CenterPoint Energy executives have been in the process of strengthening Houston’s electric grid since state legislators grilled the company’s disaster response after Hurricane Beryl hit the Texas coast in early July.
Appearing before the public utility commissioners in Austin on July 25, CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells outlined a three-phase resiliency and communications plan known as the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative.
What you need to know
The plans first phase wrapped up in August. CenterPoint officials announced Sept. 30 what steps will be included in phase two, such as:
- Replacing or installing 25,000 poles capable of withstanding extreme winds
- Trimming or removing higher-risk vegetation across 4,000 miles of power lines
- Installing 4,500 automated reliability devices and 350 Intelligent Grid Switching Devices to reduce sustained interruptions in major storm events
- Undergrounding more than 400 miles of power lines
Phase two also involves launching a year-round public emergency preparedness and safety communications campaign.
Measuring the impact
According to the Sept. 30 news release, the actions in phase two will help enable a "self-healing grid."
Duke Energy, an electric utility company in Houston, describes a self-healing grid as technology that can automatically detect power outages, isolate the problem and then quickly reroute service to other available lines to restore power faster.
In 2021, self-healing technology saved customers nearly 1.2 million hours of total outage time and avoided more than 700,000 extended outages, according to the energy website.
CenterPoint Energy officials said they anticipate the work done in phase two to help reduce the length and frequency of outages and lead to more than 125 million fewer outage minutes annually for customers in the Greater Houston area.
Work for phase two is predicted to be complete by June 1, ahead of the 2025 hurricane season.
Taking a step back
The first phase of the GHRI focused on a series of immediate actions to improve resiliency, according to CenterPoint’s website. Assignments completed in the first phase included installing 1,000 storm-resilient poles, trimming vegetation across 2,000 miles of power lines and inserting 300 automated devices.
“We are proud of the immediate resiliency improvements we delivered during phase one of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative and these actions were only the beginning,” Wells said in an email. “We have set ambitious goals to achieve even further enhancements to our resiliency before the 2025 hurricane season.”
CenterPoint customers can track the progress toward the completion of all commitments made in the GHRI by visiting the CenterPoint Energy Commitment Tracker.
