HOUSTON — Following weeks of scrutiny over its response to Hurricane Beryl, CenterPoint says it is immediately implementing changes to better prepare for the next storm – whether it happens this season or in the future.
“What we have outlined here is an ambitious set of 40 actions to immediately improve resiliency, our communications and our partnerships this hurricane season,” CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells told state lawmakers in a special committee hearing Monday at the state capitol.
Those action items were laid out in a letter to Governor Greg Abbott that KHOU 11 News obtained.
“While we cannot erase the frustrations and difficulty so many of our customers endured, I, and my entire leadership team, will not make any excuses,” Wells wrote in the letter. “We will improve. We will act with a sense of urgency.”
The actions include immediate, near-term and long-term phases, as seen in the image below.
Energy experts told KHOU 11 News the plan features many positive steps to improve hurricane response, but lasting, significant changes will be needed from how utilities like CenterPoint are regulated. Something that may need legislative action to fix.
“I think what is not in their plan that is going to need to happen is there has to be the ability to make equal, from the point of view of their earnings opportunities, things like tree trimming that don't earn them a profit,” Doug Lewin, the author of the Texas Energy & Power Newsletter said in an interview.
One of the areas of concern raised at Monday’s special committee hearing was how the company had spent $800M – a cost set to be passed onto customers – for large generators meant to be mobile, but turned out not to be as mobile as necessary and could not be used in the aftermath of Beryl.
CenterPoint said the large generators were meant for more for events like Winter Storm Uri. State senators expressed concern that through the bid process, CenterPoint went with higher-cost generators rather than ones that were 40% to 60% cheaper.
In a news release Tuesday, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said he supports a bill suggested by Sen. Paul Bettencourt to get back the funds from the $800 million purchase.
“After what we learned in yesterday’s hearing, I will write a letter to the [Public Utilities Commission] urging them to revoke their decision to grant CenterPoint’s request for ratepayers to pay for that $800 million,” Patrick said. “CenterPoint will have to pay the $800 million from their own profits. Ratepayers should not have to pay for CenterPoint’s lease of generators that are not mobile or helpful in 99% of the emergencies Texas faces each year.”
Experts say that it is unclear if PUC has the regulatory and legal authority to revoke the decision at this stage.
CenterPoint said Beryl-related costs are estimated to be around $1.8 billion. Company leaders intend to ask approval for a bond to recover up to $1.7 billion, with customers seeing about a two percent increase in bills for the next 15 years.