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The Texas Public Utilities Commission urged CenterPoint Energy on Thursday to communicate better with its 1 million-plus customers still without power, but leaders of the state’s utility supervisor stopped short of interrogating or criticizing the company’s response to Hurricane Beryl.
Members of the PUC, which regulates Texas electricity providers, encouraged CenterPoint officials at a public hearing to better address widespread accusations that the company has been disorganized and inefficient following Beryl. CenterPoint customers have been particularly frustrated with a lack of detailed, accurate information about when to expect power back.
About 2.2 million Houston-area customers, or 80 percent of CenterPoint’s customer base, lost power following the storm Monday. About 1.1 million remained without electricity Thursday afternoon, and CenterPoint officials said about 500,000 could remain without power into next week.
PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson “strenuously urged” the company to rebuild trust with Houstonians after the disaster response concludes.
“Get out into the community. I don't know if that's town halls or what it looks like, but go talk to your customers,” Gleeson said. “Go talk to those residents about what happened, about ways that you feel you all can improve. Get feedback from them about their view on what can be improved.”
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Several prominent state political leaders — including Gov. Greg Abbott, U.S. Rep Sylvia Garcia and Houston Mayor John Whitmire — have criticized CenterPoint’s handling of the crisis. PUC members, however, took a more measured tone with CenterPoint leaders on hand.
Commissioner Jimmy Glotfelty empathized with the company, adding that displeasure from customers often “comes with the territory.”
“It's hard to plan for these (hurricanes) when you don't know if they're coming, and it's expensive if you plan for them and they don't come. It's expensive for ratepayers,” Glotfelty said.
The five PUC commissioners are appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to serve six-year terms in the nonpartisan position. The commissioners are industry veterans with previous experience in government or business roles.
The commission sets rules for the state’s electric, telecommunication, water and sewer utilities. As part of its role, the commission regulates the price of electricity charged to utilities like CenterPoint and requires utilities to keep specific emergency operation plans.
More investigation to come
The hearing marked “the first step in the process” of evaluating how utility companies responded to the storm, Gleeson said.
Commissioners did not detail what actions will come next, but Gleeson said he talked to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick about the response to Beryl and “they’re going to figure this out.” Earlier this week, Patrick questioned CenterPoint’s response and said he expects a report on their preparations and response once restoration is completed. The company always completes post-mortem reviews after emergencies.
“We will probably end up filing a report as we head into the legislative session about our learnings, and potentially legislative solutions we may need,” Gleeson said.
CenterPoint is the Houston area’s primary electricity provider, servicing nearly all of Harris and Fort Bend counties.
In a speech delivered at Thursday's meeting, CenterPoint Executive Vice President Jason Ryan said the company was fully prepared for Beryl and coordinated out-of-state help days ahead of its landfall. He argued the storm was “clearly unpredictable” and did major damage.
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Prolonged outages are caused by a need to “completely rebuild” infrastructure in some areas, Ryan said. He added that time estimates for restoration will be available Thursday.
Ryan also addressed swirling concerns about linemen not actively fixing infrastructure, emphasizing that distribution lines have to be assessed for damage before workers can be sent to fix them.
“I know it's incredibly frustrating to see mutual assistance crews in the early days waiting to do the work, but we can't effectively work if we don't know where to send them. If we send a construction crew somewhere, where a smaller crew could do the work, we're ineffectively using that workforce.” Ryan said.
“A lot of these crews don't come from places where it feels like 110 degrees. So if our customers see crews standing on the side of the road or in their trucks, it may be to cool off, take a break, stay safe.”
CenterPoint has moved faster to restore electricity than in past disasters, but its pace is expected to slow as workers confront areas with more significant damage in coming days. At the same time, many residents and political leaders have grown frustrated with the amount of information about the timeline for restoring power. CenterPoint didn’t post a detailed outage map until late Tuesday, and many residents have reported that information on the map isn’t accurate.
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