AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Governor Greg Abbott wants CenterPoint Energy to do more work and faster to meet his requirements for improving their severe weather preparation and response practices after he said their initial proposal was “inadequate.”
Abbott met with CenterPoint Energy CEO Jason Wells and the Executive Vice President of Regulatory and Government Affairs, Jason Ryan, on Thursday at the State Capitol to discuss their proposal to better respond to future severe weather events.
According to a press release, Abbott spent over two and a half hours reviewing the company’s proposed response to his letter he sent on July 16 with the two executives.
“The Governor stressed that CenterPoint Energy’s proposal was inadequate and instructed them that more must be done and it must be completed faster than originally proposed,” the press release stated. “Governor Abbott reiterated the importance of fulfilling all of his original directives and the necessity of completing their restoration projects, such as vegetation removal and pole replacement, before the next tropical storm hits their region.”
After directing the company to develop the new proposal, Wells and Ryan agreed to immediately release the new proposal that incorporated the new directives made by Governor Abbott, according to the press release.
Here are some of the key highlights:
- Communications plans with key partners and re-training of call center staff must be completed by next Friday, as opposed to CenterPoint’s proposal of Aug. 15
- All vegetation around the 2,000 incremental distribution line miles will have to be removed by the end of August, instead of by the end of December; CenterPoint initially proposed only addressing the first 350 miles by end of August
- Replacement of an estimated 1,000 poles with more sturdy, composite poles will need to be completed by the end of August, instead of by the end of December as CenterPoint initially proposed
You can view CenterPoint Energy’s original proposal to the Governor with the new, accelerated conditions below:
The new updated proposal comes after CenterPoint released their new outage tracker. The company also announced it was withdrawing its 2024 rate case filing with the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUC).