Members of the Texas Senate criticized CenterPoint Energy’s response to Hurricane Beryl at a Special Senate Committee on Hurricane and Tropical Storm Prepardness, Recovery and Electricity held July 29 in the state capitol.

The 13-member committee found the electric utility’s actions “unacceptable,” and pressed CEO Jason Wells on what happened and what he will do to ensure a more effective response to future storms.

What you need to know

During the meeting, state, energy and emergency management leaders were made available to answer questions in the wake of Hurricane Beryl. Participants included:

  • Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management
  • Thomas Gleeson, chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas
  • Jason Wells, CEO of CenterPoint Energy

Here are 5 key takeaways from the senate hearing.

  1. State officials said they notified CenterPoint days before Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Texas Coast.
  2. Fifteen generators purchased by CenterPoint in 2021 for $800 million were not used to keep lights on during the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.
  3. The utility company’s outage tracker is in the process of being upgraded to handle a higher volume of visitors. The changes that are anticipated to keep the site from crashing weren't expected to be needed until Aug. 1.
  4. All out-of-state linemen were reimbursed for any funds spent on food and hotels used during recovery efforts.
  5. CenterPoint intends to enhance communication by bringing in a chief communications officer and a new emergency preparedness leader.

Wells said he takes full accountability for the areas where CenterPoint fell short of customer expectations.

“Our response to the impacts of Hurricane Beryl, including our communications, did not meet the high standard we expect of ourselves, let alone what the public expects of us,” he said. “There are no excuses.”



How we got here

CenterPoint received criticism by residents and state officials on its response to the category 1 hurricane that made landfall in mid-July.

Millions of Houston residents were left without power for days during an excessive heat wave. At least 18 people, including a Houston Police Department officer, died during or after the storm.

After the event, the state immediately began to discuss accountability and change for Houston’s electric grid and utility partners.

Legislative approach

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Lawmakers are also looking into what new regulations or legislation they can enact to keep similar circumstances from happening again.

Senators at the July 29 meeting threw out ideas that included creating stiffer penalties for utility companies, decreasing the amount of funds that ratepayers spend on mobile generators and giving utility companies more access to power lines.

Sen. Lois Kolkhorst—who covers District 18, including portions of Fort Bend, Harris and Montgomery counties—said she believes it is also time for the state's public utility formula to change to more of an outcome-based measurement.

"I don't want these [improvements] to be on the backs of the ratepayers in those service areas," she said. "It just can't be."


Looking ahead

Wells said CenterPoint is planning to make 40 improvements this hurricane season with a plan that includes strengthening distribution lines, increasing backup emergency generation units and launching a new cloud-based outage tracker.

  • CenterPoint must submit storm preparedness information to the governor’s office by July 31.
  • The new outage tracker will go live Aug. 1.

“We will do better,” Wells said. “We will improve and we will act with a greater sense of urgency."