A false statement attributed to San Antonio energy provider CPS Energy has spread on social media. The statement said that the network was on the verge of failure due to a warning for electric loads, which means that everyone, including hospitals, will lose power and that the water supply will also be cut off, without any indication of how long it will can last. CPS Energy has confirmed on social media that this is not an official CPS Energy message and that it is not coming from them.
‘From CPS Energy in San Antonio: The state has issued a critical warning for electric loads. Timetable is about to fail. Prepare! Water will also go out, so fill baths etc. At present, CPS Energy is no longer able to protect even critical infrastructure, such as hospitals, from some degree of eclipse […] High probability ALL customers will experience interruptions […] We have no certainty or ability to predict the duration or frequency of interruptions during this critical stage. […] Please reduce your thermostats to a maximum of 62 degrees, ”say the reports (here, here, here).
CPS Energy released a statement on their official social media sites here and here and said that it is not an official CPS message: ‘Although we provide several updates daily, you should know that it did NOT come from CPS Energy.’
Texas was hit by a severe winter storm that left 2.7 million households without energy during the February 18, 2021 publication, more than 12 million people with no or only alternating drinking water on tap in their homes, and some hospitals without water ( here). CPS energy is working to stabilize the network and restore power, according to a tweet from the company on February 17 (here).
The CPS Energy website says in the latest update of 15 February at 23:00: ‘Due to the continuation of extremely cold temperatures, the demand for power continues to exceed the energy supply, which increases the duration and frequencies of San Antonio […] The actions that CPS Energy is undertaking tonight are to avoid a catastrophic event for the ERCOT network. ”(Here)
On Twitter, CPS Energy advised people to reduce their thermostats to 68 degrees, not 62 (here). In a tweet of 18 February, CPS Energy says that most customers can expect to be restored if the temperature is above freezing, which they expect to be on 20 February (here).
On February 18, CPS also tweeted that hospitals in the area are not experiencing interruptions, here . On 15 February, they said on their website that they would try to ensure that hospitals were not affected by interruptions: “Although emergency services are becoming increasingly difficult to accommodate, they are working to force critical functions (ie hospitals, government agencies, etc.) to be preserved to limit the impact on those facilities. ‘(here)
VERDICT
Untrue. CPS Energy posted a statement on their social media pages saying that statement was not official and did not come from them.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.