Expert after-action report outlines 77
recommendations to improve storm response; CenterPoint has already
completed or is implementing two-thirds of the
recommendations
HOUSTON, Oct. 25,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, CenterPoint Energy
made public an independent expert report of its response to
Hurricane Beryl, which included 77 recommendations designed to
improve readiness, response and communications during future major
storms and emergencies.
To date, because of the work associated with the Greater Houston
Resiliency Initiative (GHRI) launched on August 5, CenterPoint has already completed, or
is in the process of implementing, 51 of the 77 expert
recommendations, and is assessing the remaining 26 recommendations
to identify additional actions to benefit customers.
PA Consulting Group – a third-party consultancy with deep
expertise in issues affecting utilities and other industries –
conducted the independent review between
July 31 and October 15, 2024. The review included an
analysis of customer outage data, asset data, and internal and
external communications provided by CenterPoint, and more than 30
interviews with key members of the CenterPoint team, including
leadership.
"Following Beryl, we heard loud and clear the calls for change
and are acting with urgency to address the challenges our customers
faced. As part of our commitment to improve, we sought outside
third-party experts to provide us with guidance and feedback,
including from PA Consulting Group, a recognized expert in the
utility industry. Their independent review is invaluable, and their
recommendations will help us make the changes necessary to achieve
our goal to build the most resilient coastal grid in the nation,"
said Jason Wells, President and CEO
of CenterPoint.
Key Resiliency Actions: 18 Recommendations Already
Completed
Following the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, CenterPoint launched
the first phase of GHRI, and completed all 40 actions ahead of
schedule, on August 28. Because of
this important work to address customer concerns during this
hurricane season, CenterPoint has already completed 18 of the PA
Consulting Group's recommendations, including:
- Replacing the public-facing Outage Map with an Outage
Tracker featuring comparable capabilities to the previous
version.
- Revising communication strategies to focus on delivering
essential information to customers, including storm preparedness
and expectations, while addressing key concerns like estimated
restoration times.
- Utilizing the most effective channels to ensure clear and
timely communication.
- Acquiring additional smaller generators, between 230 kW and
5 MW in size, to enable greater use of temporary generators during
future events.
- Enhancing the coordination and optimization of vegetation
resources and crews.
- Analyzing Beryl's restoration data (e.g., type of pole
damage, pole reset durations) that is currently used in the damage
prediction models to refine and enhance accuracy of the damage
prediction model.
Key Recommendations: 33 In-Progress
CenterPoint launched the second phase of GHRI, which is designed
to build on the progress made during the first phase and further
improve overall resiliency, communications, and community
coordination for the upcoming winter season and the 2025 hurricane
season. As part of this effort, CenterPoint is in the process of
implementing 33 of the report's recommendations,
including:
- Vastly expanding the installation of TripSaver® (or similar)
reclosers across the distribution system to help automate
restoration for certain types of faults.
- Significantly increasing the use of composite poles across
our service territory capable of withstanding stronger
hurricane-force winds to improve system reliability and
resiliency.
- Revising our tree trimming cycle to be more proactive and
responsive to higher-risk vegetation, significantly reducing the
risk of outages caused by overgrown vegetation interfering with
power lines.
- Implementing a new storm management tool to increase
efficiency in onboarding, tracking, deploying and utilizing
out-of-state crews.
- Assessing benefits and costs of undergrounding in varying
sections of the service territory, particularly where reliability
has been concerning and other types of hardening will be
ineffective.
- Increasing our call center capacity for storm events and
re-training call center agents.
- Increasing the completeness of customer contact information
to enhance restoration time communications during storm events
through proactive enrollment in our Power Alert Service so that we
can push out real-time updates to customers as information becomes
available.
- Establishing regular engagement with key stakeholders,
including local government officials, emergency management
agencies, and community organizations to foster strong partnerships
and information sharing – including conducting joint planning
exercises to advance alignment and coordination during
emergencies.
Additional Recommendations Under Evaluation
In addition to the items already being addressed, CenterPoint is
also evaluating the 26 new ideas provided by PA Consulting Group,
to assess what additional actions can be taken over the coming
months as part of the second phase of GHRI, or as part of our
long-term resiliency efforts that will be announced in January of
2025.
This includes evaluating:
- Enhancing the existing tree replacement program to reduce
at-risk vegetation.
- Assessing the feasibility of having a customer communication
solution that can both push alerts and receive reports from
customers across multiple channels.
- Implementing a system to gather feedback from stakeholders
regarding the effectiveness of communication and outreach
strategies.
The full report can be found here.
The actions CenterPoint has taken, and will continue to take,
are designed to address its customers' and other stakeholders'
important concerns following Hurricane Beryl by lessening the
impact and duration of storm-related outages, improving its
restoration efforts and communications, while also advancing the
day-to-day reliability of its grid.
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.
Forward-looking Statements
This news release, as well
as the website pages related to the GHRI, includes forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. When used in this news release or the website
pages related to the GHRI, the words "anticipate," "believe,"
"continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal,"
"intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "potential," "predict,"
"projection," "should," "target," "will" or other similar words are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements, which include statements regarding our
resiliency investments, and the GHRI, including effectiveness,
timing and related matters, are based upon assumptions of
management which are believed to be reasonable at the time made and
are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events
and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied
by these forward-looking statements. Any statements in this news
release or the website pages related to GHRI regarding future
events that are not historical facts are forward-looking
statements. Each forward-looking statement contained in this news
release or the website pages related to GHRI speaks only as of the
date of this release. Important factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those indicated by the provided
forward-looking information include risks and uncertainties
relating to: (1) the impact of pandemics, including the COVID-19
pandemic; (2) financial market conditions; (3) general economic
conditions; (4) the timing and impact of future regulatory and
legislative decisions; and (5) other factors, risks and
uncertainties discussed in CenterPoint Energy's Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and
CenterPoint's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters
ended March 31, 2024 and June 30, 2024 and
other reports CenterPoint Energy or its subsidiaries may file from
time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For more information, contact:
Communications
Media.Relations@CenterPointEnergy.com
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SOURCE CenterPoint Energy