Reliability vs. climate change: CPS set to decide San Antonio’s energy future this month
CPS Energy's coal-fired power plants J.K. Spruce and Deely on Calaveras Lake Thursday January 4, 2018. Low temperatures in San Antonio have cranked up demand for heat and electricity.CPS Energy this month will decide what San Antonio’s energy future will look like — a process that will determine whether the city meets its ambitious goals for cleaner and more reliable generation in the next decade.
“When you look at the climate plan, the first strategy is this: How do we reduce the carbon intensity of our energy? Because then that’s going to influence everything else,” said Doug Melnick, the city’s chief sustainability officer. “If we start using more electric vehicles, it doesn’t help if they’re running on electricity that’s based on fossil fuels.”with newer ones that in some cases are still being proved to achieve a reliable, affordable power supply.
CPS staff have said the utility’s ideal mix of energy sources for the next several years should include more natural gas-fired capacity as well as more solar power.“We know that if we have enough gas today to manage the renewable generation that we continue to add, then we can meet the needs of our community,” said Senior Vice President Benny Ethridge, CPS’ top engineer. “That’s what we have to keep our eye on — we have to have something we can dispatch,” or switch on when needed.
A 21-member Rate Advisory Committee was established in early 2021 for city residents to provide public input as CPS began working on the generation plan. And after natural gas prices rose sharply after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early this year, San Antonio households saw record-high power bills over the summer. They were driven mostly by the costly natural gas that CPS was burning at its power plants.CPS Energy bills jump 43% in July to a record $254, but unpaid bills creating headaches for utility
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