- CPS Energy
- CPS Energy CEO Paula Gold Williams speaks during an energy symposium.
The highest annual number of CPS disconnections of homes and businesses behind on their bills came in 2018, when it switched off power to 99,908 customers, according to data obtained under an open-records request by the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.
That record was set two years after Gold-Williams took the reins. In 2016, the year she was hired by CPS, the utility switched off power to 90,837 accounts, setting the previous record. The following year, the number dropped to 75,131.
In contrast, disconnections averaged around 50,000 a year under Milton Lee, who served as CEO from 2002 to 2010, and under Doyle Beneby, who helmed the utility from 2010 to 2015. However, the number did spike to 72,000 the year Beneby left.
In 2019, CPS disconnected 53,391 customers, however, a number more in line with those under the previous two CEOs.
CPS officials were unavailable for comment Thursday afternoon on the numbers, which were first reported on the environmental blog Deceleration, operated by Sierra Club organizer Greg Harman.
However, the blog noted that Gold-Williams pledged the moratorium on disconnections would remain in place through the end of the year.
“Some of the numbers I saw, such as the number of summer shutoffs across ZIP Codes, certainly surprised me in relation to CPS Energy’s claims that they don’t perform shutoffs during extreme weather conditions such as heat waves,” Shaneal Harun, the Sierra Club intern who analyzed the data told Deceleration. “Other numbers were less surprising, [reflecting] the existing inequities in San Antonio."
The data analysis comes as community organizations push Mayor Ron Nirenberg and city council to get tougher on the utility over its environmental record and treatment of low-income customers.
Nearly two dozen community organizations signed a list of policy recommendations submitted last month to the mayor and council. Among their recommendations was a call to stop disconnecting residents who were at or below 200% of the federal poverty line.
"While disconnections are currently paused in response to the economic crisis that has followed the COVID-19 pandemic, other city-owned utilities have begun returning to disconnecting power to the most vulnerable households for non-payment, and it’s just a matter of time before CPS Energy returns to their former behavior," the letter cautions.
Neither Nirenberg, council nor CPS has directly responded to the letter calling for an end to disconnects, according to the Sierra Club's Harman. However, he added that he's been in touch with the Nirenberg's staff and hopes the conversations result in the mayor bringing the issue to CPS's board of directors.
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Data shows CPS Energy disconnections skyrocketed under current CEO Paula Gold-Williams - San Antonio Current
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