Denton Municipal Electric staff have attached a price tag to the city's 100% renewable energy goal, and they want the Public Utilities Board to tell them on Monday which way to go.
A presentation prepared for the board's 9 a.m. meeting on Monday, Oct. 19, estimates the goal costs about $16.5 million a year for the city's own customers. That figure combines credit purchases with the premium the utility's wind and solar contracts carry over power from the city-owned Denton Energy Center and the market.
After subtracting what the utility could earn by selling its renewable energy credits, staff put the net figure at about $14.7 million a year.
Staff estimate that cost accounts for roughly 15% of the energy cost adjustment charge on customer bills, or about 5% of a typical residential bill. That works out to about $7 a month, or $83 a year, according to the slides.
Why the question is back
The agenda sheet ties the item to this year's budget talks over DME's proposed 3% base rate increase for 2026-27. Council members asked whether selling renewable energy credits, known as RECs, could soften or offset that increase.
A REC represents one megawatt-hour of renewable generation and can be sold separately from the power itself. DME's slides say REC prices have dropped from $3 to $6 per megawatt-hour to between 50 cents and $1.50 as more wind and solar has come online. As of March 31, the utility's account held about 1.82 million credits, mostly from 2025, valued at about $1.82 million.
The agenda sheet also acknowledges that directions the board and council gave in mid-2025, to write a city renewable energy policy, draft an integrated resource plan and look at buying up to 600 megawatts of dispatchable generation, have seen "no substantive progress." It cites staff turnover, other priorities and the current council's wish to revisit related topics.
Four paths on the table
The presentation lays out four supply models:
- Two versions of the existing Denton Renewable Resource Plan, which retire credits and keep an environmental goal. Staff list both as raising rates; one would also count rooftop and community solar.
- A model built on buying credits at the lowest cost, which keeps the goal, retires the credits and is listed as lowering rates.
- A non-renewable model paired with a long-range resource plan, which would drop the environmental goal, sell the credits and also lower rates. Staff flag that this path would affect the city's Climate Action Plan, and another slide says selling credits would add to the city's greenhouse gas inventory.
