austin
Austin utility prices are still roughly 12% lower than the state and national average. Electricity bills in Austin average $147.04 per month; water bills average $36.74 per month; internet bills average $50 per month; and phone bills average $156.74 per month.
Because of measures sponsored by Austin Energy, Austin has lower energy expenditures due to lower kilowatt per hour usage.
What are the costs of utilities in Austin?
You can also look into cost of living indices if you’re new to Austin. The average cost of basic utilities (electricity, heating, water, and garbage) for a 914 square foot apartment is $171.43, according to Numbeo. The price range is $130.33 to $230. The average monthly cost of using the internet is $44.00.
Is Austin Energy a set price or a variable price?
All of Austin Energy’s customers benefit from consistent, low-cost electricity. We are aware of media reports indicating that non-Austin Energy customers could face high utility bills, and we want to reassure our consumers that Austin Energy will not profit financially from this winter storm.
Electric rates are managed by variable price billing for clients impacted by big bill spikes, making them sensitive to rapid price fluctuations from the wholesale energy market, both up and down. Austin Energy’s base rates, on the other hand, are set in stone, and any adjustments must be approved by Austin City Council, our governing body, following a lengthy rate review process.
Most recently, in 2017, City Council directed Austin Energy to lower customers’ base power costs by 6.7 percent. A Power Supply Adjustment is included in Austin Energy’s rate structure (PSA). Austin Energy bills clients for the expense of supplying electricity to the neighborhood. It covers the cost of fuel for our power plants, the cost of electricity received from the grid, and any net income or losses incurred by Austin Energy when it generates and sells electricity to the grid. The PSA is evaluated once a year. In November 2020, City Council directed Austin Energy to cut the PSA by 1.9 percent.
Austin Energy will assess the impact, or cost, of purchasing electricity from ERCOT after subtracting the net money generated from generating electricity during the winter event. After that, the electric utility will have a clearer idea of the PSA’s financial impact and can offer suggestions to City Council.
Residential clients are charged based on their actual energy consumption, which is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh) and recorded by their electric meter. During these outages, no electric usage was recorded from meters for anyone who was without power. Customers of Austin Energy are only charged for the electricity they use, and they will be invoiced at the present prices set in the November 2020 rate tariff. A customer’s power bill will be greater than usual if they consumed more kWh than usual. If a customer uses fewer kWh than usual, their cost will be lower than in a typical month.
Please keep an eye out for developments from Austin Energy on Twitter, Facebook, and our website.
Is water a part of Austin Energy?
Residents of Austin and several nearby communities have access to public utilities provided by the City of Austin. The City of Austin may provide you with one or more utility services, depending on where you live.
Multiple City Utility Services All in One Bill
All of your City of Austin utility services are included in your bill. Charges for drainage, power, solid waste, street service, wastewater, and water can all be included.
At our walk-in service locations and over the phone, customer service representatives are available to assist you. You can also manage your account and pay your bill online if you register.