We are hearing from more of you about issues with power outages way before Hurricane Beryl slammed the Houston area. A Kingwood customer contacted Investigator Amy Davis after she complained about frequent and unexplained power outages in her neighborhood.
There are rules about vegetation and trimming around powerlines
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A customer near Meyerland told Amy Davis he tried to get CenterPoint to trim a tree’s branches that had grown over and around the powerlines in his backyard. His service drop line from the main line was also hanging so low, he could touch it. CenterPoint didn’t help. But when an out of state crew showed up to help with Beryl damage, those linemen told the homeowner it is CenterPoint’s responsibility to make sure that drop service line is suspended at least 12 feet in the air. The contracted lineman pulled out the slack in the line to raise it to the required height.
More info about the PUC tree trimming rule: In 2008 Hurricane Ike knocked out power to 95% of CenterPoint’s customers. The outages were largely caused by trees and limbs that blew into and onto power lines. After that storm in 2008, the Public Utility Commission passed a new rule that requires CenterPoint to report annually what they’re doing to manage trees and vegetation around power lines. Amy read every report filed since 2014 and found there is no way to tell you where or how many trees were trimmed. When customers call CenterPoint to report trees on power lines, they say they get the run around too.
RELATED: PUC rules around tree trimming
Public Utility Commission responses to customer complaint about previous outages
We know the Public Utility Commission is aware of intermittent outages caused by vegetation on lines.
One customer complained to the PUC in January, writing “We are constantly losing power in Kingwood regardless of weather, many times for multiple hours which require us to toss the contents of our refrigerator.”
A letter to the customer we obtained from the PUC reveals:
In 12 months, the Kingwood homeowner lost power 32 times.
10 of those longer outages, the PUC said CenterPoint confirmed, were caused by vegetation. The cause of 21 of the smaller outages is unknown. One of the smaller outages was caused by lightning. The PUC shared a full report detailing each time this happened.
That Kingwood homeowner did tell KPRC 2 that after she filed that complaint with the PUC CenterPoint was in her neighborhood about a week after trimming the tree branches around the power lines. And since that time in January, she hasn’t lost power at all until Hurricane Beryl.
We did ask CenterPoint to tell us where they trimmed all of that vegetation last year. They said they are currently working on restoring power but that they will get back to us. We will let you know when they do.