CPS ENERGY’S RATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE VOTES ON POWER GENERATION RECOMMENDATION FOR BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Board of Trustees to evaluate how to power San Antonio’s future
December 15, 2022 (SAN ANTONIO) – Today, the CPS Energy Rate Advisory Committee (RAC) made a recommendation on a combination of generation resources to present to the CPS Energy Board of Trustees on Monday, December 19 in regard to the generation planning process. The RAC recommends Portfolio 2, which includes gas, solar, wind and storage. This selection was made after months of meetings with CPS Energy, consultants and a series of community engagement efforts.
The RAC studied nine different portfolios, each with a diverse set of technologies to serve the expected energy demand of the growing community. Over the last few months, over 50 data sets have been analyzed as well as different market scenarios such as extreme weather and conservation.
“The RAC is making a recommendation to the Board for Portfolio 2 which eliminates coal from our generation portfolio by 2028 and adds quick-start generation to increase our reliability,” said Reed Williams, Chair of the Rate Advisory Committee.
“This has been a robust process and I’m thankful to the RAC and CPS Energy staff for their work together to shape the dialogue on this complex issue,” said CPS Energy board trustee, Dr. Francine Romero. “I am thankful to have been part of this process and look forward to future discussions with my fellow Trustees.”
The generation planning process shapes how CPS Energy will power the community going forward, aims at selecting the best combination of power generation resources to replace aging generation assets while meeting the city’s climate goals, maintaining reliability and keeping bills competitively-priced. The planning process takes into account the age of existing generation assets, the future of coal plants, potential customer bill impacts, projected growth in the nation’s fastest growing city, and other factors.
CPS Energy has engaged with the community through a series of events surrounding generation planning. During morning and evening open houses, customers engaged with subject matter experts on a variety of topics ranging from power generation to environmental efforts, and much more. Customers were also encouraged to participate in a tele-town hall that took place last week and were invited to participate in a customer survey.
CPS Energy’s Board of Trustees will consider the recommendation from CPS Energy, the RAC, and information gathered to decide how to power the San Antonio community moving forward.
The Board of Trustees meeting in which this will be discussed will take place on Monday, December 19, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. The Board meeting can be live streamed on CPS Energy’s website and those interested in providing public comment can pre-register 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 $9 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.
