Who We Are

Awards and Recognition

You Benefit from an Award-Winning Utility

As your publicly owned electric utility, Austin Energy innovates and regularly develops new approaches to meeting customer and community needs. You benefit from highly trained Austin Energy staff who proactively seek opportunities to make a difference, find new efficiencies, and offer you new ways to save and thrive.

We love when these efforts earn awards as organizations around the world see how we strive to power a cleaner, brighter future with customer driven and community focused solutions. That means we have a chance to let other communities know how to better help their utility customers, too.

Check out some of our recent awards, and how each one connects with helping Austin Energy customers:

2024-Present

  • Austin Energy’s EVs for Schools initiative was named the Overall Winner of the 2025 IDC Smart Cities Awards for its innovative, education-driven approach to advancing transportation electrification, STEM learning, and environmental justice through curriculum, teacher toolkits, and hands-on student engagement.
  • Austin Energy received the Platinum Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3®) designation from the American Public Power Association for excellence in reliability, safety, workforce development, and system improvements—an honor held by just 251 utilities nationwide. The designation is valid from May 2025 through April 2028.
  • Austin Energy’s Occupational Health & Safety team earned the 2024 Diamond-level Safety Award of Excellence from the American Public Power Association, the highest recognition for outstanding efforts to reduce incidents and build a strong culture of workplace safety.
  • Austin Energy received the Silver Award for Excellence in Electric Vehicle Programs from Chartwell’s 2024 Best Practices Awards for its EVs for Schools initiative, which integrates STEM education, clean mobility, and environmental justice into school curriculums and community outreach.
  • Austin Energy won first place in the Safety, Emergencies, and Outages category at the E Source Utility Ad Awards for its Customer Outage Prep campaign, which used a multilingual, multi-channel approach to educate customers on how to prepare for and respond to power outages.
  • Austin Energy’s Electric Vehicles & Emerging Technologies team won the 2024 BikeTexas Champion Award for its E-Ride Rebate Program, which has issued over 4,000 E-bike rebates to the Austin community and expanded incentives to improve accessibility and affordability for all residents.

2022-2023

  • Austin Energy received an Excellence in Public Power Communications Award from the American Public Power Association in the Web & Social Media category in 2023 for its social media response to Winter Storm Mara.
  • Austin Energy was named a 2023 Smart Energy Provider designee by the American Public Power Association for demonstrating a commitment to and accomplishment in smart energy program planning, energy efficiency, environmental programs, and customer experience.
  • Austin Energy’s District Energy and Cooling team won the 2023 System of the Year Award (SOYA) from the International District Energy Association (IDEA). The SOYA is the highest honor IDEA can bestow on a district energy system. It recognizes high-level performance and service that furthers the goals of the district energy industry.
  • Austin Energy’s Electric Vehicles and Emerging Technologies team received the Global Award for “the Ebikes are for EVeryone” project in 2023 at the 7th Annual Smart 50 Awards, honoring the top 50 most innovative smart city projects worldwide.
  • Austin Energy’s Residential Energy Efficiency Services team received the 2023 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year — Sustained Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, marking the sixth consecutive year and 17th overall recognition for the team.
  • Austin Energy’s Corporate Communications team won an Award of Excellence in Public Power Communications from the American Public Power Association for its base rate review video, recognized for making a complex subject more accessible to customers.
  • Austin Energy earned the RP3 Diamond Level designation from the American Public Power Association in 2022, the highest level awarded to public power utilities demonstrating excellence in reliability, safety, workforce development, and system improvements.

2020-2021

  • Austin Energy won the American Public Power Association’s Smart Energy Provider award in both 2020 and 2021, which recognizes proficiency in energy efficiency and distributed generation for sustainable electric service.

  • Austin Energy received the 2020 and 2021 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year — Sustained Excellence Award for Energy Efficiency Program Delivery which includes operational as well as marketing and communications efforts to grow and promote residential energy efficiency programs for Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® and the Weatherization Assistance program.

  • Austin Energy won the Texas Public Power Association’s 2021 System Achievement Award for work to provide customers with bill assistance throughout the pandemic and after the winter storm.

  • Austin Energy earned a spot on the 2021 Utility Transformation Leaderboard and as a Top 10 Utility Leader for the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA).

  • Austin Energy won the Smart Cities Connect 2021 Smart 50 Award for launching a customer-driven initiative removing barriers to electric vehicle adoption by improving the consumer EV buying experience. This international award recognizes the EV Buyer’s Guide as well as the work to train auto dealer sales staff and install interactive digital kiosks at local dealers while working with car manufacturers to expand the local EV supply.

  • CS Week recognized Austin Energy in the 2021 Expanding Excellence Awards for the Innovation in Digital Customer Engagement Award, for Austin Energy’s work to improve the customer experience by expanding payment channel offerings to customers.

  • In 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy selected Austin Energy as a Proving Ground for Advanced Building Technology to pilot a new technology and incentive pilot for multifamily property customers, especially to help residents save on energy bills.

  • In 2021, Austin Energy won Chartwell’s Best Practices Gold Communications Award for the EV Buyer’s Guide and the work done to promote the guide since its 2019 launch to help customers learn more about electric vehicle availability and access in Austin.

  • Austin Energy won the American Public Power Association’s 2021 Excellence in Public Power Communications Award of Excellence for the Move Over, Slow Down video to protect utility workers.

  • Austin Energy won the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative’s 2021 Best Practices Consumer Engagement Award for improving the consumer EV buying experience through work that includes the EV Buyer’s Guide, auto dealership engagement, and car manufacturer engagement. Austin Energy’s residential solar education program also won an Honorable Mention in SECC’s Consumer Education award category.

  • The City of Austin won a 2021 National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors’ (NATOA) Award of Distinction for the 2020 Zilker Holiday Tree Lighting Virtual Ceremony. In addition, the program won First Place in the Texas Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (TATOA) 2021 Government Programming Awards for Partner Production and received the Kurt Ugland Programming Impact Award. Austin Energy contributed to making this a successful online event.

  • Austin Energy won Second Place in the 2021 TATOA Government Programming Awards for Profile of an Organization/Department with this winter storm coverage.

  • Austin Energy continued to rank in the National Renewable Energy Lab’s Top Ten Utility Green Pricing Program rankings in 2020 after multiple consecutive years in this top group due to customer subscriptions in Community Solar and GreenChoice® wind energy.

  • The City of Austin won Green Builder’s® 2020 Sustainable City of the Year-Large Municipality award, in part due to Austin Energy’s commitment to sustainability in electric vehicles, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and green building.

  • The City of Austin was the only city in this hemisphere to win the 2020 E-Visionary Award, granted by the Electric Drive Transportation Association and World Electric Vehicle Association for our transportation electrification leadership, including our work in expanding electric mobility and enhancing environmental sustainability across our region.

  • Austin Energy won the Positive Charge (Electrification) Award in Zpryme’s 2020 Utility Industry Spotlight Awards for outstanding electric vehicle programs, deployments, education programs and marketing campaigns in the City of Austin.

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Date last reviewed or modified: 05/07/2025