Texas public power utility CPS Energy has completed winter readiness and preparations for the upcoming winter season, it reported on Dec. 2.
The utility conducted unit maintenance and increased energy reserves, bringing CPS Energy’s total energy reserves to 8,178 megawatts. This energy supply is enough to meet the power demands of over 2 million homes and more than enough to cover the record-breaking energy peak demand experienced in January 2024.
The utility also increased advanced technology, such as smart switches, to improve grid reliability. The technology supports early fault detection, limits the number of customers impacted by outages, and improves restoration times.
CPS Energy installed over 1,200 intelligent switches (reclosers) operating throughout the service area. The utility also conducted inventory checks to ensure sufficient materials are available for emergencies.
As part of reliability and resiliency, the utility added more infrastructure insulation, permanent enclosures, and heat tracing to the piping systems to improve the units’ performance, as required by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT).
CPS Energy also upgraded freeze protection to heating systems and insulated tanks to store the fuel oil needed to operate some units. These additional efforts are redundancy measures to improve infrastructure resiliency.
CPS Energy also continues to invest in tree-trimming efforts. Trees touching lines due to freezing rains are among the most common causes of electric service disruption in the winter. As part of the overall outage reduction efforts, CPS Energy invested $20.6 million in tree trimming for the fiscal year 2025—the highest level of investment since 2022. The utility allocated additional emergency tree-trimming funds for this winter season.
For its gas operations, the utility contacted natural gas suppliers to confirm they had also completed their weatherization efforts.
In compliance with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas winter readiness efforts, CPS Energy certified that winter preparedness activities were completed by December 1, 2024. CPS Energy submitted the required Declaration of Preparedness for winter weatherization to ERCOT for the utility’s transmission systems and power plants.
