San Antonio residents may experience interruptions until Wednesday, says CPS Energy

SANTO ANTÓNIO – CPS Energy customers experiencing blackouts may not have power on Tuesday night, when freezing rain is expected, according to authorities.

Energy company representative John Moreno joined GMSA @ 9 for a virtual question and answer session on Tuesday morning and said customers could be affected by outages on Wednesday.

“This is a very serious problem and we have been in it for a long time,” he said, adding that the Texas Electric Reliability Council determined the outages because a winter storm continues to engulf most of Texas.

Approximately two-thirds of the CPS power grids will continue to experience rotating outages during that time. The other one-third is dedicated to essential services, such as a hospital, base or police department.

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For residents who are experiencing interruptions, Moreno said it is difficult to say whether it is due to a technical problem, such as an interrupted power line, or because of the continuous interruption.

“They are all together, they are not separated into groups,” he said, referring to the outage map.

The goal was to alternate interruptions in 15 to 20 increments, but demand did not allow them to be consistent, he said.

Paula Gold-Williams, president and CEO of CPS Energy, said on Monday that most of the disruptions residents are experiencing are due to rotations.

Without blackouts, entire networks would be shut down, leaving them without power indefinitely, Gold-Williams said.

Because of demand – which has exceeded demand seen in the summer months – CPS officials are asking people to conserve energy when possible.

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When asked about CPS Energy’s downtown headquarters using electricity to illuminate its buildings at night, Moreno said he would “need to take a look” at the problem.

“We definitely need to do our part to conserve energy, so it is something that I will definitely follow,” he said.

Moreno said that CPS Energy also asked for essential services to conserve energy.

The dangerous mass of cold air in San Antonio will keep temperatures below zero for most of Tuesday. The partial meltdown will occur, just to see everything freeze again on Wednesday morning.

Freezing rain and drizzle are expected after sunset on Tuesday.

Some San Antonio residents without power told KSAT that they resorted to groupings or driving their vehicles for a brief relief from their cold homes.

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As of 11 am, about 320,000 customers in Bexar County were affected by power outages.

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As always, your meteorological authority’s team will keep you updated. You can get the latest forecasts at any time by checking our weather page and downloading the KSAT Weather Authority app – available for Apple and Android devices.

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