By Ty Roberts

San Antonio is advancing toward a cleaner, greener and more resilient future, driven by the innovative efforts of CPS Energy. As the nation’s largest municipally owned electric and natural gas utility, CPS Energy is at the forefront of integrating smart technology to modernize infrastructure, enhance water management and drive sustainability.

Why San Antonio Needs Smart Technology—Today

Serving over 907,000 electric and 374,000 natural gas customers, CPS Energy is known for its low utility rates and commitment to renewable energy. However, aging infrastructure and natural disasters present challenges that make sustainability and carbon reduction more critical than ever. 

To address these challenges, CPS Energy launched the New Energy Economy initiative—designed to build a modern, reliable and efficient energy infrastructure. This initiative helps customers save energy, supports job creation and economic growth and protects the environment. Let’s explore the solutions and results driving this transformation.

Solutions and Results

IIoT Network 

CPS Energy is leveraging a network solution that integrates a multi-purpose GenX IIoT canopy with third-party electricity meters and gas Interface Management Units (IMUs). Initially contracted for 745,000 electricity meters and 340,000 gas IMUs, the project expanded to include 951,000 electric meters, 389,000 gas IMUs and additional network components. The self-configuring, self-healing network ensures data transmission even if communications fail, achieving ~99.9% read accuracy for CPS Energy’s 1.2 million electric and gas endpoints.

Hosted NaaS for Smart Water

In 2020, CPS Energy extended network access to its sister utility, San Antonio Water System (SAWS), to support water advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and advanced applications. The network delivers a nearly 100% read rate for SAWS smart water endpoints, demonstrating its reliability and versatility. By leveraging CPS Energy’s highly reliable AMI network, which was already deployed citywide for electric and gas metering, SAWS was able to transmit water usage data without the need to build a separate, costly communications infrastructure.

Through a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) model, the pilot enabled 2,500 residents to virtually monitor their energy and water usage, helping them save money and avoid waste with tools like leak detection. These smart water meters provide hourly readings, delivering 24 updates per day compared to a single manual reading per month. Instead of relying on estimated billing cycles, SAWS can proactively detect leaks, notify customers and minimize non-revenue water losses.

After the successful pilot, CPS Energy and SAWS awarded Itron a contract for the largest deployment of ultrasonic water meters in the nation at the time. These advanced meters integrate with CPS Energy’s network, with SAWS paying a monthly network access fee. Powered by Itron’s Temetra software, the system ensures data privacy and security by managing water endpoints separately. This collaboration delivers a modern AMI network for SAWS while enabling CPS Energy to monetize its network bandwidth, streamline operations and enhance water resource management. 

“This investment in technology is a tremendous step for SAWS and will help us become even more cost-efficient. Not only will customers have more tools to control their bills, but we’ll be able to reduce lost water, helping us meet ambitious water conservation goals that ensure plentiful water supplies for our growing city,”says Jelynne LeBlanc Jamison, Chairwoman, SAWS Board of Directors.

Smart Streetlights and Smart City Pilot

Building on this success, CPS Energy embarked on a pilot project centered around smart streetlights, Itron’s CityEdge Central Management System (CMS) and IoT sensors deployed within three Innovation Zones in the city. The solution involved deploying smart city sensors to support applications in air quality, temperature, ambient noise, parking and flood monitoring under the smart streetlighting network canopy. This pilot demonstrates how sensors and software seamlessly integrate with Itron’s intelligent multi-application network and the  CMS, providing valuable insights that enhance community safety, lighting and overall quality of life.  

“Our smart city pilot is a great example of how collaboration can help the City of San Antonio become a smart city. With our customers top of mind, the collaboration with SAWS and Itron allows us to see the potential of how a smart and more resilient city can preserve precious resources while working to maintain excellent customer satisfaction.” Frank Almaraz, Chief Power, a & Business Development Officer, CPS Energy

Distribution Automation

CPS Energy also leveraged its IIoT network platform to support a Distribution Automation (DA) initiative across its service area. The DA solution communicates over the existing AMI network—eliminating the need for a separate, costly DA network, supporting both high and low latency applications and optimizing performance for various use cases. By utilizing a common network platform, CPS Energy can quickly deploy new DA and AMI hardware with minimal infrastructure investments.

Professional Services

In addition to these technological advancements, the project included a range of professional services, such as Project Management, Field Network Management, Integration and Testing Support, Training, Endpoint Management and Third-Party Contractor Management. However, every large-scale utility modernization project comes with its own set of challenges.

Delivery & Deployment Support

During the AMI implementation, two key issues emerged: staffing shortages and supply chain constraints. Competition with local energy jobs led to staffing shortages that ultimately delayed the deployment schedule. To address this, Itron, CPS Energy and Corix Utilities collaborated weekly, eventually hiring and training a second installer to accelerate progress.

Midway through the project, a plastics shortage threatened to delay electric meter orders. In response, the team pivoted to installing 10,000 Gas IMUs instead, keeping the project on track and demonstrating their commitment to adaptability and success.

A Shared Commitment to Community

CPS Energy is focused on empowering its employees and the surrounding community. In partnership with Itron and community leaders, CPS Energy launched the Smart Energy Education initiative to enhance STEM-focused educational resources. The initiative, supported by the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin and Disco Learning Media, is designed to improve energy and water literacy, encourage conservation and inspire future talent. Offering standards-aligned lessons, videos, interactive games for K-12 students and college scholarships through the San Antonio Area Foundation, Smart Energy Education empowers students to become proactive stewards of our world’s most precious resources.

“Our goal is to demonstrate how Smart Energy Education can not only foster community engagement but also inspire children to implement energy saving practices into their everyday life starting at a young age.” Rudy Garza, President & CEO, CPS Energy

This initiative has positively impacted the San Antonia region and beyond, reaching over three million citizens and 200,000 students and educators, while providing over $1 million in community grants. 

Preparing for Tomorrow

Looking ahead, CPS Energy remains committed to its “People First” approach, investing in technology for a brighter energy future while prioritizing the needs of both employees and residents. After adopting new automation technologies, CPS Energy retrained approximately 50-meter readers for other roles within the company, preserving their valuable experience. SAWS plans to implement similar retraining initiatives to support workforce development and ensure a smooth transition to new technologies.

CPS Energy is recognized as a leader in innovation both locally and nationally, earning accolades such as the Smart Electric Power Alliance’s Public Power Utility of the Year and Itron’s Innovator Award for its smart city application pilot. This ongoing commitment to innovation is set to build a more sustainable, connected and vibrant San Antonio community for years to come.