San Antonio residents turned to the Caps Lock button on Monday when they expressed their frustration over CPS Energy.
The Facebook comment section below the city owner’s briefing was filled with boiling residents, raging through days without power amid icy conditions and impending rate hikes due to the storm.
One woman wrote that she spent three days without electricity or water, trying to keep her 4-year-old twins warm while the temperature in the house dropped to 36 degrees. Another man called for Paula Gold-Williams to be sacked and ‘held directly responsible for this debacle’.
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Gold-Williams, CPS Energy’s president and CEO, was asked by a reporter about the Facebook comments – and her bonus payment. She acknowledges the widespread anger of the public after a ‘terrible experience’.
“The anger people have, I understand that,” Gold-Williams said. “It’s a real fact and I’m in no way diminishing that people should be completely angry.”
Gold-Williams noted that CPS Energy canceled $ 13 million in incentive bonuses that would have been attributed to 1,800 of the utilities in May, with the COVID-19 pandemic likely to cut to the core of the utilities.
Gold-Williams would receive the biggest bonus, almost $ 530,000. The CEO earns a base salary of nearly $ 486,000.
“There are people who continue to uphold compensation as an element to focus on,” Gold-Williams said Monday. “What we believe is that we need to be focused on providing energy, serving and connecting and finding solutions.”
There is currently no discussion of incentive payment, she noted.
During the briefing, Gold-Williams said the utility had not yet had an estimate of the impact of the storm on customers’ bills. CPS Energy will pursue relief at the state and federal levels before charging excess charges on bills, she said, and could spread the cost over several years.
CPS Energy, which temporarily suspended the use of unpaid billing services in March, also suspended the auto-pay feature.
The work of the operation is cut out to restore the confidence of the public.
“Good luck earning TRUST back,” a customer wrote on Facebook. “YOU CHOOSE OUR POWER 72 HOURS STRAIGHT DOWN.”