Stateman Front Page Article on Georgetown Energy

The City of Georgetown is receiving a lot of publicity caused by the renewable energy debacle! The Austin American-Statesman has a feature article on the front page of today's paper. 

By Claire Osborn cosborn@statesman.com GEORGETOWN — The City Council plans to consider new third-party managers for Georgetown’s e n e r g y p o r t f o l i o t h a t includes its controversial long-term wind and solar contracts. Georgetown owns its own utility and has come under fire for losing money on its renewable energy contracts due to depressed natural gas prices. In February, the monthly electric bill rose by an average of nearly $13 for customers. 

Now the city is planning to hire new consultants who can devote their full-time energy to the nuances of the energy market, where prices on the state’s energy grid can change every few minutes. “We expect to bring a new portfolio manager for council to consider this summer,” Assistant City Manager Jackson Daly said Wednesday. He said the request for proposals to manage the city’s energy was released in February. 

The City Council heard a presentation Tuesday from a partner in an engineering company the city hired to assess its energy practices. S t e v e M o f f i t t o f Schneider Engineering said the city does not have enough people to dedicate themselves solely to the management of Georgetown’s energy contracts. The city’s general manager for utilities, Jim Briggs, for example, also is an assistant city manager, Moffitt said.

Moffitt said the city should hire new partners and recommended increasing oversight and accountability on energy decisions by establishing reporting guidelines for each level of contract management. He also recommended that the city develop a comprehensive risk management policy. 

The city paid Schneider Engineering $30,000 for the assessment. On Wednesday, Daly said such a policy “would address the limits within which staff, outside consultants or energy managers could make decisions with regards to the city optimizing its renewable resources without approval from the City Council.” “With the current market structure,” Daly said, “optimization opportunities can have a short window for action.”

It is interesting that Schneider Engineering did not recommend that the city explore the possible sale of the electric company to a private business. Why not?