CenterPoint Energy has surpassed its 50% completion milestone for the company’s Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, a plan to strengthen the Houston-area power grid ahead of the 2025 hurricane season, according to a March 7 news release.

CenterPoint’s Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative was first launched in August after Hurricane Beryl left 2.2 million customers without power in Texas.

In a nutshell

The initiative is intended to strengthen the city’s power infrastructure, improve the company’s communication with the public and develop stronger local community partnerships to better prepare for response to future storms or hurricanes.

CenterPoint officials said these actions, once completed, are expected to reduce total outage minutes by 125 million fewer minutes annually.

As of Feb. 28, CenterPoint has:

• Installed more than 14,200 new storm-resilient poles built to withstand extreme winds
• Installed more than 2,000 automated reliability devices to reduce the impact of outages and improve restoration times
• Trimmed over 2,200 miles of high-risk vegetation near power lines to reduce storm-related outages
• Buried 284 miles of power lines to reduce the impact of extreme weather

"Our CenterPoint team remains fully focused on executing our historic effort to strengthen the grid and improve resiliency and reliability,” Darin Carroll, Senior Vice President of CenterPoint's Electric Business said in the news release. “Looking forward, we are on track to complete these vital improvements before the 2025 hurricane season as we continue to deliver on our ambition of building the most resilient coastal grid in the country.”

Something to note

Hurricane season begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to WeatherBELL Analytics, a New York-based consulting firm that provides customized forecasts, data services and weather intelligence tools to businesses, the 2025 hurricane season is expected to have fewer impacts than in 2024.

The company's Feb. 7 hurricane season forecast is projecting a total of 15 to 19 named storms and around eight hurricanes.

Next steps

CenterPoint plans on building a network of 100 new weather monitoring stations across the Greater Houston area before the summer. The weather network is on track to begin installation in April and is expected to be completed before the start of the hurricane season, according to the news release.

Additionally, CenterPoint recently announced a multi-year systemwide resiliency plan to reduce outage impacts due to extreme weather and storms by 1.3 billion minutes into 2029, according to a Jan. 31 news release.

The $5.75 billion plan, if approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, would install an additional 130,000 poles, trim 100% of the vegetation along its 11,700 miles of power lines every three years, and rebuild or upgrade the company’s 2,200 transmission towers.