Bill credit for CPS Energy customers is not best use of city’s surplus, CPS interim CEO says

CPS Energy’s CEO says a one-time customer credit proposed by City Manager Erik Walsh wouldn’t be the best use of a $75 million revenue windfall the utility has provided the city this year. CPS is still smarting from ratepayers’ anger after it distributed a credit worth a few dollars after Winter Storm Uri, when households went without power for days in early 2021. The utility doesn’t want to go through that again, interim President and CEO Rudy Garza said Monday. “There are better ways to utilize that money than a credit, but it’s not my call,” he said in a meeting with the Express-News editorial board. Garza suggested the city could more directly target the funds to customers that need it most.

“Buying down past-due balances for customers who may never be able to catch up, that’s a policy objective that the council has to decide what the best use of revenue is,” Garza said, referring to the utility’s tally of roughly $160 million in unpaid bills. “We would be supportive of that as a policy objective.” City Council is to vote by the end of the month on how to spend the money. Walsh last week proposed giving ratepayers a credit worth an average $31 in October after CPS bills jumped 50 percent this summer from a year ago as heat and natural gas prices have risen. The city is reaping a windfall because it takes 13 percent of every dollar CPS collects. That puts it on track to receive $75 million more from CPS than City Hall had budgeted. Walsh proposed spending $45 million on a direct rebate to CPS customers, $5 million on a fund for low-income ratepayers and $25 million on other city projects. The average San Antonio household faced a $225 CPS bill in June, and bills in August and September are expected to go higher. “A $30 credit for residential customers when you have a $500 bill, relatively speaking, it’s not much,” Garza said.