CPS Energy's Winter Preparedness

We believe in year-round Reliability! We want our community to know what we did to prepare for extreme weather.  We made improvements in three key areas: weatherization, infrastructure, and communications.  

READ MORE:

• CPS Energy Encourages Conserving Energy To Manage Bills (12/23/2022)
• City of San Antonio, Bexar County, CPS Energy and VIA Share Coordinated Preparedness Information Regarding The Upcoming Arctic Blast (12/21/2022)
• Winter Weather Preparedness Report (1/31/2022)
• Winter Weather Preparedness Appendix(1/31/2022)
• Winter Preparedness Progress Report - Presented to the Board (1/31/2022)
• CPS Energy Prepared for Freezing Weather (1/19/2022)
• Winter Preparedness Progress Report - Presented to the Board (11/15/2021)

• We took freeze protection actions at power plants, including adding heaters, temporary enclosures and insulation.
• We completed enhanced insulation installation on power lines and devices, along with upgrades on selected systems.
• We invested more than $20M to enhance weatherization upgrades since 2011. We invested about $2M - $3M during 2022. We anticipate spending of up to $46M during the next two to three years.

• ERCOT has made improvements that complement our efforts in our service area.
  (LEARN MORE:  ERCOT)
• We reviewed and revised our list of uninterruptable circuits, including circuits that service key utility facilities.
  • If the San Antonio service area experiences another major load shed event, we expect to meet our goal to turn a customers’ power off for only 15 minutes at a time.
  • 155 of our circuits are now considered interruptible, meaning we have more areas where power can be cut if outages are required. 
• We have taken actions to improve the experience for all customers without jeopardizing critical facilities needed for emergency response.
• We partner with SAWS under a Resiliency Initiative to address circuit redundancy and strategies for onsite generation as a means of greater resiliency for the most critical facilities.

• We improved internal processes for communicating with customers, ensuring that important details are conveyed.
• We streamlined communication between CPS Energy and SAWS Operations Teams for greater responsiveness to the needs of both utilities.
• We communicate frequently with City of San Antonio, Bexar County Office fo Emergency Management, elected officials and stakeholders.
• We will continue status updates at the Municipal Utilities Committee (MUC) meetings & to our Board of Trustees.
  • Winter Preparedness Presentation November 2022
  • Weather Action Plan Report February 2022
  • Winter Preparedness Progress Report January 2022
  • Winter Preparedness Progress Update November 2021
  • Winter Preparedness Progress Update October 2021
  • CEP Recommendations Status Update September 2021