San Antonio will send future windfalls back to CPS Energy, hopes to mitigate rate hikes [Video]

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio City Council members appear to be on board with a plan to return money to CPS Energy when the utility’s payments to the city far exceed expectations.

Though city staff say this could help shrink the size of future CPS rate hikes, it’s not clear by how much.

Over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, council members were briefed on a pair of possible policies for handling CPS Energy payments. Following a Thursday budget goal-setting session, top city staff said they had heard enough support from council members to move ahead with both policies.

THE CITY’S CUT

As the owner of CPS Energy, the City of San Antonio gets 14% of most of its revenues as a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) — one of the city’s single, largest funding sources. In FY 2024 alone, the city originally projected it would collect $421 million from the gas and electric …