Austin Energy says its plan balances affordability with the city's climate commitments. Some environmentalists and council members strongly disagree.
Austin Energy has proposed building a natural gas"peaker" plant to generate power when energy demand and prices are high.
But the energy demands of a growing city – and the costs of importing power from often distant wind and solar farms – have created a need to generate more power closer to where it’s consumed.. These plants typically operate in times of peak energy demand. The utility says the plant would run only in times of high energy costs and high demand, and is necessary to keep electricity affordable and reliable.
“The point is that if technology evolves and we don't need peakers in three, five, seven years ... then they probably have already paid for themselves,” Martin said. “They're pretty easy to pack up and sell.” Instead of building a new gas plant, she said, Austin could keep its power supply reliable by building out more rooftop solar, investing in utility-scale batteries and increasing energy-efficiency programs.
She and others critical of the plan hope the City Council will amend it this week to include stricter mandates and metrics to push the utility toward decarbonization.calls for more research into greener alternatives to a gas power plant and"establishing regular and clear reporting guidelines to the Council" on Austin Energy's progress in achieving its emissions goals.
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