CPS Energy, San Antonio’s city-owned electric utility, is holding bills for its customers until it can fully determine how it will spread out additional natural gas costs incurred from last week’s catastrophic winter storm.
During a Tuesday press event, CEO Paula-Gold Williams said it will take a week or two before CPS Energy can determine what outside funding, if any, is available to help it cover costs. She emphasized that it’s not turning off customers’ power for nonpayment and that she doesn’t want to send out bills that will “shock anyone.”
“We want to do all we can do to access state and federal funds to defray costs for San Antonio customers,” Gold-Williams said.
In addition to halting bills, CPS Energy has taken down its auto-pay system and customers’ “Manage My Account” portal while seeking to adjust bills. It halted nonpayment disconnections in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has no immediate plans to resume them.
“We’re looking a the customers who were most effected and trying to see how we can help them,” Gold-Williams said.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg last week told KSAT he would “absolutely not” approving passing energy costs on to customers. He asked that the utility demand the Electric Reliability Council Of Texas, operator of the state’s power grid, cover those expenses.
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This article appears in Feb 10-23, 2021.
