HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Despite investing $1.46 billion in infrastructure improvements over the past five years, CenterPoint Energy acknowledged that their efforts to build resilience were insufficient before the Category 1 hurricane that left millions without power this week.
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 1 million households remained without power more than 48 hours after Hurricane Beryl.
When asked by 13 Investigates’ Kevin Ozebek if enough had been done to build resilience for this hurricane season, Jason Ryan, CenterPoint’s executive vice president of regulatory services and government affairs, responded, “No. That’s why we proposed this plan going forward.”
Ryan was referring to a nearly 1,000-page “Resiliency Plan” CenterPoint filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which they expect the state to approve by the end of the year.
The plan outlines how CenterPoint aims to fortify its local infrastructure against storms like Hurricane Beryl and future extreme weather events, detailing the cost of these improvements.
CenterPoint estimates spending $376 million from 2025 to 2027 to harden its transmission system, including replacing old wooden power poles with stronger concrete ones. Ryan noted that some work has already been done to replace wooden poles with more durable materials like fiberglass and concrete.
Evidence from both the May 16 derecho and the recent hurricane shows that these replacements are effective. “We’ve replaced some structures with composite poles instead of wooden poles, and in both storms, we’ve seen composite poles standing while nearby wooden poles are on the ground or snapped in half,” Ryan said.
He explained that composite poles are sturdier and better withstand the impact of falling trees. “When we need to set new poles, it takes much longer to restore service than simply re-stringing the wire onto standing poles,” Ryan said. “These composite structures are withstanding extreme events better and reducing restoration time.”
CenterPoint’s plan also proposes $268 million to upgrade larger power towers and $31 million to replace overhead lines at freeway crossings with underground ones, totaling $1.45 billion from 2025 to 2027. Ryan noted that it would take decades for all improvements to be completed, potentially increasing the total cost.
While these improvements have made a difference, Hurricane Beryl demonstrated that more work is needed to make the grid fully hurricane-proof. “We’ve been on a resiliency journey over the last 20 years, but clearly, more needs to be done,” Ryan said.
Texas has long faced issues with its power grid. In January, CenterPoint paid the PUC $21,000 after being fined for violating the Public Utility Regulatory Act regarding system reliability and service quality standards in 2020 and 2021. The violations centered around prolonged system-wide interruptions.
According to the settlement, CenterPoint has undertaken system improvement projects and has a documented history of violating service quality and reliability standards. The $21,000 fine is relatively insignificant compared to CenterPoint’s overall operating budget, which includes a base salary of $1,150,000 for its CEO.
