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SAN ANTONIO – The winter weather in our area continues to bring strain water, electricity and natural gas supply in the San Antonio area. Leaders for San Antonio Water System and CPS Energy met with San Antonio officials on Wednesday to discuss the current situation with our utilities.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and council members grilled SAWS CEO Robert Puente and CPS Energy CEO Paula Gold-Williams after hearing from furious constituents who want answers as to why they don’t have their utilities.
Gold-Williams and Puente sympathized with customers and said their crews are working around the clock to solve these issues, but it could be a matter of days before most or the city sees relief.
Gold-Williams said CPS Energy first saw notices about bad weather and thought they’d be done with weather by Tuesday of this week.
She explained that every community has an energy peak, which typically happen in the summer. She said CPS’ capacity is 7000 megawatts, and a typical summer peak is about 5,100 MW.
The winter storm brought demand up to about 5,500 MW, with fewer power plants open at this time due to typically less demand, Gold-Williams said.
The energy company CEO says the entire was stressed, with one nuclear power plant down and some plants with assets that are between 25 and 50 years old.
The assets in the plants used to bring San Antonio its energy are designed to withstand the area’s typical temperature range — just below freezing and up to more than 100 degrees.
Gold-Williams said some of the plants were effected due to the extreme elements and unprecedented demand because a winter peak had never exceeded a summer peak. CPS Energy usually prepares for summer peaks during time when there is less demand.
Gold-Williams said when energy officials also saw an increased demand for natural gas, priced skyrocketed more than 10,000% and haven’t been capped. Natural gas systems had to be brought down in capacity due to high demand, she said.
Gold-Williams gave an overview of how San Antonio’s power system is divided. She said a third of the system is connected to critical services in the city, a third is connected connected to a higher frequency, and a third that does not affect the overall infrastructure of the system.
Gold-Williams said the third of the system that uses critical services cannot have any outages, and the high frequency portion can have selective outages. The third that doesn’t affect the system’s infrastructure will get the most outages, because it will not unbalance the system.
Gold-Williams also pointed to some issues with renewable energy, but those methods aren’t used as much during the winter time and spring.
The energy CEO says the weather is a big factor in bringing more people outage relief. She said she expects most people to back to normal between Saturday and Monday.
Gold-Williams pushed for more conservation from those who have power to lessen the demand on the system and stabilize it before it can be fully restored. She said CPS Energy is working with local businesses and organizations in the city to try to reduce power consumption.
Nirenberg has asked the the utility company CEOs to step up their messaging systems to better inform the community.
During the meeting, Puente informed community members about a precautionary boil water notice for water used for consumption. For more information, click here.
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February 18, 2021 at 06:20AM
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When is my power coming back on? CPS Energy CEO says complete outage relief coming in days - KSAT San Antonio
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