DEPARTMENT: Finance
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Troy Elliott, Director
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT: CPS Energy’s Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan (STEP)
SUMMARY:
The presentation is to provide an update to the Transportation, Technology and Utilities (TTU) Committee on the progress of energy savings being made with the various products and services being provided by CPS Energy through the Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan (STEP).
BACKGROUND:
In May of 2009, the San Antonio City Council authorized the funding of the CPS Energy conservation and sustainability STEP program. The STEP program is a demand management program designed to encourage customers to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, buildings and processes thereby saving electricity and reducing system demand. The goal of STEP is to save 771 megawatts (MW) of electricity between 2009 and 2020 at an estimated cost of $849 million over this period of time. The Ordinance approving STEP also contained a number of accountability procedures which included the following:
• Quarterly reporting on the STEP Program;
• Independent verification by an outside consultant of funds expended and MW savings achieved;
• Review of consultant’s independent verification by City’s Public Utilities staff with input from the Office of Sustainability;
• Recovery of STEP expenditures through the monthly fuel adjustment after independent verification by an outside consultant and concurrence of the Chief Financial Officer/Supervisor of Public Utilities; and
• Monthly monitoring of the recovery of STEP expenditures through the fuel adjustment by the City’s Public Utilities staff.
CPS Energy awards rebates to qualifying customers who achieve energy savings via the various programs and services offered by CPS Energy. Programs from STEP range from complete HVAC system replacement to participation on the Casa Verde weatherization program. On a yearly basis, through a third party measurement and verification process, CPS Energy can then recover the cost of the program from the previous year through the fuel adjustment component of the customer bill. Now in its eighth year, the STEP program has had over 180,000 participants in its various commercial and residential programs. Furthermore, the achieved savings in energy demand is over 350 MW to date.
Funding for STEP is provided through two components. At the time STEP was implemented, approximately $8 million in funding for energy conservation programs was already included in CPS Energy’s electric base rates and as such, was applied to the STEP Program. The remainder of the annual cost of STEP is recovered through the monthly fuel adjustment charge.
For the most recent period of February 2014 to January 2015, CPS Energy expended $67.7 million on STEP. CPS is recovering approximately $58.4 million through the fuel adjustment for STEP (net of amount already funded in base rates). Based on this amount, the calculated amount currently included in the fuel charge is $3.10 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh). For the average residential customer, this equates to $3.57 per month for the STEP program. This rate became effective July 1, 2015.
ISSUE: This item is for briefing purposes only.
ALTERNATIVES: This item is for briefing purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT: This item is for briefing purposes only.
RECOMMENDATION: This item is for briefing purposes only.