CPS Energy warns rapid load growth, data centers will require major transmission buildout

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.

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