Photo Credit: CenterPoint EnergyNews
CenterPoint CEO to Senate Committee: We Are Committed to Re-earning Your Trust and the Trust of the Community
CenterPoint Energy shared the following press release on Monday, July 29, 2024 at 4:18 p.m.
During a hearing of a special committee of the Texas Senate, CenterPoint apologized to customers across Greater Houston and outlined a series of more than 40 actions to strengthen the grid, bolster customer communications and improve storm response.
Houston – July 29, 2024 – Today, at a hearing with the Texas Senate Special Committee on Hurricane and Storm Preparedness, Recovery and Electricity, CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells apologized for the frustration customers across the Greater Houston area experienced during Hurricane Beryl and discussed the company’s commitments to improve. Wells – who was invited to the hearing along with representatives from other Texas utilities, agency leaders, elected officials and emergency response experts – outlined a series of specific actions to increase the resiliency of the electric system, improve customer communications and strengthen emergency response coordination and partnerships.
“I take accountability for those areas where we fell short of our customers’ expectations, and I want to apologize for the frustration our customers and their families experienced as a result. There are no excuses. We will do better. We will improve. And we will act with a greater sense of urgency,” Wells said. “Hurricane Beryl impacted so many lives, and I want to express my condolences to the families and friends who lost loved ones.”
CenterPoint’s Plan of Actions
CenterPoint’s plan-of-action, which was initially announced during a hearing with the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Thursday, July 25, reflects more than 40 initial actions that the company is taking immediately and over the intermediate- and long-term, including:
- Resiliency Investments: By accelerating adoption of the latest construction standards, retrofitting existing assets on an accelerated basis, and using predictive modeling, AI and other advanced technologies, CenterPoint will harden its distribution system and speed restoration. The company will also take action to protect its electrical assets by nearly doubling the size of its vegetation management crews and targeting higher risk vegetation to address the number one cause of damage and outages in Hurricane Beryl.
- Best-in-Class Customer Communications: To ensure customers have the information they need, when they need it, CenterPoint will launch a new and more customer-oriented outage tracker by August 1. This online tool will provide better and more complete information during storms and is designed to handle increased demand during such events.
- Strengthened Partnerships: Effective emergency preparedness and response requires close coordination with government officials. CenterPoint will hire a seasoned emergency response leader to help the company rapidly accelerate its planning capabilities and develop close community partnerships to ease the burden of storm events on more vulnerable communities.
The following are key excerpts from Wells’ remarks, as prepared, given before the Texas Senate Special Committee on Hurricane and Storm Preparedness, Recovery and Electricity.
“Let me begin by being very clear: 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.”
“I want to apologize for the frustration our customers and their families experienced. We will do better. We will improve. And we will act with a greater sense of urgency.”
“Our immediate actions to improve fall within three categories: (1) improvements in resiliency, (2) improvements in communications, and (3) greater collaboration with our local partners and emergency responders.”
“We will incorporate additional actions based on our internal reviews, as well as feedback from external experts, our customers, community leaders, our regulators, and of course, the elected leaders across this body.”
“… by taking these actions, I hope we can begin to re-earn your trust, and the trust of the community we so are proud serve.”
Source: CenterPoint Energy
Updated 7/29 8:45pm: The press release published above was provided by CenterPoint Energy via email on July 29, 2024 at 4:18pm.
