We’re now over a week out from Hurricane Beryl’s Texas landfall. In the aftermath, over 2.7 million Houstonians were left without power due to extensive damage in the city’s electric infrastructure. Though substantial restoration has taken place, there are still around 128,000 CenterPoint customers and 7,000 Entergy customers without power with temperatures in the 90s.
When do the energy companies expect to restore power in Houston?
Due to the severity of the damage, the companies previously estimated to fully restore power by end of day Sunday, July 14. CenterPoint has since extended its timeline now aiming to fully restore power by Friday, July 19. As of Monday at 8 pm, the energy provider restored power to 92% of its customers.
On Monday, Entergy stated that it had restored power to 96% of its customers Entergy also stated, however, that those still without power should expect extended delays due to extensive damage in those areas:
“Even though we have an army of workers focused on repairs, the pace of restoration will likely be less rapid from this point forward as crews address these hard-hit areas where damage to our equipment is the greatest”
The company presently has a breakdown of when it expects to restore power by neighborhood. You can check the ETA on your neighborhood here.
Why hasn’t power been restored yet?
Both CenterPoint Energy and Entergy have issued statements regarding the hurricane’s extensive toll on the electric infrastructure: citing structural damage, toppled power poles, damaged line fuses, felled trees, and downed wires.
CenterPoint Energy has also cited Houston’s past few years of severe weather as a cause of damage and restoration delay.
CenterPoint Energy, which is in charge of the bulk of residences without power, have deployed a five-stage restoration process comprised of impact evaluation, electric infrastructure assessment, community infrastructure assessment/repair, neighborhood infrastructure repair, and street infrastructure repair. Since Beryl landfall, CenterPoint has stated that its restored power to over one million Houston residents.
Here’s what Brad Tutunjian, CenterPoint VP of Distribution Operations and Service Delivery, had to say about the restoration delay:
“We have never seen an incident of this magnitude. This is the largest outage in our history. I’ve been with CenterPoint Energy for 26 years now. I’ve worked in this region…I’ve responded to quite a few number of hurricanes, and not just ours but other utilities as well. And I can tell you the amount of work to set up and prepare is monumental.”
CenterPoint CEO, Jason Wells, had this to say when speaking with the Houston Chronicle:
“I understand how frustrating it is to be without power, especially in this heat. I understand what a difficult situation this is for our customers, but I am proud of the progress we have made. Restoring 1.1 million customers within effectively 48 hours of the storm’s passing is faster than what many of our peers have seen in the past 10 named storms.”
How can Houstonians track the power restoration process?
As many Texans have observed, restoration maps and timelines have been unsatisfactory in the wake of Beryl. Late last Monday, CenterPoint created a new map that tracks its restoration progress throughout Houston.
While the map doesn’t provide an ETA for restoration, it purports to highlight the areas that have been restored. Houstonians have pointed out however, that areas without power have been improperly labeled as restored. The company stated that it would update the map three times per day.
Green: power is back, isolated outages possibly present
Light green: power is back, potential nested outages
Blue: crews are assigned and actively working to restore power
Orange: CenterPoint still in stage of damage assessment
In reaction to issues with energy company’s restoration map, frustrated Texans have started using the Whataburger mobile app as a clearer way of discerning which areas have restored power.
For a possibly clearer estimate for power restoration, affected customers can sign up for CenterPoint’s Power Alert Service, which will reportedly notify customers of restoration progress.
Houston residents without power are encouraged to call CenterPoint Energy at 713-207-2222, not 911.
Legal actions being taken against CenterPoint
At least one class action lawsuit is being filed against CenterPoint for its handling of Beryl. This past Monday, high-profile lawyer Tony Buzbee filed a class action lawsuit against CenterPoint on behalf of Houston-Galveston area restaurants who sustained prolonged power outages.
“The case seeks class action status and makes claims for negligence and gross negligence, and other violations of law, for Centerpoint’s repeated failures to do what any reasonable and competent electricity provider would do and should do,” Buzbee wrote in a statement.
“The case alleges that Centerpoint has failed for years to invest in infrastructure, has failed to adequately inspect, maintain and upgrade equipment, has failed to adequately train personnel, has failed to have a competent storm plan in place, and has failed to adequately respond to the storm once it impacted the area.”
At the behest of Gov. Greg Abbott, The Public Utilities Commission of Texas will also be opening an investigation into CenterPoint Energy for its response to Beryl:
“It’s clear from the events of the last week that the quality of (CenterPoint’s) infrastructure, their ability to maintain that infrastructure and their communication with their customers has been called into question,” said Chair Thomas Gleeson.
See also: Whataburger App Surprisingly Good Way To Map Houston Power Outages