As summer heat begins to grip San Antonio, CPS Energy is signaling to its customers that conservation efforts will be crucial in the coming months. Citing similar weather patterns to last year and consistent growth in energy demand, officials from the municipally owned utility briefed their trustees on the company's readiness to tackle the anticipated stress on the electrical grid. Last summer, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) recorded 10 new peak demand records, a trend that could repeat given the increase in consumption during the scorching months.
According to an article by the San Antonio Report, CPS Energy has a comprehensive plan in place to manage the coming season's demand. Benny Ethridge, the utility’s chief energy supply officer, conveyed to the board that their personnel, equipment, and procedures are primed for the heat onslaught. "By June 1, we’ll be certified to ERCOT," Ethridge announced, indicating CPS Energy's proactive measures for the season ahead.
ERCOT has warned of potential transmission bottlenecks as the energy landscape shifts with new green power sources coming online which are often located farther from urban demand centers. CPS Energy’s President and CEO Rudy Garza explained that local customer response to conservation calls could be pivotal in mitigating these issues. "There are going to be days where it gets tight. … I think this summer will probably look a lot like like last summer," Garza told San Antonio Report. Additionally, he commended the significant customer participation observed during last year's Orange Day conservation call.
Amid changes to the state's energy infrastructure, Texas is experiencing an unprecedented surge in population and, consequently, energy demand. ERCOT, tracking close to 40,000 megawatts of large load interconnection requests, is bustling with projects to upgrade the transmission systems. "There’s a lot of projects — ERCOT has issued tons of projects — to rebuild transmission systems, they just take a long time," CPS Energy's Chief Energy Delivery Officer Richard Medina clarified to the board of trustees.
With the backdrop of these challenges, CPS Energy is emphasizing the significance of demand response programs for both commercial and residential consumers. These initiatives have been expanded since the notorious Winter Storm Uri, with the intent to bolster the grid's reliability. "We had a very successful year last year; we had commercial customers that continue to step up to help reduce the burden on our residential customers — both through our demand response program and through a voluntary program — and we’re continuing those relationships and making sure that we are in contact with those largest customers," said DeAnna Hardwick, CPS Energy’s Chief Customer Strategy Officer.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas has yet to unveil a statewide demand response program.
