AUSTIN (Nexstar) — CenterPoint Energy CEO Jason P. Wells testified before the Texas House Committee on State Affairs Wednesday morning regarding the power outages the company has largely taken the blame for following Hurricane Beryl.
The energy company that serves most of the Houston area has faced scrutiny about its preparedness for Hurricane Beryl, which left over 2.7 million people without power. More than a week after the storm landed, around half a million Texans were still without electricity.
A week after Beryl’s landfall, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for an investigation into the disaster response.
Wells and other CenterPoint representatives also testified Monday at a Senate committee hearing and last Thursday before the Public Utility Commission. Each time, CenterPoint has taken responsibility for the outages and apologized publicly.
Wednesday morning, House Committee members questioned Wells on several factors that contributed to the company’s failure to ensure electricity accessibility post-Beryl. These topics included communication, vegetation management, staff preparedness and supply preparedness.
“What is very clear is the critical aspects of our restoration efforts were not at the high standards we expect of ourselves, let alone what the public expects of us,” Wells said. “This is unacceptable, and it will change.”
Wells described three actions in Wednesday’s hearing that have been taken by CenterPoint to better their future response to natural disasters and severe weather. These include advancing vegetation management efforts, strengthening communications and restoring partnerships with local partners.
“To be very clear, these actions are just the beginning,” Wells said. “In total, we’ve outlined over 40 actions to strengthen our response with respect to the issue of the use of temporary generation. We’re committed to working with you and others to determine the best generation solution for our customers.”
The Texas House Committee on State Affairs Chairman Todd Hunter and Vice Chairman Ana Hernandez expressed their frustration with CenterPoint while questioning Wells.
“Communication has been awful, but it’s awful across the board,” Hunter said. “Whoever thought your company’s name ‘CenterPoint’ would be the center point of this issue.”
A key aspect of hurricane preparedness is vegetation management, where power companies like CenterPoint trim trees near power lines to prevent damage that could result in power outages. Hernandez questioned whether this was a priority for CenterPoint.
“Vegetation management has not been a priority. Why? Is it, perhaps, because you don’t get the rate of return on that expense,” Hernandez asked Wells. “The public is asking this, and everything aligns that the decisions that were made — it was profits over people.”
At one point, Hunter even referenced people using the Whataburger app to track outages because CenterPoint’s outage tracker map was down.
“Whoever thought a Whataburger app would get more attention than Whataburgers,” Hunter said. “Mistakes need to be fixed.”
Rep. David Spiller (R-68) raised a similar point, questioning CenterPoint’s expenses on batteries instead of vegetation management which would have been more useful in a natural disaster such as a hurricane.
“If you’re acquiring batteries, that wouldn’t even apply in a situation like this, but you have generated revenue from that battery purchase,” Spiller said. “That seems to be a priority, and part of that part of that profit, but not stressing as much as what you could on vegetation management.”
Wells testified that CenterPoint trimmed over 35,000 trees and vegetation and walked over 8,500 circuit miles to repair damage to power lines after Hurricane Beryl passed. CenterPoint has also doubled its vegetation management workforce as of July 16.
When asked by Hernandez if he could have done more in terms of vegetation management, Wells responded “In hindsight, absolutely. And that’s why we’re committed to doing more.”
CenterPoint is now reevaluating its system resiliency plan given the circumstances of Hurricane Beryl’s impact. Wells said there would be more investment to mitigate potential risks rather than respond to such risks after the fact.