Item 15 - Large Customer Usage and Conservation Presentation — original pdf

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Large Water User Overview Water and Wastewater Commission Austin Water | May 20, 2026 Current Water Supplies Austin’s Water Supplies Supply: 325,000 Acre Feet Per Year Centralized Reclaimed System  State-granted water rights to the Colorado River and a contract with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) for Highland Lakes stored water  Total supplies of up to 325,000 acre- feet per year  LCRA reservation and use fees pre- paid in 1999  Additional use payments trigger when average for two consecutive years exceeds 201,000 AFY 3 3 Service Area and Requirement to Provide Service City of Austin Jurisdictions Austin Water Service Area AW's Service Area is the Council-adopted water and wastewater impact fee service area  Approved/amended by Council at 5-year cadence  Service outside the Service Area is prohibited, unless authorized by Ordinance  Water & Wastewater impact fees are assessed within the Service Area 5 City of Austin Jurisdictions Austin Water Service Area Jurisdictions within the Service Area  City's full-purpose jurisdiction  Limited-purpose jurisdiction  Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ)  Unincorporated parts of the county (Travis, Williamson, Hays & Bastrop) 6 Austin Water Service Area Wholesale Customers deliver retail service within their designated service area and rely on the City for water and wastewater treatment  5 Surrounding Cities  5 Municipal Utility Districts  2 Water Control and Improvement Districts  5 Other Water Utilities and Water Supply Corporations 7 Austin Water and other Providers CCNs Certificates of Convenience & Necessity (CCN) within the Service Area City of Austin Water CCNs City of Austin Wastewater CCNs  Administered by the Public Utility Commission of Texas  Grants City the exclusive right to provide retail water or wastewater service  Legal obligation to provide "continuous and adequate service" within a geographic area 8 Utility Planning, Development Process and Water Benchmarking Utility Planning Process Overview Water Forward, Integrated Water Resource Plan Planning for a reliable water supply for the next 100 years Long Range Infrastructure Plans Capital Improvement Program Planning Planning for water, wastewater, and reclaimed infrastructure for the next 50 years Infrastructure and investment decisions for the next five and ten years 10 Development Process Overview Service Extension Request Land Development Review • Subdivision Plan Review • Site Plan Review • Water Benchmarking Application Building Review • Building Permit • Construction Inspections Evaluation of suitable and sufficient service for customers seeking to connect to AW systems Engagement on water conservation and reuse requirements and incentives and applicable code provisions Building scale review, onsite water reuse systems, dual plumbing, and cross-connection protections 11 Development Process & Service Extension Service Extension Request (SER):  Utility needs for water and wastewater are evaluated through the SER and Site Plan Review process  The process ensures that water, wastewater and reclaimed water systems are suitable and sufficient  Infrastructure improvements are designed, constructed and paid for by the developer  Proposed extensions must meet AW's infrastructure planning goals Example Service Plan 12 Development Process & Service Extension Process Outcomes:  AW develops a utility service plan for new development – specific to site and project needs  Applicants gain true cost and construction feasibility for their project  Allows orderly expansion of the water and wastewater system infrastructure  May include oversized infrastructure with City cost participation to advance AW’s long range planning goals Example Service Plan Exhibit 13 Water Benchmarking Application  All commercial and multi-family site plan applicants identify how water will be used on site, as well as water reuse and conservation opportunities before construction begins.  Projects with 250,000 SF or more gross floor area are required to meet with Austin Water to discuss water reuse and conservation strategies, requirements, and incentives. 14 Conservation and Reuse Requirements and Incentives Water Conservation Requirements  Commercial Irrigation Facility Assessment  Required bi-annually for facilities on properties 1 acre or larger  Assessment of irrigation system for required components and no water waste  3,000+ facilities  Commercial Vehicle Wash Facility Assessment  Required annually for all facilities that wash vehicles  Assessment of required components and water use limits  160+ facilities  Cooling Tower Efficiency Program  Required for all facilities with cooling towers to register and submit annual inspections  Inspection of required water conserving components (Uniform Mechanical Code)  250+ facilities 16 Water Reuse Requirements Development Size Requirement Small (less than 250,000 SF) Large without multifamily (250,000 SF or more) Large with multifamily (250,000 SF or more) • Connect to reclaimed water within 250 feet OR • Collect and reuse condensate for makeup water in evaporative cooling towers Install an onsite water reuse system • Connect to reclaimed water within 500 feet OR • • Connect to reclaimed water within 500 feet OR • • Install an onsite water reuse system OR Install dual plumbing, make ready to connect to reclaimed water and pay a fee to support reclaimed system expansion (for developments more than 500 feet from reclaimed water) 17 Water Conservation and Reuse Incentives Water Conservation Incentives Go Purple Reclaimed/Reuse Incentives  Bucks for Business (Performance-based  Onsite Water Reuse System pilot rebate) – up to $100,000 incentive – up to $1.5 million  