{"id":634825,"date":"2026-03-05T21:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/634825\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:35:12","slug":"houston-controller-says-city-is-spending-more-on-electricity-bills-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/634825\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston controller says city is spending more on electricity bills \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/2018\/12\/04\/314058\/houstonians-celebrate-george-h-w-bush-at-memorial-tribute\/attachment\/city-hall-2-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-314079\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/city-hall-2-1000x667.jpg\" alt=\"The Public Memorial Tribute took place outside of City Hall. \" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\"   data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Elizabeth Trovall\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n<p>The Public Memorial Tribute took place outside of City Hall.<\/p>\n<p>The city of Houston is expected to spend more than $131 million on electricity this fiscal year, according to a new report from the city controller&#8217;s office, which says the city is on track to spend about 40% more on electricity than it did last year.<\/p>\n<p>Will Jones, with the city controller&#8217;s office, discussed electricity spending at a city council committee meeting this week. He said the city entered into an electricity contract with Reliant Energy right before the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/infrastructure\/2026\/02\/13\/543232\/texas-power-electricity-2021-winter-storm-ercot\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2021 winter freeze<\/a>, temporarily shielding the city from increased costs after the storm.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now that we&#8217;re in the renewal option, now we have some exposure to the reality of what everyone else has been paying for a while,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/hellohouston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Jones said energy costs are expected to remain higher due to infrastructure improvements after natural disasters, including the 2021 winter freeze and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/hurricane\/2024\/07\/08\/492798\/beryl-houston-updates-hurricane-landfall-monday-wind-outwges\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hurricane Beryl<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is not a one-and-done impact,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to be dealing with this for quite a while.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The city has used about 86% of the money set aside for its electricity contract with Reliant, an electricity retailer in the Houston area. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/infrastructure\/2025\/06\/17\/524284\/centerpoint-energy-reaches-3-2-billion-resiliency-plan-agreement-with-houston-area-cities\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CenterPoint Energy<\/a> distributes power to much of the region.<\/p>\n<p>The controller&#8217;s office said it&#8217;s continuing to monitor the city&#8217;s electricity spending.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Controller&#8217;s Office is closely monitoring the City\u2019s exposure and will continue to provide data-driven analysis that supports long-term planning, protects taxpayer dollars, and ensures the City is prepared for future market volatility,&#8221; Controller Chris Hollins said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Trovall\/Houston Public Media The Public Memorial Tribute took place outside of City Hall. The city of Houston&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":634826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[187682,135568,10882,116720,9972,4345,37336,5173,425,50,270546,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-634825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-2021-winter-storm","9":"tag-city-controller-chris-hollins","10":"tag-city-of-houston","11":"tag-electricity-bills","12":"tag-energy-environment","13":"tag-houston","14":"tag-hurricane-beryl","15":"tag-infrastructure","16":"tag-local","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-reliant-energy","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116178722919081206","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}