(San Antonio,TX) – Southside ISD (SISD) earned a massive check from CPS Energy after agreeing to curtail energy use in the summer. At the November 15, 2019 regular board meeting with the SISD Board of Managers representative from the energy company presented Superintendent Mark E. Eads and the district with thirty thousand dollars for being a part of the CPS Energy Demand Response Program.
According to CPS Energy representatives, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) normally has reserve margins of 15-18% however this year with the growth in San Antonio as well as across the state of Texas, those reserve margins were down to 7-9%. Robert Olivares, with CPS, says “It was really important for our customers to either increase their contracted amounts (if they overperformed in past) or sign up for the 1st time. We really encouraged all our large industrial and commercial customers to participate in Demand Response because that is how ERCOT and CPS Energy would manage the reserve margin and safeguard the potential threat of rolling brownouts or blackouts.”
Southside ISD increased its participation in the program from 40 KW in 2018 to 500 KW in 2019 and achieved 86% of the goal resulting in a $30k check! Olivares says they appreciate customers like Southside ISD who despite having a limited number of schools and facilities still managed to participate and increase their KW.