Texas Red News

Gov. Directs CenterPoint Energy To Improve Their Severe Weather Preparation, Response Practices

July 17, 2024

   

“In the wake of Hurricane Beryl’s landfall, CenterPoint Energy has lost the faith and trust of Texans,” reads the letter. “Indeed, nearly 2.2 million residential and commercial customers in Southeast Texas lost power during the peak of the storm, and many continue to suffer without electricity more than a week after the storm. Image for illustration purposes
“In the wake of Hurricane Beryl’s landfall, CenterPoint Energy has lost the faith and trust of Texans,” reads the letter. “Indeed, nearly 2.2 million residential and commercial customers in Southeast Texas lost power during the peak of the storm, and many continue to suffer without electricity more than a week after the storm. Image for illustration purposes

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AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott today sent a letter to the President and Chief Executive Officer of CenterPoint Energy, Jason P. Wells, directing him to adequately prepare CenterPoint Energy for the next severe weather event in Southeast Texas by improving its preparation and response practices.

“In the wake of Hurricane Beryl’s landfall, CenterPoint Energy has lost the faith and trust of Texans,” reads the letter. “Indeed, nearly 2.2 million residential and commercial customers in Southeast Texas lost power during the peak of the storm, and many continue to suffer without electricity more than a week after the storm. Texans deserve better from their electrical companies, especially during hurricane season. The adequacy of your preparation will be analyzed in the coming months, but the time is now for CenterPoint Energy to improve its practices.”

In the letter, the Governor requests CenterPoint provide the Office of the Governor with the following plan by July 31, 2024 to address power issues: 

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  • Identify how CenterPoint Energy will complete the elimination of all vegetation issues by August 31, 2024.
  • Specify all actions CenterPoint Energy will take in the future that it failed to do during the preparation for and response to Hurricane Beryl that will reduce or eliminate power outages for your customers.
  • Ensure that CenterPoint Energy has a sufficient number of pre-staged workers to be able to immediately respond to any power outages that may occur for any tropical storm or hurricane that hits your service area.
  • Describe how CenterPoint Energy will retain or quickly restore power for at-risk Texans in hospitals, nursing homes, and senior living facilities.
  • Describe how CenterPoint Energy’s pole replacement process for Hurricane Beryl will be accelerated and will prioritize the deployment of new, highly resilient poles before the end of this hurricane season.
  • Specify CenterPoint Energy’s plan to improve communication with its customers before, during and after a weather event. Additionally, how CenterPoint Energy will ensure the failure of its outage tracker during Hurricane Beryl will be reconciled.

If CenterPoint Energy fails to comply with this directive, or provides insufficient information to the Office of the Governor by July 31, the Governor will issue an Executive Order in response to any impending tropical storm or hurricane to impose needed requirements on CenterPoint Energy. The Executive Order would be aimed at keeping the power on throughout hurricane season and until the next legislative session.

Additionally if CenterPoint Energy does not comply, the Governor will oppose requests brought to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) by CenterPoint Energy to raise utility rates on Texans or to obtain any profit or rate of return. Texas would also consider limiting the utility service area of CenterPoint Energy. 

Earlier this week, Governor Abbott issued a letter to the PUC directing them to launch an investigation regarding utility companies’ inability to restore power following Hurricane Beryl’s landfall.  

Read the Governor’s letter to CenterPoint Energy. 

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Directs PUC To Investigate Power Failures In Greater Houston Area After Severe Weather

Photo: Office of the Governor

AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott demanded CenterPoint take immediate action to improve their hurricane preparation and response efforts following their repeated and ongoing power failures in the Greater Houston area during a press conference in Houston. The Governor also issued a letter to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas directing them to launch an investigation regarding utility companies’ inability to restore power following Hurricane Beryl’s landfall.

Photo: Office of the Governor

“First and foremost, Texas’ No. 1 goal is to protect life,” said Governor Abbott. “An issue that we see in the ongoing response to Hurricane Beryl are life-based issues, not because of the hurricane itself, but because of the lack of power supply. The failure of power companies to provide power to their customers is unacceptable. CenterPoint has repeatedly failed to deliver power to its customers. To help Texans in the Greater Houston area and to avoid a repeat of unacceptable power outages, I will give CenterPoint until the end of the month to provide my office with specific actions to address power outages and reduce the possibility that power will be lost during a severe weather event. If CenterPoint fails to comply, I will issue an Executive Order to impose actions on the company that are geared to keep the power on.”

Photo: Office of the Governor

Governor Abbott was joined at the briefing and press conference by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick; Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) Chief Nim Kidd; Senators Carol Alvarado and Paul Bettencourt; Representatives Briscoe Cain, Charles Cunningham, Dennis Paul, Jon E. Rosenthal, Lacey Hull, Mano DeAyala, Mike Schofield, Sam Harless, and Valoree Swanson; PUC Chairman Thomas J. Gleeson; Gallery Furniture Owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale; and other state and local officials.

At the press conference, Governor Abbott directed CenterPoint to provide the Office of the Governor with the following action plan by July 31, 2024 on how they will address current power issues and reduce the possibility that power is lost in the future:

  • CenterPoint must provide in detail how it plans to remove all vegetation that threatens any power line.
  • CenterPoint must specify how it will prepare in advance of any tropical storm that enters the Gulf Coast.
  • CenterPoint must specify action it will take to pre-stage enough linemen and other personnel to be able to immediately respond to any power outages that may occur for any tropical storm that hits their service region.

Governor Abbott also discussed Texas’ ongoing recovery efforts to provide needed resources and assistance to impacted Texans and communities, including generators, tarps, fuel, ready-to-eat meals, water, and ice. To date, Texas has distributed more than 5,171,000 bottles of water, more than 679,600 ready-to-eat meals, and more than 206,300 bags of ice to communities.

Additionally, Governor Abbott directed TDEM to request additional counties be added to the federal disaster declaration for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Individual Assistance programs. The additional counties include Austin, Bowie, Shelby, Trinity, and Waller. Texas may request additional counties for federal assistance based on completion of damage assessments in impacted communities.  

A request from Texas to the federal government to reopen the incident period and instead designate it as “continuing” amid the ongoing response and recovery to Hurricane Beryl remains pending with FEMA.

Texans are urged to submit online damage surveys to report damage to homes and businesses using the Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool (iSTAT) damage survey. iSTAT surveys can be filled out in English and Spanish by visiting damage.tdem.texas.gov and clicking “July 7th – Ongoing Hurricane/Tropical Storm Beryl.”

Information entered into the iSTAT damage survey helps emergency management officials identify immediate resource needs and aids in determining whether the state meets federal requirements for various forms of federal disaster assistance. Reporting damage through the iSTAT tool is a voluntary activity, is not a substitute for reporting damage to your insurance company and does not guarantee disaster relief assistance. Tutorial videos in English and Spanish explaining how to fill out iSTAT surveys are available at damage.tdem.texas.gov.

The State of Texas continues to take action to provide all available resources to help support local communities from the impacts of Hurricane Beryl, including: