CenterPoint’s power restoration pace angers Texans, leaders

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HOUSTON — At dawn, the group of contractors in neon yellow vests and shirts readied for work. They grabbed the electrical equipment they would need from pallets at Sam Houston Race Park, which had become an abrupt staging area.

Before fanning out across the electricity-deprived Houston region Wednesday morning, the workers first ate fluffy eggs, round sausage patties and rectangular hash browns at long tables in a tent. They loaded up sacks of Reddy Ice, packages of Niagara water and lemon-lime Gatorade. They grabbed chicken, mozzarella and pesto sandwiches for later.

Their fleet of white utility trucks — which millions across southeast Texas wanted desperately to see in their neighborhoods — grumbled as the linemen prepared for the long day ahead.

The workers for CenterPoint Energy were chasing down the causes of 2.26 million power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, a Category 1 storm that was far from the fiercest weather event the region has seen, but which packed a debilitating wallop.

Pressure was mounting on CenterPoint, the Houston-area electric utility, after it bungled its communications to the public amid yet another massive Texas power outage. The company appeared in chaos as it worked to turn on power for angry people who faced days in dangerous heat without air conditioning, including stressed customers struggling to manage health issues without electricity. More than 48 hours after the storm left the region, the company still had no clear timeline for when people could expect their electricity to be restored.

“They need to speak clearly and tell people the whole truth even when it’s not pleasant,” said Doug Lewin, energy consultant and author of the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter. “People need to know when their power is going to get back.

Some of the damage Beryl wreaked on Texas’ above-ground power infrastructure as the storm’s hurricane-strength winds persisted inland, downing trees and electricity poles, lay beyond the company’s control. But the full picture of the utility’s response — and what went right or wrong with its preparation and equipment — remains muddled.

Yet even as elected officials piled onto everyday Texans’ scathing criticisms of how long the outages are lasting, CenterPoint appears to be restoring power to people faster than it has after recent storms.

And, a state requirement to plan for emergencies hadn’t prevented what many residents consider a dissatisfactory response. On Thursday, the company is expected to give a hastily requested update to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates electricity in the state.

CenterPoint clearly and immediately failed people in its bungled communications with customers about the damage and what to expect for the timeline of recovery, energy industry observers said. Notably, the utility’s map that is supposed to show the locations of power outages had not worked since a storm in May. Houstonians turned instead to a map of open and closed Whataburgers to find where power was on.

“That indicates a complete fail on their customer management and public service capabilities,” said Alison Silverstein, a former PUC adviser.

CenterPoint said it was working to replace the map by the end of July.

State regulations require utilities “to provide efficient, safe, and reasonable service,” said Ellie Breed, a PUC spokesperson. That means the utility needs to restore power as fast as it can — but the state’s regulators don’t hold companies to specific timelines to do so because the severity of each disaster varies, Breed said.

The PUC previously reviewed CenterPoint’s emergency operations plan — which includes communication strategies — that state rules require utilities to submit and which the company said guided its response to Beryl.

As millions of Texans swelter in summer heat awaiting air-conditioning and their elected officials feel the pressure to find fault, experts say the power outages raise big-picture questions about how resilient the state, local authorities and residents want electricity infrastructure to be in the face of severe natural disasters that are becoming more common with climate change.

The more requirements the state puts on utilities — like pushing them to build stronger poles or bury power lines — the costlier Texans electricity bills are going to be. Experts say whether state regulators and legislators are striking the right balance deserves more discussion.

And as much as frustrated Texans still awaiting electricity don’t want to hear it, utility association groups say there are reasons to take a step back and give CenterPoint some credit.

Just days before Hurricane Beryl struck near Matagorda and moved into the Houston region, it was projected to hit South Texas. Crews hit the road before landfall, headed for cities like Austin that were never expected to see major impacts but that were close enough to the Gulf coast so workers could respond quickly, said Scott Aaronson, senior vice president of security and preparedness at Edison Electric Institute, a trade association.

Aaronson said the forecast’s shifting nature as the storm got into the Gulf of Mexico didn’t allow for much time to prepare with precision.

“Unfortunately, in this case, it was really with only about 24 hours to spare,” he said.

People drove in from states including California, Florida and West Virginia to work, according to CenterPoint. Because the storm’s winds and rains made it too dangerous to drive Monday, the utility had to wait it out before officials could hit the ground setting up staging sites and linemen could arrive, wait for instructions, then head out to survey the damage.

Beryl surprisingly remained a Category 1 storm as it blew into the Houston region, since storms’ wind speeds usually lessen much more quickly once they’re inland. At some point, the utility had to increase its call for linemen from 2,000 to 10,000, said Mark Bell, president and CEO of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, a trade association that represents CenterPoint and other utilities. By Wednesday, linemen were working from 18 staging sites across the region — more than CenterPoint had ever stood up after a storm.

“Did Centerpoint plan well?” Bell said. “Well, yes, of course they did. The result of that planning is that … they have been able to restore a million customers.”

CenterPoint officially hit the mark of restoring power to 1 million customers 55 hours after its response began. They expected to bring power back to 400,000 more by the end of Friday, and 350,000 more by the end of Sunday.

That pace was faster than in several recent storms, according to state filings. In 2019, CenterPoint took about three days to restore power to 180,000 Texans after Tropical Storm Imelda brought damaging wind and significant flooding to southeast Texas.

In 2021, CenterPoint took about five days to restore power to 700,000 people on the Texas coast when Category 1 Hurricane Nicholas brought powerful, gusty winds and rains.

And most recently in May, when back-to-back storms drenched much of southeast Texas and about 850,000 customers lost service, some remained without power eight days later, according to a CenterPoint report filed in June.

“We have made solid progress and exceeded the number of customer restorations following Hurricane Ike but we have a lot of important work ahead, especially in the hardest-hit areas where the work will be more complex and time-consuming,” Senior Vice President for Electric Business at CenterPoint Energy Lynnae Wilson in a press release, referencing the infamous 2008 storm that brought a devastating storm surge and howling winds.

Still, the company’s jumbled description of events and restoration plans leave much in question: Was CenterPoint adequately prepared to respond to this? Did power lines fail because of bad equipment or simply the wrath of a severe storm?

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for a review of CenterPoint’s actions. U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, called CenterPoint’s response “unacceptable” in a post on X. Her post included a photo of a letter addressed to CenterPoint President and CEO Jason Wells that accused the utility of not having enough workers in place fast enough.

Meanwhile, the linemen are still working.

While they waited to be dispatched Wednesday morning, one man sat in a truck with his door open and his feet propped up. Some had brought camping chairs. At least one lay down on the top of the truck, taking rest where he could get it. The sky was robin egg blue and the rising sun colored the clouds pink.

At 7:14 a.m., a truck pulled away from the Sam Houston Race Park. One by one, more followed. Some went to stage at a shopping center nearby before moving next to patrol the area, hazard lights flashing. Workers craned their necks up at the towering poles to identify problems, sometimes looking from the car, sometimes hopping out.

One passerby — seeing the trucks — gave a thumbs up.

Relief was coming.

Disclosure: Association of Electric Companies of Texas (AECT), CenterPoint Energy and Sam Houston Race Park have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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