This story has been updated.
To protect its power supply this winter, CPS Energy is launching a winter demand response program that will allow the municipally owned utility to turn down the thermostats of program participants at times of high energy use.
Demand response programs allow power providers to lower the demand within their systems, helping utilities like CPS Energy avoid the kind of rolling blackouts that occurred during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri.
The winter demand response program will work much like the utility’s summer version, said Jonathan Tijerina, CPS Energy’s vice president of corporate development.
Participants in the summer program, which runs from June through September, choose to allow CPS Energy to change their smart thermostat for them remotely through Wi-Fi or to receive a call, text and/or email from CPS Energy asking them to reduce their power usage during specific times. Participants receive a credit on their bills.
Residential and commercial customers who opt into the summer program can get up to a $30 credit during the year and a one-time $85 rebate to help cover the costs of getting a smart thermostat.
For the winter demand response program, which will run from Dec. 1 through March 30, participants can get an additional $20 credit.
“As part of our energy transition, we have taken our lessons learned from the summer and now implemented them into a winter program for the first time ever,” Tijerina said last week.
Customers who are enrolled in the summer demand response program will be automatically enrolled in the winter program, Tijerina said. Ratepayers are always able to opt out of either program after enrolling, he added.
To participate in the demand response program or learn more about it, click here.
Tijerina said enough residential and commercial customers have signed onto the demand response program to represent a savings of 65 megawatts. One megawatt is enough to power 200 Texas homes on a hot summer day. Roughly 24 megawatts of savings are coming from commercial volunteers, he said.
Roughly 150,000 thermostats of residential customers are already enrolled in the winter program, Tijerina said, which is attributable to about 42 megawatts of potential demand reduction.
During an extreme cold weather event, the utility will adjust participating thermostats by 2 or 3 degrees during peak usage times to lower demand, he explained. Residents interested in day-to-day conservation that will help them lower their winter power bills should keep their thermostats around 69 degrees during cold weather, utility officials said.
Battery storage incentives
CPS Energy also is launching a pilot program that will pay customers with personal battery storage systems to utilize them during times of peak power demand. A battery storage system is a device that enables energy from renewable sources like solar power to be stored and then released when it’s needed.
Residential customers with battery storage systems will be offered an incentive to utilize those systems during extreme winter events, Tijerina said. CPS Energy estimates roughly 1,800 residential customers own battery storage systems.
The utility is offering to credit such customers $20 each time they answer a participation call. If all customers with battery storage systems participated, the utility estimates it would save about 9.8 megawatts.
Answering a conservation call
For commercial and industrial customers, the winter demand response program works differently. Customers can respond to a conservation call by reducing their power usage within either 30 minutes or 60 minutes, Tijerina said. The customers who respond within 30 minutes will receive $45 per kilowatt for up to 40 hours in up to 10 requests for conservation. Customers responding within 60 minutes will receive $40 per kilowatt. One kilowatt could power a ceiling fan for about 20 hours.
The third option is for commercial and industrial customers who have their own backup generators. These customers would be paid $35 per kilowatt to go onto their backup systems during Energy Emergency Alerts issued by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, to help the state’s power grid during an emergency.
“We will not be using this as a normal option,” Tijerina said. “This is an additional tool in the process that we would work through being responsive to some type of a grid emergency for the wintertime.”
These three options have the combined potential of 90 megawatts of energy conservation, he explained.
Tijerina said running the winter demand response programs would cost up to $4.5 million in payouts and credits for the utility.
This story has been updated to correct the unit of measurement that commercial and industrial customers will be compensated for if they participate in CPS Energy’s winter demand response program.
CPS Energy is a financial supporter of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members, click here.
