AUSTIN, Minn. – Electric and natural gas costs for Austin Utilities customers will stay the same in 2020.

The Board of Commissioners recently approved the 2020 Austin Utilities budget at its November board meeting.

“Passing on good news to customers is always a pleasure. We are working hard to keep costs down during a time of reduced energy use while still maintaining our system,” says Mark Nibaur, General Manager. “Reliability is the number one concern of our customers and keeping our infrastructure up to date allows us to continue to provide reliable service.”

A 4.9 percent water rate increase for both residential and business customers in Austin will go into effect with the January 2020 utility bill. Austin Utilities say that will be an average monthly water bill increase of $1.48 for residents, while small to mid-sized businesses will see their water bills go up between $3.32 and $22.36.

“Wholesale power costs make up 74% of our electric operating budget and 62% of our natural gas budget. When these costs remain stable we have better control of costs to our customers,” says Nibaur. “We also implemented a long-term prepay contract that provides discounts for future natural gas commodity purchases and we continue to see efficiencies from moving all of our operations to one building.”