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 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 BY FUEL TYPE

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Monday Morning – January 31, 2011

News

Customer bills lowest. Comparisons between AE and other utilities are a natural as webegin 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 todetermine the average monthly residential electric bill of utilities nationwide. Looking at thetop 17 electric utilities in Texas you find that, based on average bills, if the residentialcustomers of those 17 utilities had been Austin Energy customers in 2009, they would havesaved $4.58 billion less on their energy bills – in that one year alone. This speaks not only tocompetitive AE rates but also to the tremendous success of our energy efficiency and GreenBuilding 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 ourhistory. 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 tooutages. They respond immediately and get problems fixed.

Squirrels also set record. The tremendous performance of the AE system (and of ourcrews) during calendar year 2010 is even more exceptional when you consider that thenumber 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 Decemberwas a record-breaker. Over the years, AE crews have installed thousands of squirrel guardsthroughout the system to help address the problem. But squirrels not only touch things, theychew 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 payingfranchise 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 fromeach. Franchise fees are commonly paid by utilities for the use of rights-of-way for lines andother equipment to serve communities. Outside communities served by AE include BeeCave, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, Rollingwood, Sunset Valley, The Hills, Lakeway, and WestLake 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 aslight decline. AE’s net energy load was 12.5 billion kWh in 2010 versus 12.6 billion in 2009and 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%. Windrepresented 7.8% of the total energy, compared to 6.2% in 2009 and 4.9% in 2008.

ERCOT ENERGY BY FUEL TYPE

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2010 2009 2008

Fuel Type Percent Percent PercentNatural Gas 38.2 42.1 43.0Coal 39.5 36.6 37.1

Nuclear 13.1 13.6 13.2Wind 7.8 6.2 4.9Water 0.3 0.2 0.2Other 1.1 1.2 1.6

Telethon event a success. Univision and Austin 3-1-1 teamed up for a live five-hourbroadcast Thursday night from 3-1-1 facilities on Rutherford Lane to highlight access to Cityservices using Austin 3-1-1 as a bilingual information center. The telecast included both liveand taped interviews with representatives of various City Departments, with Austin 3-1-1 stafftaking calls to answer questions. Over the five-hour period, Austin 3-1-1 received more than700 calls – more than five times the average number of Spanish language calls normallyreceived during a similar timeframe. The successful live event titled “A Su Lado” (On YourSide) may be the first of several as the City seeks new ways to publicize the services itprovides.

Customer motivations. AE Market Research Planning & Development works closely withMarketing Communications and Energy Efficiency Services in developing marketing strategyfor AE programs. Their research has turned up a few facts that may surprise some. Itindicates the majority of customers are interested in saving money over energy. Customersare also more interested in saving money over saving the environment – even when theyconsider themselves “green.” In short, the research shows that advertising should alwaysanswer the customer’s question of “What’s in it for me?” Research also shows that CFLs area gateway to other conservation activities. Those who have a high percent of CFLs in theirhomes also are more likely to have participated in other AE conservation activities.Participants taking advantage of low-flow shower heads and toilet offers are also likely

participants in electric-related conservation measures.

Solar learning centers. A contractor has been selected to design and build solar outdoorlearning centers planned for 15 AISD schools over the next year. Each learning center willhave a fully functional 4-kW solar system and will be designed to allow visual and interactivelessons on solar energy. Schools selected for this project include Akins High School, AnnRichards School for Young Women Leaders, Bowie High School, Burnet Middle School,Covington Middle School, Crockett High School, Eastside Memorial High School, LamarMiddle School, McCallum High School, Mendez Middle School, Paredes Middle School,Pearce Middle School, Pleasant Hill Elementary/LHRC Annex, Reagan High School, andTravis High School. The learning centers will be built with a $450,000 DOE grant, with AEcontributing $375,000 in matching funds. AISD is contributing in-kind services valued at$75,000 for the development of a solar curriculum. Since AE’s Solar for Schools program

began in 2006, AE has helped fund solar installations at 32 schools – a number thatincreases to 47 once these learning centers are in place.

Photo Gallery

Kramer linemen supervisors Scott King and Jeff Bradford helped judge the Live OakElementary science fair. The winning students at the fair will participate with 2,500 otherelementary students in the Austin Energy Regional Science Festival Feb. 23 – 26. Seeslideshow of Live Oak Science Fair.

