- Company continues to take additional and enhanced actions to
harden the grid as part of the Greater Houston Resiliency
Initiative
- CenterPoint encourages customers to remain vigilant and have
a plan for extreme weather
HOUSTON, Nov. 4, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- While fall is in full swing in many parts of
the United States, CenterPoint
Energy has been monitoring tropical developments over the weekend
and is activating its emergency response plans. It is also making
early preparations for any potential tropical storm or hurricane
threats for this coming weekend. Tropical Storm Rafael, as named by
the National Hurricane Center, continues to slowly become better
organized south of Jamaica in the
south-central portion of the Caribbean Sea. Per the National
Weather Service, it is expected to continue to gain strength and
could become a hurricane by midweek.
"The 2024 hurricane season has been a very active one along the
Gulf Coast and November looks to be no different. We want all our
customers and communities to know that CenterPoint has a plan to
address these types of potential weather developments, and we are
closely tracking the storm's path and executing the early phase of
our preparedness plan," said Darin Carroll, Senior Vice
President, Electric Business. "It's still early and the exact path
and intensity of this particular storm will continue to evolve over
the coming days. You have our commitment that we will continue to
proactively communicate with our customers and the public and keep
everyone informed of the weather changes and any potential
impacts."
First Phase: Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative
Since Hurricane Beryl earlier this summer, CenterPoint has taken
action across the 12-county Greater
Houston area to improve resiliency and help reduce the risk
of outages this hurricane season.
In the first phase of its Greater Houston Resiliency
Initiative, CenterPoint crews and contractors installed more
than 1,100 stronger and more resilient fiberglass poles,
trimmed vegetation along more than 2,000 miles of power
lines and installed more than 300 automation devices in
neighborhoods across the region.
Second Phase: Greater Houston Resiliency
Initiative
The company's second phase is taking the boldest
series of resiliency actions in its nearly 160-year history. In
early September, CenterPoint announced a comprehensive suite of new
actions as part of the next phase of its Greater Houston
Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), including strengthening the
energy system and operations over the next eight months and before
the start of the 2025 hurricane season. These extensive near-term
actions will: build on the work CenterPoint completed in
the first phase of the GHRI, continue to strengthen
resiliency, improve its communications and develop stronger
partnerships, and help reinforce its electric system as it prepares
for both the upcoming winter season and the 2025 hurricane
season.
The actions in GHRI Phase Two will help enable a self-healing
grid, reduce the length and frequency of outages and lead to more
than 125 million fewer outage minutes annually for customers in
the Greater Houston area. Work will be completed ahead of
the 2025 hurricane season, or June 1, 2025, and will
include:
- Installing new or replacing 25,000 poles that meet extreme wind
standards;
- Trimming or removing higher-risk vegetation across 4,000 miles
of power lines;
- Installing 4,500 automation devices, known as trip savers, and
350 Intelligent Grid Switching Devices as part of our effort to
build a self-healing grid that utilizes automation to respond to
outages faster; and
- Strategically undergrounding more than 400 miles of power
lines.
Customers encouraged to have a plan
The company
encourages customers to update their emergency plans and assemble
a storm preparedness kit that includes essential items
such as nonperishable food, water, flashlights, batteries, a first
aid kit, any necessary medications, a battery-powered radio and a
portable charger for mobile devices.
Call to Action: Power Alert Service
Customers should
remember that a storm is a powerful force of nature that can cause
significant damage and widespread, lengthy electricity outages.
Conditions can also change unexpectedly and for the worse.
Customers are encouraged to enroll in Power Alert
Service® to receive outage details, estimated restoration
times, as available or determined, and customer-specific
restoration updates in the event of severe weather. With the option
to receive updates via phone call, text or email, Power Alert
Service® helps keep customers, and their friends or families,
informed of restoration progress during an outage event. Customers
can also find additional resources
at CenterPointEnergy.com/StormCenter.
New and improved Outage Tracker with greater web
resiliency
Within 24 hours of a tropical storm or hurricane exiting our
service area, CenterPoint will communicate an estimated time of
restoration (ETR) for the entire system and will update the
estimated times of restoration at least daily thereafter. The new
and improved Outage Tracker will be used to update
individual customers on their expected restoration date as soon as
possible after restoration expectations are determined.
To learn more about Outage Tracker's new features and
functionality, watch the demonstration video.
For an in-depth, step-by-step guide to using the Outage
Tracker, click here.
About CenterPoint Energy, Inc.
As the only
investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is
an energy delivery company with electric transmission and
distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution
operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in
Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees,
CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in
business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit
CenterPointEnergy.com.
For more information,
contact
Communications
Media.Relations@CenterPointEnergy.com
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SOURCE CenterPoint Energy