Most customers are subject to rotating interruptions as winter weather continues

SAN ANTONIO About two-thirds of the CPS Energy grids will continue to rotate for the next 24 to 48 hours due to unprecedented demand amid freezing conditions that are expected to continue for the next few days, officials said on Monday.

CPS Energy updated media sales Monday afternoon, hours after the Texas Electric Reliability Council said rotating outages across the state would continue until Tuesday.

Paula Gold-Williams, CPS Energy president and CEO, said the goal is to try to turn out interruptions in 15 minutes. But with a large demand, coupled with a reduced ability to generate power due to the freezing point, she acknowledged that the results were inconsistent.

Some customers reported longer interruptions, with power returning only a few minutes at a time.

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“We are taking all the information into our capacity and trying to solve problems,” Gold-Williams said.

Most of the disruptions experienced by San Antonio residents are due to the rotations. Some customers may be out of service for longer due to other factors such as equipment outages, Gold-Williams said. About a third of the network will still have power because certain circuits provide critical services, such as a hospital or police department.

Usually, CPS Energy sees the highest energy demand in summer when the hottest temperatures are set. But this ice storm surpassed the demand seen in the summer, Gold-Williams said.

Gold-Williams said the crew worked 24 hours to address the problems, but she said this scenario was a “very complicated process”.

Without the ongoing eclipses, entire grids will be turned off offline, leaving it indefinitely without power, Gold-Williams said.

Officials are asking customers to continue to save energy if they have power in an effort to stabilize the system faster.

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