Beleaguered Texas utility CenterPoint Energy has come under fire from the state’s political leadership, lawmakers, regulators and residents over its slow restoration efforts following a Category 1 hurricane. 

The heat is only intensifying. 

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has ordered CenterPoint to file a plan with his office by July 31 that outlines how the utility will improve its preparation and response practices before the next hurricane hits. If CenterPoint fails to comply, he threatened to oppose any future rate increases brought to the Public Utility Commission, whose members he appoints. 

“CenterPoint Energy has lost the faith and trust of Texans. … Texans deserve better from their electrical companies,” Abbott wrote in a letter to company CEO Jason Wells. 

Abbott also directed the PUC to conduct a “rigorous” study to determine the causes of “repeated and ongoing power failures” in the Houston area after severe weather events. A mid-May derecho knocked out power to more than 1 million CenterPoint customers, some for as long as 17 days. 

The governor asked the PUC to determine whether the large customer outages are a result of a physical infrastructure or personnel issue. Abbott said the commission must identify why Hurricane Beryl affected millions of Texans when similar events in the recent past did not and file a report to the state legislature by Dec. 1 (56822). 

“I think it’s clear from the events of the past week that the quality of their infrastructure, their ability to maintain that infrastructure and their communication with their customers has been called into question,” PUC Chair Thomas Gleeson said during a July 14 news conference. 

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who said CenterPoint “underestimated” Beryl’s force and direction, created a special committee in the state Senate on hurricane and tropical storm preparedness, recovery and electricity. The committee, charged with reviewing “certain utility companies’” response and establishing why they “appear to have been woefully unprepared for Hurricane Beryl,” will hold its first hearing July 29. 

The state House will join the inquisition two days later when its State Affairs Committee conducts an oversight hearing on recent electric industry legislation. It has added an agenda item assessing “utility preparedness, response and recovery protocols” and reviewing performance during severe weather events. 

When Beryl barreled ashore July 8, it left 2.7 million people without power. (See Hurricane Beryl Leaves 2.7M Customers Without Power.) 

As of July 23, more than 1,600 CenterPoint customers were without service. The utility said it had restored almost 73,000 customers in the previous 24 hours, although not all outages stemmed from Beryl. CenterPoint has not issued a public update since July 17, when it said power to 98% of customers had been restored. 

In an email to RTO Insider, CenterPoint said it has restored power to all customers “who are able to receive power.” It said remaining outages are “predominantly isolated instances” in which severe home damage or damage to customer-owned equipment has made restoration difficult. 

Entergy Texas, which lost power to more than 252,000 customers when Beryl hit July 8, said July 16 that it expected to restore electricity to all its customers who could safely take power. Its outage count was less than 600 on July 23, according to PowerOutage.us. 

It is CenterPoint that has drawn much of the ire from Houston residents. Half of the 22 deaths caused by the storm have been attributed to slow restoration efforts and triple-digit temperatures. 

Houston Mayor John Whitmire (D) has threatened to hold CenterPoint accountable by documenting the trouble it has given City Hall. 

“I’m pretty fired up at them. They made my job tougher by not doing their job,” Whitmire told the Houston Chronicle. 

CenterPoint’s shortcomings will provide plenty of fodder for those investigating the utility.  

It was ridiculed nationally for an outage map that was less reliable than a hamburger chain’s app and it has been criticized for its lack of preparation before the storm. Utility representatives told the PUC during a July 11 open meeting they were surprised by the damage Beryl caused in the heavily wooded areas north and east of Houston. (See Texas Utilities: Beryl’s Damage Unlike that of Cat 1s.) 

CenterPoint has spent more than $800 million in recent years on 15 32-MW generators and five smaller ones. However, the 15 massive generators are not designed to be mobile and were never used during the storm. 

The utility has also come under fire for poor tree trimming and maintenance and its poor communication from the top down. Wells filmed a message to Houstonians from an office setting during which he mentioned he had a generator at home, all while sitting next to a thermostat that read 70 degrees. 

In April, CenterPoint filed a $2.3 billion resiliency plan as a result of 2023 legislation. The Texas Consumer Association has asked that the plan be delayed until the probes into the utility have concluded. CenterPoint has already estimated repairing the derecho’s damage will cost about $475 million. 

Separately, Entergy has filed a rate increase with the PUC to recover $6 billion in infrastructure investments since 2019. 

The heat continues to build.