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Keeping up with growth. AE linemen are installing a new feeder line out of the Hidden

Valley substation off 620 in Northwest Austin to help power growth in the Lakeway/SteinerRanch area. In all, crews are installing more than a mile of new power lines and upgrading 8transformers. Work is expected to be completed in another month. See photos.

Engine inspection. Sand Hill staff use a borescope camera to inspect the inner workings ofvarious equipment, including their “jet engine” peaking units. The high definition camera isattached to a flexible cable that can be inserted into equipment to find any cracks orimperfections. See photos.

Housekeeping

AE Quarterly Report. AE General Manager Larry Weis presented the company’s quarterlyreport to the Austin City Council last week. Click here to view a copy of the presentation.

2010 TechNews Report. Cyber security was big in 2010: find out how to personally help AEstay secure by checking out ITT’s 2010 End of Year TechNews Report, available now on ourIntranet at http://intranet/its/techNews2010.pps . In 2010, Austin Energy’s Information

Technology & Telecommunications Division delivered several new services: employees cannow access the network from their Smartphones – ITT began supporting iPhones andAndroids last year. Also ITT has deployed a power management program calledNightWatchman, which can power down our computers when not in use. ITT also managed18 terabytes of information, oversaw more than 50,000 web pages, logged more than 25,000service requests, and saw 10 of its 41 ongoing technology projects go live last year, includingMaximo. Last but not least, check out these new websites: Austin Energy Green Building , theRate Review Portal , and the Customer Solution Partnership project site. Congratulations toITT for keeping AE wired!

Kudos

“On Thursday of last week, a tree blew over at Hearn and Carole Streets resulting in apower outage. Thank you so much for being so prepared for this type of event. Your crewsworked from Thursday morning until sunlight Friday morning to fix this problem. That is reallyappreciated. In addition, you installed a new street light at this dark intersection making itmuch safer for the residents who park along the street at night. Thank you for being soprompt and attentive to our needs.” -- Austin Energy customer

“I just wanted to take the time to say that I really liked the presentation this morning byCarlos Cordova (Corporate Communications) on how to answer questions regarding AustinEnergy’s rate review. I agree with everything Carlos said. He was very informative, precise,honest and positive. We have so much to be proud of and sometimes that gets lost in theprocess and along the way. It was truly a breath of fresh air hearing his presentation.” --Rosabella Stowe , Utilty Account Specialist.

Austin Energy Family News Farah Mack , son of Dion Mack (Remittance Processing Manger in rotation) received the

President’s Academic Achievement Award. He was one in 180 students in the Central Texasarea to receive the award. The award is presented to students who maintain a 94 grade pointaverage from 6th grade through 8th grade.

Alex Matlock , son of James Matlock (Program Manager Environmental Policy) and a seniorat Pflugerville High School, received the MLK Youth Legacy Award for 2011 from the Seton

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Family of Hospitals in the Academic Excellence Award category. Alex, who has a 3.8 gradepoint average, is also a standout in football. He will be signing a national letter of intent thisweek to play football at the University of Kansas on a full scholarship.

News You Can Use

Discounts and special deals . Are available to City employees on a wide range of itemssuch as rent discounts at various apartment complexes and discounts at gyms restaurants,hotels and more. Information on all discounts and special deals for City employees areavailable on the City’s Intranet site at http://coacfprod.coacd.org/city_discounts/default.cfm

Lose weight with calcium. In an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study, dieters withthe highest calcium intake from foods lost 60% more weight than those with the lowest. Aimfor 1,000 mg a day and avoid supplements researchers say; a U.K. study says they raiseyour risk of a heart attack. Best sources of calcium in addition to dairy products: spinach,okra, black eye peas and baked beans.

Whey protein lowers blood pressure . A Washington State University study found that menwho drank a daily shake that included whey protein (one scoop) for six weeks dropped their

blood pressure by about 8 points. Researchers believe Whey may improve the function ofblood vessel linings so they regulate blood pressure better.

Employee Activity

A summary employee activity report is provided every two weeks under a new COA HR reportingsystem.

Contact Monday MorningWe always welcome feedback, comments, news and story ideas for Monday Morning . Feelfree to email or call anyone in our Public Information Office:

Carlos Cordova ( [email protected] ; 505-3576)Leslie Sopko ( [email protected] ; 505-3678)Sarah Fusco ( [email protected] ; 322-6230)