Austin Energy says extreme heat caused increased energy use in August

Austin (KXAN) — Austin Energy said customers used 15-20% more energy in the month of August compared to last year. The agency said the extreme heat is the largest reason behind that jump in usage.

Matt Mitchell, public information officer for Austin Energy, said the agency compiled energy usage data from this summer. It ultimately found that customers used about the same amount of energy in June and July of 2023 compared to those same months in 2022.

Mitchell said the increase in energy demand in late August was directly tied to the immense heat wave.

"I don't think that will come as much of a surprise. We saw those temperatures really elevated through the end of August. Several days in a row we had those calls for conservation from ERCOT. That really indicated to us that demand was surging," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said now that the hottest months of the year have passed, Austin Energy is preparing for the cooler months still ahead.

According to a report this week from ERCOT, the state is expected to have enough energy to meet demand from October through November if weather conditions are normal.

“We're doing our maintenance at our power generation plants and making sure that were stored up on the supplies that we need to respond to outages when temperatures are at the other extreme," Mitchell said.