CPS Energy works to build customer buy-in to demand response energy conservation programs

SAN ANTONIO – Jonathan Tijerina stated CPS Energy is operating additional time to get consumers to preserve energy all the way through height demand occasions.

“To be honest, we’re probably fearful every single day,” stated Tijerina, the vice chairman of construction at CPS Energy. “We are manning and positioning ourselves to be in a position to respond to different events or triggers that might happen 24/7, 365 days.”

After town and county officers amassed only a few weeks in the past to urge folks within the San Antonio space to preserve energy with the continued excessive warmth, CPS Energy stated it’s taking a look to build up customer depend for its demand response program. The demand response program is one a part of the overarching Sustainable Tomorrow Energy Plan, or STEP, at CPS Energy.

Justin Chamberlain, the chief of demand response, stated demand response is a momentary reduction effort.

“Demand response is about short breaks of using energy to be able to relieve the grid,” Chamberlain stated. “We use it more and more now than we ever did back then.”

Chamberlain stated the demand response program began round 20 years in the past however CPS Energy is seeing its maximum utilization at the moment.

He stated it breaks down into 3 programs: the WiFi Thermostat Program, the Power Play program and the Commercial Demand Response.

“We’re trying to find a way to engage every customer to get them to conserve energy,” Chamberlain stated.

Chamberlain stated round 150,000 thermostats are registered and lively within the Wi-Fi Thermostat Program. But some CPS Energy customers stated they’ve by no means heard of this system ahead of.

“Honestly, I never have,” Adrian Nash stated. “But we’re big electricity savers unless it’s the AC. The AC is always running.”

People throughout San Antonio are discovering tactics to preserve, although it’s no longer via one in all CPS’ programs.

“We are on a budget, so what we do is we try to maintain the electricity and keep the lights off during the day,” Raina Rivera stated.

Tijerina stated demand response is a step in operating towards a larger answer when it comes to energy grid balance.

“It’s up to us as a consumer and it’s up to us as the utility to continue to figure out how we bring up awareness and offer those materials to educate and grow the programs further,” Tijerina stated.