MAGNOLIA, Texas — UPDATE 7/31 -- Less than a day after we met a local woman and shared her family’s frustrations over getting a generator installed, they told us the CenterPoint has now cleared up the their issue.
The couple told reporter Julissa Garza that the transfer switch approval application that had been held up since last week was finally approved by CenterPoint Wednesday morning. They said CenterPoint was sending a technician to finish their installation, so their new generator would be working in the event of another outage.
The couple said before this, they'd run into permitting problems with CenterPoint and the utility had even threatened to leave their power turned off for days. The couple’s new generator will soon be up and running.
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ORIGINAL STORY 7/30
Two storms within the last three months led to major power outages across the Greater Houston area.
That put generators at the top of mind for some folks like Hanna Himmel and her family.
After the derecho in May, Himmel and her family were without power like many other people.
"We lost power for about 30 hours. So then, of course, we had to throw away all of our food, and that was a hassle," Himmel said.
They went without power again this month after Hurricane Beryl hit Southeast Texas.
"We lost power for four days and again had to throw away food. So that's been kind of expensive and I work from home so I kind of need power to do my job," Himmel said.
She and her husband decided it was time to take matters into their own hands and invest in a home generator.
"We can run everything in the house at the same time --we can run a washer dryer, dishwasher," Himmel said.
They wanted to do the installation themselves since her husband was able to.
"CenterPoint is our gas provider and our electric provider and so the gas line was no problem," Himmel said. "We got that hooked up easy."
But then, they hit a roadblock.
"When it came time to do the electrical, they had told us that because of requirements, we would need a permit from the city, but the City of Magnolia said because we're outside city limits, we don't need that permit," Himmel said.
After getting the permit issue resolved, they were able to get things going again.
"We had them come out and disconnect power so that my husband could finish wiring everything in together," Himmel said.
But then, they ran into more issues. Himmel said CenterPoint first refused to turn their power back on because of a form that she did not know about.
"They were, like, you don't have the automatic transfer switch form on file," Himmel said. "They wanted to leave us without power for a whole weekend."
Himmel said she was frustrated but was able to convince the lineman who showed up to leave their power on.
"The linemen had made the suggestion that we cut the wires because they didn't have that form in the system," she said.
Now, their generator remains disconnected.
They filled out the key form and submitted it last week but are still waiting for CenterPoint to approve it. But if they lose power anytime soon, they won’t have the backup they paid thousands of dollars for.
KHOU 11 News reached out to the City of Magnolia which confirmed it does not require permits if you live outside of city limits, but there’s a chance you still might need one. The Montgomery County permit office told KHOU 11 News that if you live in a flood zone you do need a permit.
CenterPoint issued this statement on Tuesday evening:
"Thanks again for reaching out, and apologies for the delay in responding. Emergency standby generators use transfer switch (ATS) to disconnect from utility service in the event of an outage and to reconnect utility service once power is restored. For the safety of our customers and employees, the ATS for all generator installations must be reviewed and approved by CenterPoint prior to installation. More information on submitting an application can be found on CenterPoint’s website here: Emergency Standby Generator Transfer Switch Approval Application."