In the 10,000-acre master-planned community of Sienna Plantation, residents have experienced random and frequent power outages.

Many residents have complained to provider CenterPoint Energy and the Public Utilities Commission of Texas, but CenterPoint officials said inclement weather and vegetation around power lines is the likely cause.

CenterPoint spokesperson Alicia Dixon said the system is designed to shut down momentarily if something interferes with power lines.

“This can be caused by lightning, bad weather or debris coming into [the lines],” she said. “It is an inconvenience, if you will, but [random outages] will not cause any damage.”

However, Sandy Denton, general manager of the Sienna Plantation Homeowners Association, disagreed.

“Residents were experiencing, as was the association, issues when it would be a perfectly clear day, no wind,” she said.

She also said residents are having to replace electrical appliances because turning the devices on and off improperly via an outage is causing them to fail sooner.

Denton said the years-long issue has left residents frustrated, and in the second half of 2015 the PUC started receiving a large number of complaints from Missouri City.

“Residents were experiencing, as was the association, issues when it would be a perfectly clear day, no wind."

— Alicia Dixon, CenterPoint spokesperson

PUC Communications Director Terry Hadley said the agency is examining whether CenterPoint’s equipment is capable of handling the electricity demand in Sienna Plantation.

“What we’re doing right now is we’re investigating these complaints,” he said.

Regardless, Denton said she felt optimistic. On Jan. 18, CenterPoint sent her a letter in April saying they would be implementing a project to “fully rebuild a large portion of the overhead system in the area” and to expect improvements in May or June.

Dixon said CenterPoint would be installing an intelligent grid device to help isolate outages so that as many as 50 percent fewer homes would be affected by a single downed line.

Dominic Robinson, service area director for CenterPoint’s Sugar Land service center, said the company trims the trees around power lines in Sienna Plantation on a three-year cycle.

“At any time we receive complaints, we can always accelerate the trim cycle,” he said.

Denton said the homeowners association asks residents to report when they see a tree that could interfere with lines. She also encourages residents to be specific when recording outages, their duration and the weather conditions at the time of the outage.

Although the HOA has not considered taking legal action against CenterPoint, the PUC said the company could still be penalized up to $25,000 a day if it is found not to be providing reliable service.