Applications to be a member of the CPS Energy Community Input Committee (CIC) are officially open and will close on Friday, May 17. Those interested in applying can do so here.
The municipally owned electric utility is seeking to add four community members to the committee, which is intended to replace and combine CPS Energy’s Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) and Rate Advisory Committee (RAC).
Its 19 members will be responsible for providing the utility’s trustees with public opinion “on matters as assigned by the board,” such as rate structure, rate increases, the utility’s generation portfolio and other topics that have historically fallen to the two former committees, utility officials told the trustees in early March.
The RAC was retired last summer after helping give the board public input on its first rate increase in eight years and a new generation portfolio. While the CAC has existed since 1998, its meetings have previously been closed to the public. The rebranded committee will hold open meetings the public can attend or tune into, CPS Energy said in a press release.
The CIC will also have three subcommittees: power and technology; rates, finance and business; and customer relations and communications. Each member will have the opportunity to serve on one or multiple subcommittees, the utility said in the press release.
There are currently 14 sitting members on the CIC who were formerly on the CAC. The four new committee members will each come from one of four quadrants spanning the utility’s service area. Applicants can view the quadrant map and use an interactive tool to determine their quadrant here.
CPS Energy is also seeking to fill an existing seat for an at-large member. This member must live within the CPS Energy service territory but outside the San Antonio city limits. Qualifying applicants for the at-large member must reside in one of the 31 suburban cities or the unincorporated area of Bexar County.
CPS Energy Board of Trustees will review all applications and select the four members, one from each quadrant. The existing CIC members will select the at-large candidate. All five new candidates will be brought before the CPS Energy Board of Trustees for final approval at the board’s next meeting on Monday, June 24.
The creation of such a committee has been discussed since the RAC first launched three years ago in the wake of Winter Storm Uri. At that time, a group of residents voiced concerns about the CAC’s closed status, touting the need for a public committee like the RAC. Meanwhile, some trustees felt the creation of a rate advisory committee on top of the existing CAC was superfluous.
CPS Energy staff members have been working with current CAC members to draft the bylaws and vision for the new committee. Those new bylaws failed to be passed by the trustees in early March when Trustees John Steen and Vice Chair Francine Romero voiced concerns about not posting the new bylaws online for public review.
They were subsequently posted and approved on March 25.
