As the next step in its energy efficiency program, CPS Energy plans to vastly increase the amount of community solar capacity available in San Antonio.
CPS Energy will launch a request for proposals for up to 50 megawatts of additional community solar arrays by the end of August, utility officials told CPS Energy’s board of trustees Monday. The move represents a significant expansion of the municipally owned utility’s foray into community solar, which currently consists of just over 6 megawatts of capacity.
A community solar farm is a location at which multiple owners buy one or more panels and use the electricity produced. Today, 700 customers utilize community solar, but CPS Energy said it had a waitlist of over 1,000 who want a piece of the action.
The utility phased out its residential rooftop solar rebates at the end of last year amid concerns the rebates were subsidizing solar panels for more affluent CPS Energy customers who could already afford them.
The 50 megawatts of additional community solar will allow San Antonio residents who live in rented homes, apartments, duplexes or other multifamily housing units — or others for whom rooftop solar isn’t feasible — to have access to solar benefits, and will aim to support low- to moderate-income customers, said Ana Lozano, CPS Energy’s director of Technology and Product Innovation. CPS Energy has 6 megawatts of community solar today.
One megawatt is enough electricity to power 200 Texas homes on a hot summer day. Solar energy makes up roughly 7% of CPS Energy’s current power generation portfolio.
“We’re refocusing our emphasis … on more equitable offerings,” Lozano said. “So we’re looking for solutions for our limited-income customers, or customers who aren’t able to put systems on their rooftop.”
Past iterations
The latest renewal of CPS Energy’s energy efficiency program, known as the Sustainable Tomorrow Energy Plan or STEP, came last summer. The program seeks to save CPS Energy 410 megawatts by 2027 at a cost of roughly $350 million. That equates to about $3.50 on a customer’s average monthly bill, which is roughly what customers already paid for the program.
Initially launched in 2009, the program sought to save the utility 771 megawatts by 2020, allowing CPS Energy to avoid building a new fossil fuel-burning power plant. That goal was achieved in 2019 and saved 845 megawatts.
The program has been extended three times by San Antonio City Councoil, mostly recently in 2022, despite pushback from several CPS Energy trustees who have criticized the program as being too expensive.
As a part of the latest iteration of the program, the utility promised to make the program more equitable for ratepayers.
Data showed that more CPS Energy customers in affluent parts of San Antonio were benefiting from rebates on rooftop solar panels than those in poorer neighborhoods, even though all CPS Energy customers were paying into the STEP program.
A renewed focus on community solar was a part of CPS Energy’s changes to the program, as was shifting weatherization efforts to help more multifamily units.
Multiple solar farms
CPS Energy already has three community solar projects, which were launched in 2015, 2016 and 2018.
The first was CPS Energy’s SolarHost project, which allows residents to “rent” solar panels located on residential and commercial rooftops and to receive credit back on their monthly bill for the electricity the rented panels produce.
The other two are a 1.2-megawatt project located in the eastern Bexar County community of Adkins and a 5-megawatt project in San Antonio that utilizes panels built into arrays that serves as carport rooftops.
During the CPS Energy board of trustees meeting Monday, Trustee Francine Romero questioned the utility’s staff on how it aims to make sure low-income customers are some of those who get to use the new community solar capacity.
Lozano said a percentage of the capacity will be dedicated to low-income customers. The exact amount will be decided after the proposals come in, she added.
CPS Energy’s President and CEO Rudy Garza added the utility made sure to include that percentage after hearing the same concerns brought up by City Council last year.
Garza told the San Antonio Report he’s hopeful the request for proposals will result in 10 or more projects located throughout different areas of San Antonio. CPS Energy hopes several of the partnerships that result from the proposals will be with local businesses, he said.
“This has been a stakeholder-driven process from day one,” Garza said. “I could go out and get 50 megawatts of solar a lot easier than this. What I want to do is target these 50 megawatts in a program that actually works.”
The utility also hopes to secure federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, legislation passed a year ago by Congress that includes funding for clean energy projects, to back these community solar projects, ideally helping more low-income customers be able to buy a panel or panels from these projects, said Jonathan Tijerina, CPS Energy’s vice president of enterprise risk and development.
“The idea [is] that we could buy down the cost more by leveraging both our programs and other federal programs,” he said. “At the spirit of it all is to reduce as many barriers as possible so that we can get these customers at least an opportunity.”
CPS Energy is a financial supporter of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members, click here.
