DEPARTMENT: Finance - Public Utilities
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Ben Gorzell, Chief Financial Officer
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT: Recognizing the 75th anniversary of City ownership of CPS Energy
SUMMARY:
City Council will consider a resolution commemorating the 75th anniversary of City ownership of CPS Energy
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
CPS Energy was established 157 years ago as an independent energy company, serving the entire San Antonio metropolitan community. In 1942, the city purchased the company, City Public Service Company for $34 million, an investment that has since returned nearly $7 billion. The utility was later renamed CPS Energy, and over the years, its commitment to innovation has greatly benefited area residents.
In the 1950s, CPS Energy introduced a customer service phone system and installed the first streetlight system downtown. During the 1970s, it partnered with other utilities on a jointly owned nuclear power venture, now known as the South Texas Project, and in the following decade, the company initiated Project WARM to help those in need pay their winter utility bills. In its first two years alone, this commendable fund-raising effort provided assistance to 4,000 families. In 2002, in coordination with the City of San Antonio and Bexar County, CPS Energy established the Residential Energy Assistance Program, a nonprofit organization that assists low-income families with children, elderly individuals, or persons with disabilities in the household. Since its creation, the program has raised $22.4 million and assisted more than 76,000 households.
In the 1990s, CPS Energy introduced two coal-fired power plants, J. K. Spruce Units 1 and 2, and over time, it has made significant investments in emissions control technology to Unit 2. The utility's 2012 acquisition of the Rio Nogales natural gas plant in Seguin significantly increased the use of lower carbon fuels, and since the turn of the century, the company has also b...
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