Cooling Tower and Alternative Cooling  Reclaimed Water Main pilot incentive – Systems – up to $100,000 up to $1.5 million  Water Efficiency Audits – up to $5,000  Austin Water-funded expedited building  Other landscape, irrigation, and equipment rebates – amounts vary  Reclaimed Water Connection (existing customers) – up to $100,000 permit review – up to $36,000  Dual-Plumb Affordable Housing Incentive – up to $1million 18 Large Customers and Water Usage Commercial and Large Volume Overview  2024 Cost of Service Study: Provides a basis for developing rates  Equitable cost recovery from retail customer classes  Engaged Residential, Multifamily, Commercial and Large Volume representation and feedback  Developed a cost-of-service rate model for AW’s use  Commercial Customer:  A place of business, such as a retail sales establishment, hotel, restaurant, or office building that uses water for commercial purposes.  Large Volume Customer Criteria:  An existing commercial customer of Austin Water that purchases more than 85.0 million gallons of water during a fiscal year (October 1 to September 30) at a single service address or campus. Austin Water monitors water consumption annually to determine if any existing customers have exceeded the threshold. 20 Large Water Customers Five-Year Comparative Data (2021-2025) (in thousands) Customer Customer Class 2021 Gallons 2022 Gallons 2023 Gallons 2024 Gallons 2025 Gallons Samsung Austin Semiconductor Large Volume 2,209,533 2,383,134 2,475,074 2,361,100 2,230,946 Travis County WCID #10 University of Texas (1) NXP USA INC (Formerly Freescale, Inc.) (2) Tesla Motors, Inc. (3) Wells Branch MUD North Austin MUD #1 Wholesale Large Volume Large Volume Commercial Wholesale Wholesale Cypress Semiconductor (Formerly Spansion) Large Volume Austin Independent School District (4) Northtown MUD Mid America Apartments LP Commercial Wholesale Multifamily 753,560 520,519 648,249 1,258 456,577 400,097 332,495 224,754 317,037 241,296 908,379 650,782 745,931 128,143 488,547 461,390 348,005 296,899 318,331 233,526 897,142 846,738 740,867 318,332 383,265 379,901 391,386 312,320 314,571 203,175 835,371 976,550 665,478 374,982 426,074 413,129 357,325 302,906 337,180 183,924 899,768 858,617 547,050 544,342 466,788 431,373 353,836 334,779 329,625 196,791 Total (5): 6,105,375 6,963,067 7,262,771 7,234,019 7,193,915 (1) Totals for the University of Texas include all accounts. (2) Totals for NXP USA, Inc. include their East Austin plant site and their West Austin plant site. (3) 2023 was the first year that Tesla Motors, Inc. was a Top 10 customer. 2021 is the first-year data was collected. (4) Totals for Austin Independent School District include all campuses and locations. (5) Total may not add due to rounding. Source: Austin Water. 21 2025 Water Use Breakdown Large Volume Customers 6% Non-Revenue Water 16% Single-Family Residential 27% City of Austin 1% Wholesale 5% Industrial 2% Commercial 17% Multi Family Residential 25% 22 Historic Water Use 23 Residential Water Use: Highest use with greatest variation D C P G 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 24 GPCD by Calendar Year and Quarter STAGE 1 STAGE 2 Q3 2018 Q4 2018 Q1 2019 Q2 2019 Q3 2019 Q4 2019 Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020 Q1 2021 Q2 2021 Q3 2021 Q4 2021 Q1 2022 Q2 2022 Q3 2022 Q4 2022 Q1 2023 Q2 2023 Q3 2023 Q4 2023 Q1 2024 Q2 2024 Q3 2024 Q4 2024 Q1 2025 Q2 2025 Q3 2025 Q4 2025 Total Commercial City of Austin Single-family Residential Multi-family Residential Industrial Wholesale Non-revenue Water GPCD STAGE 1 STAGE 2 24 Water-Saving Practices by Current Large Customers City of Austin Pilot Project Onsite Blackwater Reuse  5,000 gallon per day onsite reclaimed water plant treats the building’s wastewater and recycles it back into the building to flush toilets/urinals in a closed loop system 26 Wastewater Mining at Apple  1,500 employee campus with >3M square feet of buildings  Corporate sustainability goals to achieve net zero water, especially in a drought- prone area  Used AW incentive of $500k to install their own reclaimed water plant that treats campus and COA wastewater from an adjacent sewer main  Reclaimed water is used to offset 60 million gallons per year of freshwater in toilets/urinals and cooling systems 27 Reclaimed Water at UT Austin  UT has blended COA reclaimed water in their utility cooling systems since 2013  They also collect condensate and foundation drain water to supplement their cooling tower evaporative losses  Currently designing a 1 million gallon per day reclaimed water treatment plant on their campus to offset the remaining potable water used in their cooling systems 28 Reclaimed Water at Travis County Facilities  Travis County started using the City’s reclaimed water for many of its building HVAC systems in 2019  In 2024, the county saved more than 13 million gallons of drinking water and saved $166,000  The new Travis County Courthouse at 17th and Guadalupe is dual plumbed to use reclaimed water for toilet/urinal flushing, irrigation and HVAC systems pending completion of a new City reclaimed water main 29 Recommendations  Austin Water is uniquely prepared to respond to new water use requests with industry best practices:  Water Benchmarking creates opportunities for water-saving features early in the development process  Reuse Requirements for onsite and connecting to reclaimed water system  Go Purple provides funding for developer incentives and expansion of reclaimed water system  Future Initiatives  Water Budgeting – Set budget based on water-use data from My ATX Water and charge higher rates for water use above baseline for non-residential use  Consider zoning and land use category for data center developments 30 Building Austin’s water future, together. Water and Wastewater Commission May 20, 2026