SAN ANTONIO – With memories of the 2021 February freeze still at the forefront of many people’s minds once winter hits, CPS Energy said it is ready for the cold weather.
Top utility executives laid out their preparations, which included weatherizing power plants and ensuring they have the capacity to produce more power than they expect to need.
“In short, the plants are ready,” said Chief Energy Supply Officer Benny Ethridge.
Nothing is for certain, though.
The statewide grid’s operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), has estimated there is up to a 16.77% chance it has to order rolling outages in January and up to a 14.66% chance in February.
However, those risks are calculated based on a “severe winter storm event” happening on the highest energy demand day of the month and vary hour-to-hour, with the risk peaking between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.
In any case, Garza says he and other CPS Energy officials can only focus on what’s within their power.
“I think all operators across the state of Texas have heard loud and clear that, you know, we’ve got a job to do to ensure reliability. And all we can do here in San Antonio is ensure our plants are ready,” said CPS Energy President and CEO Rudy Garza.
If there are rolling outages to cope with power loss across the grid as a whole, the utility said it wouldn’t be like the 2021 freeze when some customers complained they had mere minutes of power compared to hours without it.
“Customers should see 15 minutes off and then hours on depending upon how much load that (statewide grid operator) ERCOT’s asking us to give them,” Garza said.
But given many CPS Energy customers’ feelings from the 2021 freeze, KSAT asked Garza why they should believe CPS Energy now.
“The proof is in the pudding, right?” Garza said. “I mean, we’ve got to earn their trust as we get through every season. But, you know, we have not had an event since Winter Storm Uri. And, you know, our track record has to, you know, factor in.”
Conservation Program
The utility is also trying to entice customers to join a voluntary program in which CPS Energy can remotely turn down your thermostat settings if it has to conserve energy.
Customers get an $85 bill credit for enrolling and then a $20 credit for the winter and a $30 credit for the summer. However, customers only get the seasonal credits if the utility hits a point where it needs to invoke that ability.
The utility said customers can still manually override the adjustment. Even if they do, they’d still get the credits.
Only certain smart thermostats are eligible. For a full list and more details on the program, CLICK HERE.