SAWS’ Office of Energy Strategy is responsible for managing over 500 utility accounts and working with departments to save energy, reduce utility costs, and support the climate action goals set by the City of San Antonio.
SAWS has plans to decrease the energy intensity of operations by 10 percent over the next 5 years
Energy ProjectsCurrent projects to help reduce SAWS’ carbon footprint
Fleet ElectrificationSee how SAWS has begun its journey toward fleet electrification
Energy Strategy Master PlanSee how SAWS has begun its journey toward fleet electrification
Next StepsSee how SAWS has begun its journey toward fleet electrification
Office of Energy Strategy Background
In 2024, San Antonio Water System spent approximately $47 million or 9 percent of its annual operating budget on energy, making it the fourth largest use of funds behind debt service, salaries and wages, and water procurement. In the last 10 years, SAWS’ total cost of energy has increased 65 percent, primarily due to increased consumption that has grown 4.8% annually. Strategically managing energy consumption will be key in reducing the impact of future energy cost increases.
An ongoing commitment to energy management has emphasized the need for planning and developing committed goals for energy reduction. As a result, SAWS has adopted its first Energy Strategy Master Plan. This plan will solidify SAWS efforts by identifying energy savings measures and committing resources towards achieving energy savings goals.
The Office of Energy Strategy (OES) is responsible for paying utility bills, developing utility budget forecasts, serving as CPSE liaisons, and identifying and implementing energy savings reduction efforts. Currently, the OES consists of five staff members reporting to a Senior Vice President as highlighted below.
2024 OES Highlights
- In total, 2024 energy saving efforts produced $834,552 in verified utility bill savings for SAWS. The primary drivers of these savings included Strategic Energy Management, District Cooling System Upgrades and Optimization, and Utility Tariff Analysis (see section III). The reason that the utility budget continues to increase despite these savings is that SAWS is relying on more energy intensive water sources than in years past due to drought and Edwards permit issues.
- CPS Energy’s Demand Response program is a voluntary load curtailment program designed to reduce CPS Energy’s peak load growth by incentivizing customers to shed electrical loads during peak winter and summer days. Last year, SAWS participated in both the summer and winter demand programs and reduced demand by more than 7.8 MW resulting in $747,478 in incentives.
- One of CPS Energy’s programs under the umbrella of STEP includes the Commercial Solutions Program. This program incentivizes commercial customers to implement projects aimed at reducing energy Since 2018, SAWS has received $969,521 in rebate incentives.
- SAWS’ Office of Energy Strategy is committed to reducing energy intensity by implementing energy conservation measures identified within SAWS’ water, wastewater and district cooling systems. In 2024, these measures provided significant energy savings for the wastewater and district cooling systems, reducing energy intensity by 8.0 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively. Despite these savings, water operations increased by 12.2 percent because of the persistent drought leading to strict usage restrictions on the Edwards Aquifer water source. This led SAWS to use more energy intensive water sources to meet demand.
- Between energy conservation projects and demand response, 2024 OES efforts resulted in $1,582,030 back to SAWS.
kWh– Kilowatt-hour: measured as 1 kilowatt (1,000 watts) of power expended for 1 hour.