CPS Energy customers are frustrated, worried about vulnerable community members due to rotating outages

SAINT ANTHONY – San Antonio CPS Energy customers say they are worried about elderly and sick neighbors who are without power during rotating blackouts statewide.

Carlos Correa regularly checks his 90-year-old neighbors as they have been without power since 2 a.m. Monday morning due to ongoing rotational outages. He says his calls to CPS Energy for answers on when power would be restored went unanswered.

“We called everyone. CPS Energy has no one to talk to, no one to give us information to, even when our electricity is coming back, ”Correa told KSAT on Monday evening. “As much as we pay for our electricity use every month, (they) just aren’t prepared with anyone, with any kind of customer service or any kind of emergency command center to give us some kind of response. as to when we’re going to get some kind of electricity.

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CPS Energy: most customers are subject to service interruptions due to winter conditions

CPS Energy says the demand for energy was up to four times higher than expected. Some systems have been affected by high demand and others by equipment failures due to cold temperatures.

CPS Energy CEO Paula Gold-Williams said every energy system is under stress across the state.

“We are absolutely sorry that this is happening. It’s an unprecedented weather event that we actually thought the cold weather was behind us, ”said Gold-Williams.

Rudy Garza, of CPS Energy, claims that CPS Energy reaches its customers through all social media platforms, calls and emails. The utility company says it is also reaching out to elderly and sick people on their list.

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“In some cases, we have made robocalls to clients in this group, letting them know that if they are in a medical emergency where they are, maybe their house is getting too cold or their water tank. “Oxygen is depleted or something is going on, dial 911 and see a doctor,” Garza said.

As temperatures will continue to affect energy use, CPS Energy expects the blackouts to continue, which is why the company is urging customers to make plans.

Correa urges others to learn about their neighbors as well.

Late Monday evening, Gold-Williams released the following statement:

“We hope to see improvements overnight, but we face unprecedented challenges. Our goal tonight is to restore consistency to the grid. Conservation is important and we ask our community to continue to do all they can to limit the consumption of electrical energy and natural gas. We understand that this is a great demand from our customers and we sincerely apologize for any problems this causes them. Our customers are our neighbors, our families and our friends, and we do everything we can to make sure that we are working to make things better for everyone.

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“The rotating blackouts started statewide around 1:30 am Monday morning. Distribution network operators make real-time decisions with real-time information from ERCOT, and those decisions are made in a non-discriminatory manner. Although increasingly difficult to accommodate, utilities strive to preserve power to critical functions (ie hospitals, government entities, etc.) in order to limit the impact on these facilities. It is thanks to this outage management process, carried out over the same period in the major cities of the State, that the network can and must be re-stabilized.

“Be aware that all participants in the ERCOT grid take the same measurements. Extreme weather conditions have resulted in record energy use across the state. Thanks to energy reductions linked to outage management, CPS Energy used more than 4,954 MW yesterday, which was a winter record. Had the blackouts not been proactively managed thus far, winter energy demand would have exceeded summer highs for the first time in CPS Energy history.

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To help keep residents safe and off the road, CPS Energy walk-in centers will be closed on Tuesday, February 16, 2021. In addition, Braunig and Calaveras parks and lakes are closed until further notice. .

The utility company offered customers the following tips for warming up and saving energy:

• Stay warm by dressing in loose layers of clothing instead of a single thick layer.

• Wear a hat, even indoors. Keeping your head warm helps keep your body warm.

• Wear gloves or mittens to keep your hands warm, and wear a scarf to keep your neck warm.

• Use towels to block drafts around doors and windows.

• Be extremely careful when using gasoline generators. Do not use a generator inside your house or other inhabited building. Only run generators outdoors and make sure the exhaust is directed toward the outside of your home.

• Do not use camping stoves or outdoor grills indoors, not even in your garage. These can cause carbon monoxide to build up in your home and lead to carbon monoxide poisoning.

• Conserve the power of your mobile phone in an emergency. Here are some tips for saving battery life:

  • Dim the screen light

  • Turn off bluetooth

  • Close all unused applications

  • If possible, use text to communicate instead of making a call

  • If you have more than one cell phone in the house, keep one phone on for emergency updates and turn off the others to conserve battery life.

• Unplug sensitive equipment during a power outage, including televisions, computers and other electronics, which helps protect against any voltage irregularities that may occur when power is restored.

• If you have any medications that require refrigeration, please consult your pharmacist for storage instructions during an extended power outage.

• If you have a garage door opener, read the instructions for manually opening the garage door.

• Be very careful when you are outside in snow conditions. Fallen power lines can be hidden by snow, trees, or other debris. Always assume that a failed power line is live. If you see a broken power line, stay away and call us immediately at 210-353-4357 (HELP).

Stay informed

As always, your meteorological authority team will keep you posted. You can get the latest forecast anytime by adding our weather page to your favorites and downloading the KSAT Weather Authority app – available for Apple and Android devices.

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