After hurricane Beryl, many folks, including Texas politicians, complained about the slow progress, and lack of information, about getting customers’ power back on. In the summer heat, we sweated and complained, and some people died from the heat.
So what’s the point? Centerpoint is a business, with stock that you can buy (NYSE: CNP, about $30 a share), and that type of business does have a point: to get good returns to their stockholders. Centerpoint is not a public utility, although it has a monopoly on the transmission lines in the Houston area.
In Texas, we have a Power to Choose, for the source of our electricity, but none of those companies transmit the electricity they generate directly to us. Electricity comes to us through businesses, like Centerpoint or Entergy, that own and operate the transmission lines.
To maximize profits for stockholders, a company ensures revenue is coming in (rate increases) to meet or exceed expenses, and to defer maintenance to keep costs down.
Because Centerpoint is a monopoly, it must be accountable to somebody. It is accountable to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) at the state level. The PUCT consists of five Commissioners appointed by the governor of Texas for six-year terms. See
https://www.puc.texas.gov/agency/about/
Because of all the criticism of Centerpoint, Lt Governor Dan Patrick created a Senate Special Committee on Hurricane and Tropical Storm Preparedness, Recovery, and Electricity to “focus on why electric utility companies failed to provide timely power restoration to millions of Texans and the decisive actions these companies will take to ensure this type of catastrophic failure never happens again.”
The Senators on this committee are listed, so that citizens can contact them and express their opinions.
In response to HB 2555, passed in the 2023 Texas Legislative Session, Centerpoint submitted to the PUCT, an Application of Counterpoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC, for Approval of its Transmission and Distribution System Resiliency Plan, dated April 29, 2024. This document details plans for resiliency. https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/56548_2_1388595.PDF
Work at the PUCT on this filing, 56548, is ongoing.
https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/filings/?UtilityType=A&ControlNumber=56548
On July 15, a filing (56822) was opened at the PUCT titled “Investigation of Emergency Preparedness and Response by Utilities in Houston and Surrounding Communities.”
https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/filings/?UtilityType=A&ControlNumber=56822
So what can happen? The PUCT can deny a rate increase if Centerpoint has not adequately maintained the poles and lines, and provided service to its customers. In 1998, the PUCT denied a rate increase from Entergy after an ice storm in 1997 caused power outages. Although rare, the PUCT can take punitive action.
Now, we can bask in our resumed coolness, and forget the anguish of the week after Beryl. Or we can keep the pressure on our elected Senators and the PUCT.
Photo by Carol Woronow, of a power pole that has not yet been replaced, just down the street from a couple of power poles that collapsed and were replaced. It’s just waiting for the next storm.