HOUSTON – Nearly a month after storms knocked out power for millions of people across Houston, top executives at CenterPoint Energy are answering your questions for the first time.
The utility company’s Executive Vice President of Regulatory Services and Government Affairs, Jason Ryan, sat down with KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding for an interview that spanned nearly an hour.
The topics ranged from the May 16 tornado and derecho, who’s footing the bill for the damage and how hurricane season could be a double whammy.
While many across the Houston metro area saw some kind of damage along their street, CenterPoint wasn’t excluded in that.
Gage Goulding: “A lot of people across the Houston area had some sort of damage or impacts from the storm. CenterPoint not spared either.”
Jason Ryan: “We, as you said, were impacted ourselves at our downtown headquarters. About 600 windows that were blown out or damaged.”
This is just the start of the damage CenterPoint sustained. Their electrical infrastructure all across the region was left severely injured.
Transmission towers in several area lay crumpled on the ground; countless telephone poles were destroyed, and thousands of extra employees were needed to help start the recovery as temperatures skyrocketed.
Gage Goulding: “How can you help the community understand how big of a dent this put in your infrastructure?”
Jason Ryan: “People by now have seen pictures of the transmission towers that were significantly damaged. Our infrastructure was impacted just as much as people’s homes and businesses.”
Gage Goulding: “Do you have an idea [of] how much this storm cost CenterPoint?”
Jason Ryan: “We don’t have a final estimate yet. Given that we are still in the restoration phase of this storm. It will be at least $100 million.”
Gage Goulding: “A $100 million bill. That’s quite the tab. Who’s paying for that bill?”
Jason Ryan: “This cost of restoration is one of those costs of providing service to our customers. Regulators will review those costs and will allow rates to reflect those reasonable costs of restoration going forward.”
Gage Goulding: “I guess dumbing it down, you know, to the baseline customers will end up paying for that tab.”
Jason Ryan: “That’s right. Those costs, after being reviewed for reasonableness, will be charged to the customers that we have the privilege to serve.”
Gage Goulding: “How much would that cost me on my monthly bill if it were to be approved by the PUC?”
Jason Ryan: “Something less than a dollar a month, around a dollar amount. When all is said and done.”
We asked KPRC 2 viewers what they would want to ask CenterPoint executives if they were in the room.
You asked and now there’s answers.
Gage Goulding: “One of our viewers at KPRC 2 uses the screenname Ranger1994. He asked this question: He said ‘CenterPoint should have a fund for such damage without increasing rates. What can CenterPoint do to keep rates down?’”
Jason Ryan: “Fair question. So, there are a couple of ways that rates could be set. You could set rates that way. That’s not how the state has chosen to set rates for utilities like us. We are that infrastructure provider, to get the power from the generators to you on behalf of those retail providers.”
Gage Goulding: “Infrastructure. That’s my next point. And our viewer, KPRC 2 viewer Dickey has this question as well. It’s almost the same question that I have. They say: ‘I know CenterPoint can’t control the weather, but what proactive steps are being taken to at least attempt to try to minimize power outages and the time it takes to restore power?’”
Jason Ryan: “Sure. Great question. And the reason why we filed a first-of-its-kind resilience plan earlier this year with the state Public Utility Commission is because we do know that we can make investments today that will allow us to take these punches that are coming, with more frequency and more severity, and get back up quicker.”
Gage Goulding: “Are there underlying issues with the infrastructure?”
Jason Ryan: “I think it validated our proposal and our resilience plan to underground freeway crossings.”
READ CENTERPOINT ENERGY’S FULL RESILIENCY PLAN:
A big point of contention for residents was the power outage map, which vanished from the CenterPoint website during the height of the outages.
This left customers afloat at sea when it came to information about when they power may be turned on as temperatures rose with a heat index reaching triple digits.
Gage Goulding: “The outage map on the website. That was a big thing. Everybody wanted to look at that. They wanted to see it went down right. Where are we at with the outage map? How did how did how did it fail, and do you feel like it failed the customers?”
Jason Ryan: “Yeah. We know we didn’t meet customer expectations when that wasn’t available, when they needed it most. And that’s not acceptable to us or to our customers. We understand that. There was a tremendous amount of traffic, on that website, more than it was designed for, and it failed. We’re working on a replacement project. That will have a new and improved outage tracker that will not have that same failure.”
Gage Goulding: “Looking back at where we are now, almost a month down the line, if you could give yourself a report card grading, you know, A, B, C, D or F, how would you rate CenterPoint’s response to this storm?”
Jason Ryan: “I think the men and women in the field, that restored customers, quickly and safely, deserve the highest score. If you look at our peer utilities and look at our past performance, even from a communications perspective, because of the outage tracker issues, we don’t have the highest score there. We know that we miss customers’ expectations there.”
As we enter June, we also enter the start of the six-month hurricane season. With a power infrastructure still on the mend, how could a potential storm leave us in even worse shape?
Gage Goulding: “It’s here. We are in hurricane season, right? Did this storm help us get ready for hurricane season? Or did this hurt us to where we might be open to some more damage if we were to get the one this year?”
Jason Ryan: “It helped us make sure that we know where we need to get better, in our storm response, whether it’s communications-wise or coordination out in the field. Where it does present challenges that we are working to overcome, as we obviously used a lot of material. So, we are working with our suppliers to replenish our supply.”
