CPS Energy and ACCION this month signed an agreement that will provide a venue for the utility to grow its Residential Energy Assistance Partnership (REAP) fund while helping area small businesses. Through the REAP Inc. trust fund, CPS Energy is making a $1 million loan to ACCION at a three-percent interest rate. The loan will allow micro-lender ACCION to provide loans to small businesses with limited resources.

The REAP fund was created in 2002 with the City of San Antonio and Bexar County.  Since its inception, CPS Energy’s annual contributions to the program have been $1 million or more and have mostly gone toward helping qualified San Antonio-area families in need.

Contributions not used for customer bill support are invested each year and the interest earned goes back into the program.

“By growing the fund, more San Antonio-area families can be helped with paying their energy bills in times of crisis,” explained Paula Gold-Williams, CPS Energy executive vice president and chief financial officer. “As we looked at various funds we might invest in, we identified ACCION.  Why not invest it with a group that gives REAP a good return and helps our community—especially in adding jobs associated with clean energy and sustainable initiatives?”

The trust fund is making the ACCION loan possible, with half of the investment mandated to go to green jobs and sustainable initiatives.  “This is a first-of-its-kind partnership for ACCION, working with a municipally-owned utility,” said ACCION President and CEO Janie Barrera. “We see this as having the potential to become a model that we can then take into other cities.”

ACCION will begin making the funds available for small business loans immediately. Businesses interested in applying for a loan should contact ACCION at 210-226-3664. For more information about REAP, visit cpsenergy.com.

ACCION provides credit and service to small businesses that do not have access to loans from commercial sources, as well as leadership and service to the micro lending field on a national level. Established in 1994 in San Antonio, ACCION has helped Texas and now Louisiana entrepreneurs, strengthen their businesses, stabilize and increase their incomes, create employment, and contribute to the economic revitalization of their communities.