Texas regulators mull CenterPoint's power system challenges with Beryl, plans to 'do better'

Texas regulators on July 25 discussed Hurricane Beryl's "devastating" impact on CenterPoint Energy electricity customers, but also the serious safety challenges faced by restoration workers.

CenterPoint executives made presentations to the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Project Nos. 56548, regarding its system resiliency plan, and 56793, issues resulting from Hurricane Beryl, which on July 8 knocked out power to about 2.26 million CenterPoint customers, with more than 260,000 still offline on July 15.

Randy Pryor, CenterPoint vice president for distribution operations, said he oversaw preparation, response and restoration efforts.

CenterPoint started tracking the storm nine days before landfall near Matagorda, Texas, about 90 miles south of Houston on the Gulf Coast, Pryor said. Initial forecasts "showed the greater Houston area would be spared impact with the worst of the hurricane, but nonetheless we remained vigilant."

CenterPoint initially obtained an extra 3,000 workers from neighboring areas away from the storm's path and "coordinated with utilities across Texas and our region to ensure resources would be available if need be."

Storm worse than expected

At landfall, Beryl packed winds of up to 97 mph and still packed winds of 83 mph at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, at Houston's northern edge as it passed through the region to the north, Pryor said.

"We activated and deployed over 15,000 CenterPoint and mutual assistance crew members," Pryor said. "These incredible men and women worked 16-hour shifts in hot, humid and at times stormy conditions."

But workers faced not just threats from the elements, but from customers, CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells said.

"The vast majority of our customers that came in contact with our linemen offered grace and patience and appreciation," Wells said. "Unfortunately, there were numerous instances of threats and acts of violence against our line workers. We had to demobilize a staging site because of the very credible threat of drive-by shootings. We have multiple instances of guns being pulled and put in the chest of our line workers. We had very active threats around the community, sometimes throwing rocks.

"Law enforcement did an incredible job of keeping our line workers safe, but what is important here is not only is that behavior not tolerable in society but it is counterproductive to the restoration. That jeopardizes future restorations. These crews that come do not have to be here," he said.

Ultimately, CenterPoint's restoration efforts entailed the following, Pryor said:

• Replacing more than 3,000 distribution poles
• Walking more than 8,500 circuit miles to repair damage
• Removing or trimming more than 35,000 trees or other vegetation

But before CenterPoint's presentation, Savant Moore, a Houston Independent School District trustee, highlighted "a grave injustice" done to Houston customers, as some "suffered nine to 14 days, and some still do not have power."

"Our seniors who depend on oxygen and insulin were left vulnerable and struggling," Moore said. "We must remember the 24 lives lost, half of which were directly due to power loss."

He read each name of the deceased, then asked the PUC to "increase the frequency and scope of tree trimming and vegetation clearance around power lines."

Wells said: "I take personal accountability for the areas where we fell short of our customers' expectations."

'Three pillars' of response

Wells laid out the "three pillars" of the company's response: resiliency, communications and community partnerships, including the following steps:

• Targeting 2,000 more line miles for higher risk vegetation management
• Hardening almost 350 distribution line miles to the most extreme wind standard
• Replacing all remaining poles targeted for replacement with composite poles
• Upgrading predictive modeling
• Launching a new cloud-based outage tracker tool by Aug. 1
• Initiating public communications earlier in the storm cycle
• Scaling up capacity for CenterPoint's automatic Power Alert Service
• Increasing efforts for community awareness of emergency preparedness
• Boosting small mobile generation units from four to 13
• Installing donated back-up generators

"We will do better," Wells said. "While we cannot erase the frustrations and difficulties so many of our customers endured, I and my entire leadership team will not make excuses. We will improve and act with a sense of urgency."

After hearing about plans to improve, Commissioner Lori Cobos said these were "things you should have been doing."

"You are the second-largest utility in the state," Cobos said. "I went down to Houston and saw some of the aftermath, and it was devastating. ... The processes and procedures laid out in the presentation are great to hear, but ultimately, at the end of the day, I think that your performance will be judged by your actions and the results from those actions, and accountability is very important."

PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson noted that the Texas Senate Special Committee on Hurricane and Tropical Storm Preparation, Recovery and Electricity meets at 10 am CT July 29, and he suggested CenterPoint "bring forth items that need to be addressed in statute."

"Anything that could've helped during this, let us know about," Gleeson said. "We have a real opportunity here to get statutory change and regulatory change, and we need to look at what those things are."