SAN ANTONIO – Five years after the devastating winter storm that left millions of Texans without power, water and other services for days, local utilities say they’ve made significant improvements to prevent the kind of widespread failures the state saw in 2021.
The February 2021 freeze, one of the costliest natural disasters in Texas history, exposed deep vulnerabilities across the state’s power grid and water systems.
Now, CPS Energy and the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) say they are better prepared than ever.
Earlier alerts, better tools and stronger systems
CPS Energy leaders say one of the biggest changes since 2021 has been how early and often they communicate ahead of major weather threats.
The city-owned utility expanded its winter preparedness campaigns and hired an in‑house meteorologist to track potential storms more closely.
“We are ready for anything Mother Nature has to throw at us,” said CPS Energy President & CEO Rudy Garza.
In addition to improved forecasting, CPS Energy has invested heavily in new grid automation technology. That includes redesigned outage maps intended to improve transparency for customers and system redundancies to help keep power flowing even when the grid is under extreme stress.
Board Chairwoman Francine Romero says those upgrades mean that if rolling outages ever became necessary again, the process would be far more equitable.
“If we did have to cut power on a rolling basis … there would be more of a cascading of it instead of certain people being out for long periods of time," Romero said.
Water system investments
The water system failures during the 2021 freeze were among the most crippling impacts on San Antonio residents. SAWS says those issues prompted some of the largest infrastructure investments in its history.
Communications Director Anne Hayden says the utility has purchased roughly $300 million worth of generators, many in partnership with CPS Energy. Most pump stations now have backup generation, and all critical stations are expected to be equipped within the next one to two years.
“Even if the power goes out for an extended period, we’ll still be able to keep that water flowing,” said SAWS Communication Director Anne Hayden.
SAWS has also winterized pump stations and insulated above-ground equipment, two areas of vulnerability that contributed to widespread water outages during the freeze.
“We have winterized our pumps. We’ve looked at our stations and insulated anything above ground,” Hayden said.
In a statement to KSAT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), said the power grid would be reliable should another storm come.
If Texas were to experience a storm similar to Uri, ERCOT expects the grid to perform reliably.
Weatherization requirements have improved generator performance, and recent storms show significantly fewer forced outages compared to 2021.
ERCOT received increased criticism after the power grid was unreliable during the winter storm. Now, it points to better modeling tools and improved demand forecasting as part of its updated emergency response strategy.
Stronger partnerships
One of the most significant changes since 2021 has been how CPS Energy and SAWS coordinate during severe weather.
The two utilities now share data, updated timelines and hazard maps anytime extreme weather is forecast.
Leaders say that coordination has already made a measurable difference, including during this year’s ice storm.
By combining resources and information, both utilities say they can now respond faster and more effectively, reducing outage times and improving public safety.
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