Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
CPS Energy reports it has plenty of power capacity to keep San Antonio cool this summer.
CPS Energy President and CEO Rudy Garza told reporters gathered at a Friday news conference at its downtown headquarters that it could also provide electricity to the statewide power grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas should they get in an energy bind due to high demand.
"There's more than enough energy to cover the peak demand that we expect for our service area this summer," he said. "Our plants have been inspected, and our teams continue to focus on working safe as we head into the summer season."
Garza said the city-owned utility has roughly 9,500 megawatts of generation capacity this summer. He said as part of its Vision 2027, CPS Energy has added more gas generation and more wind-generated capacity.
He said they have also increased energy storage with a recent agreement signed in Seoul, South Korea, with partners OCI Energy and LG Energy Solution Vertech.
CPS Energy will likely see several peak demand periods with the long-range summer forecast issued by its own chief meteorologist, Brian Alonzo, during the news conference.
He said more triple-digit temperatures are likely this summer. And they are keeping an eye on the tropics, which could spawn hurricanes that could produce high inland winds that could wreak havoc on power lines.
"There are some hints there could be some tropical activity developing later on in the month of June, so we'll watching for that," Alonzo said. "One of the other factors also that's in play here is the West African monsoon, so as these storms come off the coast of Africa, they tend to get an area of circulation, an area of lower pressure going, and then essentially follow the trade winds and move westward."
CPS Energy reported that it also has assistance options for its customers who find themselves unable to afford summertime energy bills.
