San Antonio is betting big that a giant new battery on the Southeast Side will help keep the lights on when the heat turns vicious. Crews broke ground this week on the Alamo City Battery Energy Storage System, a 120‑megawatt project designed to store about 480 megawatt‑hours of electricity and send it back to the grid for several hours during peak demand. OCI Energy developed and financed the installation and will retain ownership, while city‑owned CPS Energy will run the system under a long‑term agreement. Officials say the facility is meant to soften price spikes and give grid operators more tools when heat‑driven demand surges. Construction started May 19, and the site is slated to begin commercial operation in 2027.
What the project will deliver
According to CPS Energy, the Alamo City BESS is a 120 MW / 480 MWh system that is being built to discharge for roughly four hours and enter commercial service in 2027. The utility says the battery could supply the equivalent of about 30,000 homes for several hours during peak events, giving grid operators flexible, fast‑acting capacity when ERCOT conditions tighten. In the announcement, CPS Energy CEO Rudy Garza highlighted battery storage as a key part of the utility’s preparedness toolkit.
Where it will sit
The project is planned for southeastern Bexar County at 8003 Cover Road on the Southeast Side, north of the large Padua battery complex, according to the San Antonio Express‑News. Local reporting notes that Alamo City is one component of a broader multi‑phase buildout that, combined with other projects in the area, is expected to deliver several hundred megawatts of dispatchable energy to the region.
Who’s building and who’s supplying equipment
OCI Energy says it developed and financed the Alamo City project and will keep ownership under a long‑term storage capacity agreement with CPS Energy. Industry reporting indicates ING arranged the construction financing, LG Energy Solution Vertech is supplying the battery systems, and Elgin Power Solutions is serving as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor, according to Solar Power World.
How the battery fits CPS’s plans
Alamo City is one piece of CPS Energy’s Vision 2027 strategy to add flexible capacity as San Antonio grows, and batteries made up nearly 5% of the utility’s generation mix as of April, with the share projected to rise toward about 7% by 2040, according to the San Antonio Express‑News. To build on that, the utility has issued a Request for Proposal for up to 500 MW of additional battery storage, aiming to expand dispatchable resources and better integrate growing amounts of solar and wind, per CPS Energy.
Other projects and company moves
This month OCI and Israel’s Arava Power executed a deal for a 50% stake in the 670‑MW La Salle Solar project, which the companies say is expected to begin commercial operations in 2028 and would pair with storage projects in OCI’s Texas pipeline, according to PR Newswire. Industry coverage describes La Salle as one of the largest single‑site solar projects connected to OCI and an example of how the developer is scaling both generation and storage across Texas, per pv magazine USA.
Community benefits and next steps
OCI has pledged community benefits alongside the battery build, including a $250,000 contribution to the University of Texas at San Antonio to support educational initiatives, the company said. “This project represents a significant step forward toward realizing a more resilient, reliable energy system that San Antonians can be truly proud of,” OCI President Sabah Bayatli said in the company’s release, reported by OCI Energy. Construction is scheduled to continue through 2026, with commercial operation expected in 2027, and CPS officials say the site will be dispatched during peak demand periods to reduce strain on the grid.
For nearby residents and businesses, the big questions will be how the battery performs once the next brutal heat season arrives and whether it actually trims outage risk and emergency power costs. Officials say they plan to offer periodic community updates as construction moves ahead and as CPS folds the new resource into daily operations.
