Announcement follows completion of 350 more
miles of newly hardened powerlines, on top of additional resiliency
and hardening actions completed during Phase One of the Greater
Houston Resiliency Initiative.
HOUSTON, Nov. 14,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CenterPoint Energy today
announced the completion of the last of its 42 critical initial
actions and commitments it made to state leaders and customers in
the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl to immediately strengthen the
electric system and improve its storm response. All 42 actions and
commitments have been achieved ahead of schedule.
CenterPoint is now fully focused on delivering Phase Two of the
Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), which includes
an additional suite of new hardening actions to help strengthen
system resiliency, improve customer and public communications and
develop stronger emergency response and community partnerships.
"After Hurricane Beryl, we heard the calls for action from our
customers, the greater community and elected leaders, and we made a
series of 42 sweeping commitments to do better. We've now
accomplished all 42 actions and commitments ahead of schedule. And
we aren't stopping there, we're making significant progress toward
our goal of becoming the most resilient coastal grid in the
country. Across every corner of our Texas-based team, we are fully focused on
Phase Two of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, and
executing a suite of resiliency and hardening actions that will
further prepare us for the 2025 storm season and beyond," said
Jason Wells, CenterPoint Energy's
CEO and President.
Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative: Phase One Achieved
Ahead of Schedule
With the completion of 350 miles
(equivalent to driving from Houston to Brownsville) of newly hardened power lines
across the Greater Houston area,
CenterPoint has now completed all of its immediate post-Beryl
commitments, bringing real-world resiliency improvements for its
customers. This initial phase included:
- Trimming or removing higher-risk vegetation from more than
2,000 power line miles
- Installing more than 1,100 stronger, more storm-resilient
poles
- Installing more than 300 automated devices to reduce sustained
outages
- Launching its new, cloud-based outage tracker
- Improving its Power Alert Service to provide better customer
information
- Hosting listening sessions across the service area, with
feedback being used to inform the company's storm response
plans
GHRI Phase Two: New Actions to Continue Strengthening Greater
Houston Resiliency
Announced on September 30, Phase Two of GHRI will help enable
a self-healing system, reduce the length and frequency of outages
and are expected to lead to more than 125 million fewer outage
minutes annually for customers in the Greater Houston area. This 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 to build a self-healing
system that utilizes automation to respond to outages faster
- Undergrounding more than 400 miles of power lines
- Launching a year-round public emergency preparedness and safety
communications campaign
- Strengthening its local partnerships with agencies and partners
critical to its emergency response efforts
The actions CenterPoint has taken, and will continue to take,
are designed to address its customers' major 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 system.
CenterPoint is tracking its progress towards completing all of
its GHRI commitments at CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction.
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 the
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 the
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.
CONTACT:
Communications
Media.Relations@CenterPointEnergy.com
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SOURCE CenterPoint Energy