Georgetown is getting ready to pay up for electricity it never used and residents are about to see the first bump on their utility bill in years.
You might not give a lot of thought to turning on your lights or adjusting your heat and AC, but it is a concern for city officials in Georgetown.
General manager of Utilities Jim Briggs says two big things are happening.
First, they're working to replenish millions from their rate stabilization fund. Last August and September, they budgeted for typical summer temperatures, but that didn't happen.
"Typically during that period we expect to get 95 to 100 degree temperature days and we expect that we will sell a certain amount of kilowatt hours during that period," said Briggs.
So with the lower revenue from customers than anticipated, they couldn't pay all their electric generation costs.
"We had an abundance of supply and we didn't have the demand,” said Briggs.
He said that's why they have their rate stabilization fund, which they try to keep at about $11 million and use for extreme conditions.
At the end of 2016, they had to borrow between $6 and $7 million.
Going forward, he said they hope to grow that reserve fund to about $20 million.
Second, Briggs said Georgetown residents may see their electric bill go up by about $2 a month if they use around 1,000 to 1,200 kilowatt hours. He said that's because ERCOT, which helps bring energy in from power plants across the state, has raised their service rates.
"They have increased the last several years, we have not adjusted anything relating to that portion of the rate since 2011," said Briggs. It's money he said is needed to make sure the power doesn't go out.
Right now a Wind farm west of Amarillo provides much of the city's energy.
They also have a gas contract until next year when they will switch to solar, making the city powered with 100 percent renewable energy.