San Antonio’s utility hits usage record with cold snap

San Antonio’s city-owned utility hit an hourly usage record Wednesday morning as homeowners and businesses cranked up heaters to cope with the cold snap.

The demand broke a record that dates back to a February 2011 winter storm that sent rolling power outages across the state.

Statewide power usage also broke records Wednesday.

CPS Energy said customers used 4,300 megawatts of electricity between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, as temperatures hovered in the low-20s.

That usage exceeded the more than 4,169 megawatts San Antonians used in a single hour on Feb. 2, 2011, as much of Texas was gripped in a freeze that stretched from Dallas to Brownsville.

Spokesman Jonathan Tijerina said more than 5,000 megawatts of thermal power plants — those that run on coal and natural gas — were available. CPS also has more than 1,000 megawatts available from the South Texas Nuclear Project Electric Generating Station in addition to renewable resources, which reportedly made up less than 15 percent of generation during Wednesday’s peak.

“We’re running everything. We’re running our plants - nothing is holding back,” Tijerina said. “We’re running plants to make sure we meet the needs of what we’re obligated to produce for our side and then whatever we can do to help the rest of the grid.”

Energy usage across the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ region — which covers 90 percent of the state’s electric grid — also set a winter hourly record between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Wednesday at a preliminary reading of 62,885 megawatts. That beat the previous record usage of 59,650 megawatts set between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Jan. 6, 2017.

There was enough capacity to handle the power spike. At the peak Wednesday, ERCOT showed it had more than 69,000 megawatts of power online.

A cold system has gripped much of the United States while a large system being called a “bomb cyclone” is set to hit the East Coast later this week.

In San Antonio the weather is expected to remain cold through Friday, with lows of 35 and 39 degrees expected. Temperatures could rise into the 50s on Saturday, while the Sunday high is expected to be 67 degrees and the low will be 48.

Kelsey Bradshaw contributed to this report.

Rye Druzin is a San Antonio Express-News energy reporter. Read more of his stories here. | rdruzin@express-news.net | @druz_journo