Austin, Texas Automatically Enrolls Low-Income Customers for Reduced Utility Rates

The Austin, Texas publicly owned electric utility, Austin Energy, offers significantly reduced rates to low-income consumers. It has adopted a system for efficient, automatic enrollment of customers who qualify for the reduced rates by reason of their receipt of other public benefits. See City of Austin Takes Extra Steps to Assist Low Income Utility Customers, Austin Energy, Feb. 9, 2010. Austin Energy is the nation’s 9th largest community-owned electric utility, serving more than 388,000 customers and a population of more than 900,000.

For more information on enrolling low-income customers in utility discount rate programs see PULP's website page on automatic enrollment.