SAN ANTONIO – Power has been restored to even more San Antonians overnight and the outage situation is nearly resolved following this week’s devastating winter storm.
CPS Energy CEO Paula Gold-Williams said Saturday morning during a briefing that the remaining outages are very low and are not related to the winter weather, but rather are due to equipment failure or other issues.
Overnight however, there was an outage of 1,630 customers who live near Cupples Road and Menefee Boulevard after a car hit one of the utility poles, according to Gold-Williams. Those customers’ service has since been restored.
As of around 10 a.m., CPS’s outage map shows under 100 customers are now experiencing an outage. You can see the latest on the outages in the area here.
Gold-Williams said the energy company is also looking to help customers with their next bill, as concerns have arisen about a potential spike following this week’s weather crisis.
“We have some challenges that we knew were going to happen with the cost that popped up over this period,” Gold-Williams said. “We’re looking at the billing system, we’re really trying to slow that billing system down.”
The “Manage My Account” portal on CPS’s website will be down for a period of time, and Gold-Williams said the energy company is looking to correct the system and remove the impacts from this past week on utility bills.
It’s unclear how long the system will be down for, and customers are not expected to pay their bills right now. Customers will also not be disconnected due to not paying the bill, according to Gold-Williams.
Going forward, Gold-Williams apologized profusely during Saturday’s briefing on behalf of the power company following the winter weather crisis.
“I am personally sorry. CPS Energy is personally sorry,” Gold-Williams said. “We never want to see that again, but we don’t actually control the weather patterns that occur. But, we will take every bit of effort and beyond to go back and be self critical and look for ways to do better.
You can watch the full briefing here.