Hurricane Beryl has caused extensive damage along the Texas coast, leaving many Houston residents without power for five days and counting. Millions of homes and businesses have been affected by the power outages.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates the state’s electric, telecommunication, and water and sewer utilities, held a meeting on Thursday to discuss Hurricane Beryl with the companies responsible for providing power to the state. During the meeting, the commission questioned the companies about their preparation and response to the hurricane.
CenterPoint Energy, the utility company that serves almost three million homes and businesses, faced power outages during Beryl’s onslaught. According to Jason Ryan, the Executive Vice President of CenterPoint Energy, the storm’s rapid path fluctuations, combined with strong winds, made it an unusual and challenging event to tackle.
According to Ryan, the team at CenterPoint was well prepared for the impact of the storm. Even though they weren’t certain of Beryl’s exact path until a few days before, they had already called on 12,000 crews to assist with the aftermath and had set up 18 staging sites.
As of Monday, CenterPoint Energy reported that almost three million of its customers were affected by power outages due to the storm. By Thursday, the company had restored power to more than half of those customers. However, there were still over a million homes and businesses without power as of Thursday evening, according to Ryan.
CenterPoint has announced that it aims to restore power to 400,000 more customers by the end of Friday and a further 350,000 customers by Sunday.
During the update of the PUC, Ryan acknowledged that there is still a substantial amount of work that needs to be done.
According to him, the power outage will affect around 500,000 customers, primarily in Matagorda County, Brazoria County, and some parts of Galveston County. Unfortunately, power restoration is expected to take until next week. They are, however, optimistic about bringing in extra manpower over the weekend to expedite the process.
Ryan emphasized the importance of signing up for their power alert service, which provides estimated restoration times directly to customers via phone call, text, or email. This ensures customers are not solely reliant on press releases for updates. The areas most affected by the storm are those along the coast and the I-45 corridor up to The Woodlands. Ryan assured customers that they would be kept informed as the situation develops in the coming week.
Ryan explained to the PUC that restoring power to the hardest-hit areas, such as The Woodlands, is a time-consuming process. These areas require crews to rebuild the infrastructure and remove debris from the distribution system before power can be fully restored.
Ryan stated that the restoration work required to rebuild large spans of infrastructure will be completed by the end of this weekend. Poles that have snapped in half and are lying on the ground will be replaced. This type of work is expected to lead to extended power outages. As the workforce needs are being assessed, Ryan mentioned the possibility of bringing in more people to accelerate the estimated restoration times. Customers who will experience prolonged outages will be contacted by the company.
According to CenterPoint, their linemen are working tirelessly in 16-hour shifts to restore power, even as Texas prepares for a scorching weekend.
Ryan stated that they will continuously evaluate if they have enough crews and consider bringing in more if necessary. Their work won’t stop until completion. He acknowledged that customers may be frustrated with the extended outage, particularly in areas that experience prolonged outages. Nevertheless, safety is their highest priority. The workers are on 16-hour shifts and require the remaining eight hours to rest due to the hazardous conditions. Ryan emphasized that it’s hot out there, and the team is doing their best to ensure everyone’s safety.
