San Antonio ' CPS Energy officials updated the San Antonio City Council on Nov. 5, 2025, on the utility's Vision 2027 generation plan, recent acquisitions and the company's current financial posture as it prepares planning recommendations for the council and its trustees.

Elena Ball, CPS Energy's official strategist, told the council the utility is revisiting assumptions made in the 2022'2023 plan and running a "restart" of the process to align the portfolio with updated demand and cost projections. She said the plan adopted in January 2023 included additions of generation, storage and solar and that recent transactions have advanced capacity toward the plan's aims.

CPS Energy finance staff, identified in the meeting as Corey, said the utility has added generation and storage capacity through acquisitions over the last 18 months and that those purchases have reduced the projected cost of meeting demand compared with building new resources. Corey told the council CPS Energy is operating with a double-A credit outlook and access to substantial credit lines and presented several capitalization and liquidity metrics the utility uses to measure financial health.

Why it matters: The utility's portfolio choices and any future rate request affect reliability, emissions and customer bills. Council members repeatedly pressed staff for specifics on affordability, the timing of any proposed rate adjustments and how the portfolio balances carbon goals with cost and reliability.

Key facts presented
- Staff said the Vision 2027 portfolio and earlier work included roughly 130 megawatts of generation additions, about 520 megawatts of battery storage and more than 700 megawatts of solar added or contracted under the earlier plan.
- Presenters described a planning target of about 5,700 megawatts by 2030; staff said the system currently counts roughly 4,500 megawatts toward that goal after recent acquisitions and that demand forecasts and new commercial projects may increase the need.
- Staff said acquisitions completed in September reduced the utility's modeled plan cost materially compared with a build scenario and that the acquisitions provide near-term capacity and contract revenue associated with some of the purchased assets.
- Finance staff said the utility maintains a double-A credit rating and access to credit facilities the utility can draw in stress scenarios; they showed three-month results and a capitalization ratio the utility uses for planning.

Council concerns and staff responses
Council members pressed CPS Energy on three recurring themes: affordability, how to explain future rate proposals to residents, and the mix of resources.
- Several council members said it will be difficult to justify higher bills to residents with constrained household budgets and asked for clear, localized comparisons to other utilities. Staff said they will prepare benchmarking materials and that the acquisitions have kept modeled rate pressure lower than an all-build scenario. "We are trying to ask for less than we otherwise would have to ask," Corey said in the presentation.
- Members asked about the balance between carbon goals and affordability. CPS Energy recommended a balanced portfolio and said some units may be retired early or converted subject to policy direction and regulatory change. Staff noted regulatory developments at the federal level that also affect retirement decisions.
- Council members asked for more granular demand and customer-impact data, including the breakdown between commercial and residential load growth, and for more detail on community outreach and customer-education tools. Staff said they are conducting community events and developing digital tools to explain usage and savings opportunities and promised a more detailed financial and rate timeline in February.

What council asked CPS Energy to do next
Councilmembers repeatedly requested more detail: benchmarking of rates and customer-bill impacts, clearer explanation of the savings from acquisitions, a breakdown of where expected demand growth originates (commercial vs. residential), and a more detailed presentation on emissions projections associated with proposed portfolio changes. Staff said they would return with a formal planning recommendation to trustees and to the council, and that any rate proposal would follow the trustees' review and public notice processes.

No formal action was taken. Staff said a detailed plan and a formal financial request would be presented to trustees and the council in the coming months.