CPS ENERGY ENGAGES COMMUNITY ON SAN ANTONIO’S ENERGY FUTURE
First open house for community input and feedback to be held October 6
October 5, 2022 (SAN ANTONIO) – CPS Energy is actively seeking input from the community as the utility develops a plan to power San Antonio’s future. The utility is currently working with its Rate Advisory Committee (RAC), a citizens group , and others to identify the best combination of power generation resources to replace aging generation units over the next several years. The planning process takes into account the age of existing power plants, the future of coal-powered generation units, changing ERCOT market demands, and the projected population growth expected for Greater San Antonio.
A variety of opportunities will be available for the community to learn more about the generation planning process and provide feedback, which will be shared with the Board of Trustees for their consideration. The RAC is also expected to make a recommendation to the CPS Energy Board of Trustees on which generation technologies they believe will provide the best value to the community over the next few years.
“Our CPS Energy team is committed to serving our community by providing reliable, competitively priced, and sustainable energy services in an equitable manner. We recognize and appreciate that many in our community want to learn more about generation planning and we want to help them,” said Benny Ethridge, EVP of Energy Supply at CPS Energy. “The generation plan we’re building now will allow us to replace aging assets over the next few years and provide us time to evaluate new, promising technologies such as geothermal energy, small modular nuclear generation, hydrogen storage/generation, and high-capacity/long-term storage that are under development today.”
The RAC is currently working with the utility to evaluate various combinations of generation portfolios to identify the best-value combination that will allow CPS Energy to continue to provide reliable, affordable, and climate resilient power to our community as the utility replaces retiring generation units over the next few years. The CPS Energy Board of Trustees is expected to determine a path forward to replace generation units retiring between now and 2028.
The utility is encouraging the public to learn more about the planning process and to provide feedback that can help the Board of Trustees. Customers can view the portfolios by visiting cpsenergy.com/pathforward and are encouraged to participate in a survey that can be found here.
CPS Energy is also planning a series of open houses and town halls aimed at providing information about the planning process and gathering feedback for San Antonio’s energy future. The open houses will feature several stations with insight on the generation planning effort as well as a wealth of information on the utility’s current power generation portfolio, environmental efforts and much more. CPS Energy experts will be available to answer questions, and opportunities for both comment and feedback will be made available to the public. Information about two upcoming open houses is below:
Power Generation Planning Open Houses
Thursday, October 6, 2022
CPS Energy Headquarters
500 McCullough Ave
San Antonio, TX 78215
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. – 7: 30 p.m.
Thursday, December 1, 2022
CPS Energy Headquarters
500 McCullough Ave
San Antonio, TX 78215
9:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
The effort to replace aging generation has made significant progress over the last year. This year alone, CPS Energy has worked with partners to contract 480 megawatts of solar through the utility’s FlexPOWER Bundle initiative. CPS Energy now has more than 1 gigawatt of solar — enough to power 200,000 homes – under contract.
More information, including presentations given at the RAC meetings, can be found here.
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About CPS Energy
Established in 1860, CPS Energy is the nation’s largest public power, natural gas, and electric company, providing safe, reliable, and competitively priced service to 907,526 electric and 373,988 natural gas customers in San Antonio and portions of seven adjoining counties. Our customers’ combined energy bills rank among the lowest of the nation’s 20 largest cities while generating $8 billion in revenue for the City of San Antonio for more than seven decades. As a trusted and strong community partner, we continuously focus on job creation, economic development, and educational investment. We are powered by our skilled workforce, whose commitment to the community is demonstrated through our employees’ volunteerism in giving back to our city and programs aimed at bringing value to our customers. CPS Energy is among the top public power wind energy buyers in the nation and number one in Texas for solar generation.
