When Hurricane Beryl swept through southeast Texas on July 8, its damaging 80-mile-per-hour winds took down thousands of trees and knocked out much of the electricity system. More than 2.6 million Texas power customers went without electricity for days in the summer heat.
In the aftermath, officials and residents alike turned their eyes to the Houston area’s electric utility, CenterPoint Energy. Texans criticized the company for failing to prepare adequately for the storm, communicate clearly with customers and restore power efficiently.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into the company. The Public Utility Commission of Texas has also launched an inquiry into how the company prepared for severe weather and responded to the outages.
The company’s CEO apologized to customers and vowed to improve. Lawmakers have already begun discussing potential penalties for the company and new legislation aimed at making power infrastructure more resilient to storms.
Beryl did between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion worth of damage to CenterPoint’s electricity infrastructure throughout the affected area. Those costs will likely be passed on to customers, who could see a 2% increase on their bills for the next 15 years.
Public Utility Commission issues investigative report on CenterPoint
The PUC is investigating CenterPoint’s preparations and response to Hurricane Beryl. The investigation, which was directed by Gov. Greg Abbott, will look 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.
At a July 25 PUC meeting, company officials outlined changes they planned to make, but PUC commissioners were critical some of those fixes weren’t underway before Hurricane Beryl.
“Some of the things that I heard today are things that the company should have already been thinking about doing,” PUC Commissioner Lori Cobos said.
The PUC published an investigation on Nov. 21 looking at CenterPoint’s preparations and response to Hurricane Beryl — and recommending more than a dozen improvements to the company’s emergency plans, communications, vegetation management like tree trimming and infrastructure fortifications.
The investigation, requested by Gov. Greg Abbott, said that customers had trouble getting reliable information during Beryl and s