CenterPoint’s $2.3B Resiliency Plan Faces Backlash After Hurricane Beryl Blackouts

CenterPoint’s Energy’s nearly $2.3 billion “resiliency plan” to prepare its infrastructure for weather disasters faces growing opposition from Houston-area residents after Hurricane Beryl left 2 million residents without power.

The plan, submitted to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) in April, aims to replace and upgrade weather-vulnerable equipment, elevate substations to prevent flooding, mitigate wildfire risks, move certain power lines underground, manage vegetation, and fund a city employee to oversee resiliency projects for Houston.

However, critics said that the plan is stuff the company should be doing already.

“It’s stuff that they were going to do anyway and that they should do anyway,” Katie Coleman, representing Texas Industrial Energy Consumers trade group, told the Houston Chronicle.

“What I’m worried is going to happen is, utilities are going to feel pressure to propose all these crazy undergrounding schemes and ridiculous resiliency plans, and then the commission is going to be under pressure to approve it,” Coleman said. “Because if they don’t, next time there’s an event, is it going to be their heads that roll? My concern is that people are going to lose sight of what’s actually effective, not to mention cost-effective.”

CenterPoint has said that its proposed resiliency plan would add $3 per month to the average residential electric bill if no state or federal funding is provided.

Jason Ryan, CenterPoint’s executive vice president of regulatory services and government affairs, contends that the plan proposes to accelerate and expand existing programs, justifying the extra capital investment and expenses. He argues that excluding similar measures already implemented would defeat the legislative intent of encouraging additional resiliency investments.

However, the Office of Public Utility Counsel, representing residential and small business consumers, deems the plan “overly broad and expensive” due to its continuation of longstanding programs.

John Haselden, testifying for the OPUC, highlighted that some projects, like rerouting a coastal transmission line and increasing voltage, are costly and unrelated to resilience. The city of Houston, which opposed the enabling legislation, recommended cutting $441 million from the plan.

After Beryl, CenterPoint has been heavily criticized over its response and for the continuous blackouts. Currently, there are up to 40,000 residents in the Houston area without power.