Carbon-Free Electricity by 2030

CPS Energy was an early adopter of renewable wind and solar energy and has made efforts to provide innovative energy efficiency and solar programs, but the city-owned utility is still producing most of it’s electricity from coal and natural gas.  This is simply not compatible with preserving a livable climate or ensuring that local air is healthy to breathe. We call for a plan to shut down all of the utility’s fossil fuel power plants no later than 2030, while expanding investments in wind and solar energy, energy storage, energy efficiency and demand response.  We also include a few recommendations for the city of San Antonio and Bexar County. Together, these clean energy solutions can replace dirty fossil fuels.

We call on CPS Energy to:

  • Achieve Carbon-Free Electricity Generation by 2030 (no use of fossil fuels)
    • End the use of coal by 2025
      • Deely is retiring at the end of 2018
      • Spruce 1 and Spruce 2 retired by 2025
    • Rapid increase in utility-scale renewable energy and energy storage to replace fossil fuel generation (PPAs or asset purchase)
      • By 2020: enough capacity to replace peak demand needs fulfilled by Spruce 1
      • By 2022: enough to replace peak demand needs fulfilled by Spruce 2
      • Determine schedule for bringing on more capacity to replace all natural gas generation by 2030
    • Continued commitment to energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed solar
      • Set a goal to reduce energy use by 1.5% of total energy sales (megawatt-hours) per year from energy efficiency programs, not including demand response or solar programs.
      • Set a demand goal to reduce peak demand by 1500 megawatts per year.
      • Set goals for energy and demand savings achievements for distributed and community solar programs.
      • Encourage electrification, instead of expanding natural gas use
    • Phase in of time-of-use rates (higher rates when demand for electricity is higher)
  • Phase out use of nuclear energy
    • No new nuclear capacity additions
    • Retire the South Texas (Nuclear) Project (STP) as soon as possible
  • Commit to purchase more responsibly produced natural gas during phase out of fossil fuels (for electricity production and direct use in homes and businesses)
  • Expand commitment to energy equity
    • Expand low-income discount to all customers at or below 200% of the federal poverty guideline and auto-enroll customers
    • Continue expansion of community solar to keep up with customer demand and add a subscription-based program
    • Expand Solar Host program and identify and partner with funding for home repairs for low-income customers (at or below 200%) that are necessary to be a solar host
  • Plan for and encourage transition to carbon free electrification of transportation sector
    • Increase investment in publicly accessible charging stations
    • Expand incentives for the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, particularly in multifamily housing.
    • Offer a promotional rate for electric vehicle charging.
      • Public chargers – offer a monthly rate for unlimited charging at public charging stations
      • Home chargers – offer a promotional time of use rate at single and multi-family residences
    • Partnership with VIA to fully electrify public transportation
    • Rate incentive or allowance to encourage EV charging

 

We call on the City of San Antonio to:

  • Implement the following Energy Code enhancements:
    • Require Energy Code training for code inspectors with the city
    • Hire additional staff to enforce the Energy Code
    • Adopt a Solar Ready amendment to the Energy Code
    • Establish third-party plan review or performance testing for commercial buildings as a voluntary code compliance option, or consider a mandatory requirement
  • Require energy audit information to be disclosed prior to a prospective buyer making an offer on a property
  • For all rental properties, require energy audit information to be publicly posted and disclosed prior to a lease being signed
  • Require bench-marking data collection and sharing for residential, commercial, and  industrial buildings
  • Take the following actions to improve municipal buildings:
    • Existing city buildings: set goals for the City to evaluate and implement energy efficiency retrofits on existing city buildings at a faster rate than is currently taking place.
    • New city buildings: establish a policy for new city buildings to be at least 15% above code in energy performance.
    • Evaluate all city buildings for solar potential.

 

We call on Bexar County to:

  • Adopt Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) to finance solar installations and energy and water efficiency improvements at commercial properties (including multifamily housing)