HOUSTON – CenterPoint Energy executives were questioned Thursday by the state’s Public Utility Commission after widespread criticism of its response to historic power outages after Hurricane Beryl.
After Beryl hit the area, Houston residents faced several issues, including the heat and humidity, standing in long lines for gas, food and water, and trekking to community centers to find air conditioning. Hospitals also saw a spike in patients with heat-related illnesses and carbon monoxide poisoning caused by improper use of home generators.
During Thursday’s hearing before Texas PUC, CenterPoint President and CEO Jason Wells apologized for the frustration Houstonians experienced during and after Beryl and made a company-wide commitment to improve.
Wells sat alongside Tony Gardner, SVP and Chief Customer Officer, and Randy Pryor, VP of Major Underground & Distribution Modernization.
They announced an initial series of specific actions that will increase the resiliency of the electric system, improve customer communications, and strengthen emergency response coordination and partnerships.
“There are no excuses. We will get better. We are taking immediate action to make real, measurable and positive changes to not only better serve our customers and the community, but to re-earn their trust,” Wells said. “Our mission is to build and operate the most resilient coastal grid anywhere in the country with best-in-class communications.”
CenterPoint’s plan of action, which focuses on three classes of priorities, was submitted to the PUC and details a series of initial actions that the company will take both immediately and long-term, including:
- Resiliency Investments: By accelerating adoption of the latest construction standards, retrofitting existing assets on an accelerated basis, and using predictive modeling, AI and other advanced technologies, CenterPoint will harden its distribution system and speed restoration. The company will also take action to protect its electrical assets by nearly doubling the size of its vegetation management crews and targeting higher-risk vegetation to address the number one cause of damage and outages in Hurricane Beryl.
- Best-in-Class Customer Communications: To ensure customers have the information they need, when they need it, CenterPoint will launch a new and more customer-oriented outage tracker by August 1. This online tool will provide better and more complete information during storms and is designed to handle increased demand during such events.
- Strengthened Partnerships: Effective emergency preparedness and response requires close coordination with government officials. CenterPoint will hire a seasoned emergency response leader to help the company rapidly accelerate its planning capabilities and develop close community partnerships to ease the burden of storm events on more vulnerable communities.
The following are key excerpts from Wells’ remarks, as prepared, given before the Public Utility Commission of Texas:
“In times of emergency, our responsibility is to respond quickly, to communicate clearly, to provide accurate information, and to restore power as rapidly and as safely as we can. I take personal accountability for areas where we fell short of our customers’ expectations. I also want to apologize for the frustration we caused our customers. We will do better.”
“While we cannot erase the frustrations and difficulty so many of our customers endured, I, and my entire leadership team, will not make any excuses. We will improve and act with a sense of urgency.”
“I commit that starting immediately, we will improve our communications with customers and will take specific actions to become the most resilient coastal grid in the country. Our pillars of action fall into three categories: (1) improvements in resiliency, (2) improvements in communications, and (3) greater collaboration with our local partners and emergency responders.”
“Going forward, our most important priority today and in the months ahead will be to improve our emergency response with a sense of urgency to re-earn your trust, and the trust of the millions of people who depend on us.”
“Our company and the thousands of men and women of CenterPoint will remain tireless in our efforts to strengthen our system and better serve the community we are all proud to call home.”
Public Utility Commission investigating CenterPoint
The PUC is investigating CenterPoint’s preparations and response to Hurricane Beryl. The investigation, which was directed by Gov. Greg Abbott, is looking into the company’s emergency plans, vegetation management like tree trimming, infrastructure fortifications, and use of mobile generators. The aim? To uncover the root causes of persistent power outages in Houston and nearby areas.
The PUC must deliver a report with its findings and recommendations to the governor by Dec. 1.
CenterPoint has asked for an extension on its request to raise rates
CenterPoint earlier this year filed an application with the Public Utility Commission of Texas seeking to raise rates to cover costs and keep up with the area’s growth. Utility officials said the average residential bill would increase by about $1.25, according to the company filings.
Utility companies do not make money by doing maintenance like tree trimming or hardening powerlines, but by expanding infrastructure coverage, according to energy experts. However, the PUC controls how much money a regulated utility like CenterPoint can make.
To make their case for a rate increase, CenterPoint officials said they now served 300,000 more customers compared to when the company last requested to change its rates in 2019. They expected both population and industrial growth to continue with a shift toward electrification and the potential buildout of hydrogen production facilities.
Utility officials said in the filings that they were both expanding the system and keeping up with needed repairs. The company invested more than $6 billion in infrastructure over the past five years while also responding to “unprecedented weather conditions” including drought, winter storms and hurricanes. ”Each event had its impact on the system,” said Lynnae Wilson, senior vice president of electric business. “Drought conditions lead to dead or stressed trees that are more susceptible to high winds. Any system damage as a result of weather events in turn caused customer outages.”
The company said it spent $31.9 million on vegetation management in 2022, and increased its spending on reliability projects.
“CenterPoint Houston faces increasingly high expectations from customers in terms of more reliable service and faster restoration following outages, and from regulators and policymakers increasingly concerned with strengthening the electric grid in Texas,” Jason Ryan, executive vice president of regulatory services and government affairs, said in the March 6 filings.
On July 17, after public outrage over Beryl’s mass power outages, CenterPoint requested more time to keep working through the rate case discussions with the other parties involved. Entities such as the Houston Coalition of Cities, Texas Industrial Energy Consumers and Texas Consumer Association were already weighing in on the proposed rate hike. An administrative judge considering the proposed increase requested that parties file status reports by Aug. 2 and every two weeks after.
Gov. Greg Abbott wants to know CenterPoint’s plans to keep the power on
Gov. Greg Abbott asked CenterPoint to send his office a detailed plan by the end of July outlining how it plans to protect the power supply through the rest of what is expected to be a busy hurricane season.
Abbott said the plan must include better preparation for linemen who repair damage, increasing the number of workers to restore power and how the company will pre-stage sufficient workers to immediately respond to future outages. He also asked the plan to include details on future trimming trees and removing vegetation that threatens power lines — the leading cause of infrastructure damage during Beryl.
If CenterPoint fails to comply with his request, the governor said he will issue an executive order imposing his own requirements on the company, but it’s not clear what those would be or what direct power he has over the utility. And he said that if the utility is unable to “fix its ongoing problems,” the state would have to reconsider the breadth of the territory it serves.
The governor has asked CenterPoint to remove vegetation around power lines no later than Aug. 31.
The Texas Tribune contributed to this article.