Elena Ball, chief strategy officer for CPS Energy, told the San Antonio Municipal Utilities Committee on Monday that the utility is seeing rapid load growth driven by population growth, manufacturing and interest from large data-center customers.

“This takeaway is we’re seeing a lot of growth,” Ball said, summarizing why the utility is updating its generation and transmission plans. She told the committee that CPS Energy’s own system load (excluding very large customers such as data centers) is projected to grow “just shy of 3% annually over the next 10 years,” and that data-center demand could add substantially to that figure.

The discussion matters because the utility and regional grid operator expect material changes to the state’s electricity footprint. Ball said ERCOT’s most recent forecast — as presented to the committee — anticipated roughly 152,000 megawatts of load by the date stated in the presentation, and that ERCOT currently has almost 1,800 active interconnection requests totaling about 346 gigawatts. CPS Energy told the committee it expects about $1.4 billion in incremental transmission spending in the next five years to relieve congestion and import more power into the San Antonio area.

Nut graf: The utility said the combination of retiring, decades-old power plants, high interest in renewables and storage, and a wave of potential data centers is pulling projects forward and will require significant capital work on transmission corridors, switching stations and reliability upgrades.

Key points from the presentation and committee Q&A

- Local peaks and projections: Ball said CPS Energy’s system peak in 2024 was roughly 5,800–5,900 megawatts, and that the utility’s planning forecast without large data-center loads anticipates about 6,000 megawatts in the near term. With large-load growth factored in, Ball said system peaks in the 2028–2029 timeframe could approach roughly 7,100 megawatts — roughly a 20% increase from current peaks.

- Transmission and cost sharing: Ball described transmission (defined as 138 kV and above on CPS Energy’s system) as a socialized cost in Texas. “Transmission is a socialized cost in the state of Texas,” she said, explaining that load-serving areas pay based on proportionate load. Ball said CPS Energy’s share of that socialized transmission bucket is roughly 6–7 percent.

- Regional projects and reliability: Ball highlighted south-of-San Antonio projects intended to relieve congestion between Gulf Coast and inland production. She cited a planned double-circuit south corridor project and a “Spruce to Pawnee to Tango” project that would address southern congestion. She also said the utility had retired two Braunig units but kept a third online after an ERCOT request; that unit is under overhaul work while reliability studies continue.

- ERCOT planning and extra-high-voltage backbone: Ball said ERCOT is studying an expansion of the state’s high-voltage backbone (described in the presentation as an extra-high-voltage backbone at a higher kV than the current 345 kV) and that the ERCOT board would consider that study soon.

- Data centers and legislative changes: Ball and other CPS staff said data centers are a major driver of uncertainty. Ball referenced pending state-level policy discussions intended to improve load-forecast accuracy and to require large loads to bring backup generation or other reliability measures. She mentioned “Senate Bill 6” as an example of proposed legislative approaches discussed at the state level to require more "skin in the game" from large-load applicants.

- Local planning and public input: Ball said CPS Energy conducts routing, siting and public-engagement processes for new transmission and substation projects, and that land acquisition is handled carefully to avoid overbuilding and exposing ratepayers to unused costs. “We do go through a comprehensive public input process as well as a routing and siting process,” she said, adding CPS attempts to balance environmental impacts, reliability needs and cost.

Committee concerns and clarifications

Council members asked how CPS is protecting neighborhoods near new data-center and substation projects, how costs will be shared, and whether existing customers will be asked to subsidize large new loads. Council members were told that interconnection and transmission upgrade costs are handled through established processes, that CPS seeks to apportion costs according to cost-of-service principles, and that transmission costs in Texas are socialized through the ERCOT framework.

CPS staff and board members also emphasized planning caution: the utility tries not to build far ahead of demonstrated need so existing customers do not subsidize capacity that remains unused. “If we overbuilt our system, then ... our current ratepayers are picking up that cost,” a CPS representative said.

Ending: CPS Energy said work is already under way — including RFPs and award recommendations for transmission, conductor and transformers — and that the utility will continue to brief its board and coordinate with ERCOT as regional plans evolve. The committee did not take a formal action on the presentation; staff opened the floor to questions and discussion.